The survey cast over one thousand people over the age of 18 in 2022, found a lower tolerance among New Zealand audiences towards racial and cultural insults compared to a survey in 2018.

31 words and phrases that could offend some audiences were put to the respondents. They included swear words, racial and gender-based terms and blasphemy.

The survey found the N-word is the least acceptable. Read more

It also shows some New Zealanders now have a more tolernat of bad language and nudity than was found in previous years.

Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) chief executive Belinda Moffat said the research "indicates these changes are strongly influenced by, perhaps, greater exposure to broad and diverse content through the internet."

Moffat emphasised the small focus group meant the results were not indicative of all New Zealanders' opinions, but said the research still bore interesting results.
The research results were outlined in a report called Litmus Testing 2016.

Opinions on the offensiveness of the content was predicated on the "Good Taste and Decency" standard.

The focus groups were asked to listen to five polarising clips the BSA had delivered verdicts on.
The clips included:

• Sean Plunkett's interview on RadioLive with National Foundation for the Deaf chief executive Louise Carroll
• The Edge's breakfast radio hosts, Jay-Jay, Mike and Dom, playing a game with ex-contestants of The Bachelor television show, in which contestants attempt to "deep-throat" a cucumber
• A George FM breakfast show in which the hosts made derogatory remarks about a woman whose social media profile had been brought to the hosts' attention (not by the woman herself.
• A Paul Henry show interview in which Paul Henry asked his guest whether she had had sex with Richard Branson.
• A Radio Hauraki "Like Mike" segment in which Jeremy Wells impersonated broadcaster Mike Hosking making politically incorrect remarks about Maori.

The research, which was conducted by the Nielson group and commissioned by the BSA, involved assembling focus groups of six to eight people in Auckland, Wellington, Hamilton and Ashburton.

The participants were aged between 18 and 65-years-old and came from a variety of economic and ethnic backgrounds, and there was an equal split of men and women.

Source

• radionz.co.nz
• Image: media.npr.org