An academic critic of New Zealand media says journalism is "heading for hell in a handbasket". But Joe Atkinson says there is no point in asking media companies about the new direction or consulting them for a six-part Winter Lecture series he is organising.

"This is a timely series in a period of extreme upheaval for traditional media and the lectures will be of wide general interest," he said. The six lectures at Auckland University from July 20 to August 24 will include appearances by academics and Gavin Ellis, a former editor-in-chief of the Herald.

Media businesses globally are adjusting to a new and rapidly changing dynamic.

Advertisers and media users are migrating to the internet and away from news towards entertainment. This is undermining the business plans that pay for journalism.

Atkinson said: "We understand the economics of the industry - the Fairfaxes of this world, and share funds - there is not much of a mystery to that.

We know what [Rupert] Murdoch thinks.

"They [media companies] only care about the bottom-line profit ... Good journalism is an externality to the market - why would we consult them?"

He said that among the lectures would be a discussion about other options for funding journalism.

"The solution to the problem is not in a market system probably - or at least not in an unregulated market system like we have at the moment."

Many of us miss the long-form interview, but back in the 1990s - with the return of Ian Fraser - TVNZ found the audience was significant but not big enough.

Atkinson said the issue about the number of viewers was not irrelevant and there was a question whether you could put on serious television current affairs and get an audience.

There was a problem with the flight to entertainment and that fewer people were now interested in politics, he said.

The issue was whether this minority section of the audience was being served by the push to make them interested in info-tainment.

MEDIA MATTERS The union representing journalists, the EPMU - led by Labour Party president Andrew Little - organised a less academic campaign back in 2007 called Media Matters.