MEDIANZ  VOL 17 NO 1 • 2017 https://DOI.org/10.11157/medianz-vol17iss1id178 - EDITORIAL - Special Issue: Agenda 2020 Imagining the Future of New Zealand Media Matt Mollgaard This edition of MEDIANZ was generated from papers, presentations and discussions at the Agenda 2020: NZ Media Futures Symposium at AUT in April 2017. The Symposium was designed as a forum to encourage debate about the media and its audiences in Aotearoa/New Zealand. This was thematically connected to the electoral cycle and engineered to look beyond it. The 2017 General Election has allowed media academics, workers, owners and audiences an opportunity to re-engage with media policy in New Zealand – an area that has slipped from political debate in recent years. This is critical work, as the way New Zealanders understand the issues that shape our society are heavily influenced by the media that they engage with. In the lead-up to the 2017 general election, we have had an opportunity to scrutinise political parties’ media policies and to see into the future of our critical media infrastructure in a time of change, disruption and challenge. The name Agenda 2020 was adopted to reflect both media power in framing information and the intention of the project – to meet, debate, and develop solutions to the media issues facing Aotearoa/New Zealand. The articles presented here are both shaped by current issues and debates around the New Zealand media and by thinking past the three-year election cycle and into the future. This challenges us to debate and shape – in a considered and deliberate manner – the ongoing development of the media in New Zealand. This reflects a growing interest in the role of the media in New Zealand’s political, cultural, economic and social arenas, with groups such as the Coalition for Better Broadcasting and the campaign to Save Radio New Zealand coalescing around issues of deregulation, commercialisation, reduced funding and political apathy towards the media. The recent history of public engagement with critical media Dr. Matt Mollgaard is Head of Radio in the School of Communication Studies at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. He has a 25-year history in radio as well as more than 10 years as a radio academic and teacher. He has been researching, presenting and publishing on radio since 2005. He was the editor and a contributor to the 2012 book Radio & Society: New Thinking for an Old Media and recent research on Radio New Zealand International is published in the Pacific Journalism Review. He designed and produced the AGENDA 2020: New Zealand Media Futures Symposium in April 2017 that this Special Edition of MEDIANZ is based on.