Nōku te Ao: Media Resource

Nōku te Ao Media Resource

As Nōku te Ao media partner, Māia developed a new Media Resource in 2025 to help newsrooms and other content creators report on mental distress in a way that’s safe, inclusive, and mana-enhancing.

This is not a set of rules or guidelines. It’s a kete of useful tips, prompts, and cultural guidance, grounded in te ao Māori and lived experience. It’s designed to support the great work the media in Aotearoa are already doing.

How do newsrooms use it?

It’s a practical, optional tool that works alongside newsrooms’ existing editorial standards and newsroom policies. It’s not here to tell anyone how to do their job. Use it when it helps.

Journalists told us there are already too many ‘guidelines’ – and that internal policies, the Media Council and BSA already set standards. That’s why this isn’t another rulebook.

Why now?

We’re replacing existing media guidelines with this new Media Resource to reflect what we’ve learned from tāngata whaiora (people with lived experience), journalists, and te ao Māori. Our aim is to ensure the Resource is fit for purpose in Aotearoa today and helps the media continue their important role in ending stigma and discrimination.

The Media Resource brings in te ao Māori principles and lived experience insights to strengthen existing newsroom approaches. This is a change from the existing guidelines, and a major reason a re-vamp was needed.

What’s in it?

• Practical tips on language, imagery, and interview framing

• Cultural guidance grounded in Māori values like whakaiti, manaakitanga, and wairua

• Considerations for sensitive scenes and interviews

• Optional prompts to support ethical storytelling without being prescriptive

Our approach

We know many journalists are already doing this work well. This Resource is here to support, not instruct. Use what’s useful, it’s here to add to your kete, not take anything away.

What it’s drawn on

It’s been shaped with input from journalists, tāngata whaiora, and kaupapa Māori experts to help you report on mental distress with care, cultural awareness, and accuracy.