Sarah McMullan - Journalist Profile | Connect with top journalists

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Biography

I started in radio when I was at high school, getting up at 5 am to write and read the news, then cycling to school late. Every day. It feels like a billion years ago, not least because a large earthquake destroyed both the university where the radio station was and my high school. Time Marches On. I learned to edit with tape and a razor blade - and I'm damn good at it. I can mic up a band and record them. I can run a variety of desks - anything up to 32 track is fine by me, and I love mixing live. Realistically, radio is more likely to involve recording. Over the years, I have amassed cassettes, carts, reels big and small, discs and USBs of shifts, interviews, docos, news reads and podcasts. 27 years since I started, so much technology has come and gone, but the principles are the same. I love live radio. I love being a host. I love interviewing. I love playing music, especially when I like it, but it didn't take long for me to want to help shape the industry and where it was heading. Marketing, Promotions, Programming. Training. Soon I was travelling, and a whole new world of media opened up, and I was doing new and exciting things overseas. My goals changed, and I wanted to be a journalist. So I returned, I picked the organisation I wanted to work for and soon I was. I learned so much from them - it really was the place that trained me by getting me to do it. Hands-on. In the deep end. It was a pivotal point in my life, and I started to add more strings to the bow. Publishing. Television. Then the Christchurch earthquake happened, and my hometown was rubble. Former workmates were dead—a lot of them. Friends lost family. My family was ok, but I took time to help them get things underway. It sounds like a simple process, but it was 11 years before my Mum got into a new house, a new house we knew she needed from a week after the quake when the structural engineer pointed out places never to stand under. During that time, I worked as a freelancer. Travel writing. I worked for the NZ International Film Festival. I did publicity and promotion for films and books. I took contracts with NDA's. I did a lot of social media work for all kinds of places. I spent time in Christchurch, though it was 4 or 5 years before I could go into the city centre and visit the site of my former workplace. Home doesn't look, doesn't feel like home anymore. These days I work off-mic, in print mainly, though I love live radio. I do a lot of film, television and entertainment coverage. I can do the fluffy snarky stuff, but also the more industry focussed pieces. Im particularly interested in the collision of social movements and industry: #MeToo #TimesUp #BlackLivesMatter I'm a film and television reviewer - I prefer that term to critic because I am rarely given the space to analyse anything in detail critically. However, I am always keen to! Horror, thriller, and classic films are areas of expertise, particularly women, and their changing portrayal over time. Rape Revenge films are one such niche and play well into my interest in film classification and censorship. The streaming market in NZ is exploding and has necessitated a law change to try and get a handle on the material flooding in with no classification required. I'm pro classification and anti-censorship. NZ and Australian films & TV are something I know a fair bit about. Currently, I'm on a bit of a deep dive into indigenous peoples' representation on screen in terms of language and they themselves telling their own stories. In particular, Indigenous Canadians, Native Americans, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, Maori and Pasifika are all groups I'm looking at. Having cared for ill parents, I know way too much about hospitals and medicine and being sick and people dying, and It's something I can write about. In the same vein, I spent years hosting "Love Songs til Midnight", where we had a relationship expert who insisted I read a lot of books on topics she discussed, so that's another area I have up my sleeve. I prefer writing in a way where I can express personality - be it mine or the subjects, though court reporting is thrilling. (In an anxious kind of way.) I believe people are the most fascinating things in the world. Everyone has a story - you just have to get it out of them. Ask the right questions, listen the right way. Make them feel safe enough to share it with you. That's what I love about interviewing people. News is about facts. It's about bringing the facts to the people. Things they need to know without any interference. Asking the questions they want answering. Uncovering the things brushed under the mat, things forgotten in the corner. Journalists should be the sunshine that floods every room. And that's me. Personally, I'm a feminist pro vaxxer who loves steak and is happily childfree. I have a polydactyl cat who is jealous of my laptop, and I love how green and wild Wellington is. I would die without my Kindle, and in every room of my house, there is something referencing LABYRINTH, WATERSHIP DOWN and ALIEN. But not my bathroom. That would be weird.

Content

Total articles 56

• Available on paid plans

  Smash: The truly spectacular, loads of fun Broadway drama comes to TVNZ

  By Malorie Blackman, Sarah McMullan

  May. 19, 2022

• Available on paid plans

  Ready to Mingle: Katherine Ryan proves she can host anything - even when 8 months pregnant

  By Sarah McMullan

  May. 12, 2022

• Available on paid plans

  Transplant: If you only watch one hospital drama on TV, make it this one

  By Sarah McMullan

  May. 05, 2022

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Company Info

Freelance

Freelancer.com is the largest freelancing and crowdsourcing marketplace in the world, connecting over 81 million employers and freelancers across more than 247 countries. Founded in 2009 and based in Sydney, Australia, the platform allows employers to post jobs while freelancers can bid on these projects. It is publicly traded on the Australian Securities Exchange under the ticker ASX:FLN. The platform supports a variety of work categories, including software development, writing, design, and marketing. Freelancer.com also offers contests for creative work, where employers can award prize money to winning entries. Users can choose from different membership plans, including free and paid subscriptions, which provide various benefits. The mobile app enhances project management and communication for users on the go. With a diverse customer base that includes individuals, small businesses, and large enterprises, Freelancer.com plays a significant role in the global online economy.