Who hogs the microphone when the prime minister and leader of the opposition give their weekly media interviews? An RNZ analysis provides a breakdown by host and news network.
Christopher Luxon gets more words in during his media interviews than the prime minister does, according to an RNZ data analysis of political speech.
The National leader spoke 72 percent of the words in his media slots, leaving his interviewers with 28 percent of the exchange.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins spoke 68 percent of the words and former prime minister Jacinda Ardern, 71 percent.
Data analysis of political language for the RNZ series The Interview, shows that, on average, the political leaders spoke 71 percent of the words in the interviews.
In a major data project RNZ recorded and analysed nine months of weekly interviews with the Labour and National leaders on RNZ, TVNZ, Newshub and Newstalk ZB between July 2022 and May 2023.
The analysis shows which media slots the leaders displayed the most dominance in. Luxon edges Hipkins for words spoken on all four morning news shows we tracked.
In his six interviews with Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking, Luxon spoke 73 percent of the words while Hipkins got 64 percent over 11 interviews.
Luxon also dominated the word count in interviews with TVNZ's Breakfast host Anna Burns-Francis, taking an average of 78 percent over 10 interviews, while Hipkins averaged 71 percent over eight interviews.
Luxon also got more words in with RNZ's Morning Report host Corin Dann - 66 percent of the words over 17 interviews, compared with 63 percent for Hipkins over six interviews.
Dann found it harder to contain Ardern, who got 72 percent of the exchange over 10 interviews.
The data shows a high degree of consistency across interviewers - with most giving the leaders between two thirds and three quarters of the words spoken.
The greatest disparities between the leaders were on Newstalk ZB and RNZ's Morning Report.
Ardern got 73 percent of the words on Morning Report interviews, with Luxon getting 69 percent and Hipkins just 65 percent.
On Newstalk ZB, Luxon took 73 percent of the word count and Hipkins managed just 66 percent (Ardern did not appear on Hosking in the period RNZ recorded).
Josie Pagani, who has worked as a media advisor for politicians and is a writer and political commentator with a left-leaning perspective, said the data was reassuring in terms of media trust and credibility.
"There's nothing there in the data that made me think we have a major problem with bias in our media or even a problem of politicians being able to get out what they want to say."
She said even if politicians got more words on some shows this might not work in their favour as the interviewer may have been giving them rope to hang themselves with their own words.
"I thought the data was actually quite reassuring in that, for all the volatility in our media at the moment, it's pretty fair and it's giving both sides a fair go."
Janet Wilson, a journalist-turned media trainer whose clients have included the National Party in the past, wondered whether the politicians actually got too much time.
"It's startling to me that they got that much given how little they actually say. That was my thought bubble that came out of my head when I saw those figures," she said.
"It seems like an enormous amount when what we're hearing from either of those politicians isn't a lot. There's a lot of white noise in the midst of all of that."
Wilson said Luxon's word count may be his speed of delivery rather than interviewers giving him more time.
"It's a real demeanour issue for him. He's looking slightly panicked and rushed. His pace of delivery is quite fast. There's a clear correlation between your pace of delivery and whether you're perceived to be statesman-like or not."
How we analysed the data:Weekly leader interviews on the following shows were included. Newshub's AM Show, TVNZ Breakfast, RNZ's Morning Report, and Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking Breakfast Show. In total more than 28 hours of interviews were analysed including 107 interviews with Christopher Luxon, 49 with Jacinda Ardern and 50 with Chris Hipkins. Recordings were transcribed by Otter.ai and then manually cleaned to improve accuracy, however some minor errors may remain. Excessively long preambles to interviews by hosts were shortened to focus on the interviewer and leader exchange. Text was analysed using R and the Quanteda package.
