Pacific Journalism Review (Pacific Media Centre, School of Communication Studies, Auckland University of Technology)
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When safe is not enough: an exploration of improving guidelines on reporting mental illness and suicide
Full text linkMental illness, coping, and suicide-related stigma are influenced by social discourse. Legacy, digital and social media create and amplify existing attitudes and contribute to mindsets and behaviour, including suicidality. While internationally there have been guidelines for several decades, the focus has been on ‘safe’ language and word choices that highlight problems. However, these guidelines have not prevented deaths by suicide and have contributed to the prevalence of catastrophising of normal unpleasant emotions and social problems as mental illness. With calls in government reviews and by consumers for greater focus on consumer-centred suicide prevention and the advent of increasing biopsychosocial stressors from COVID-19, consideration of other approaches to and inclusions in media guidelines are timely and prudent. In this article, we explore how a consumer-centred coping approach would augment existing media guidelines to influence community attitudes and behaviours in a way that contributes to health and wellbeing, as well as suicide prevention
OBITUARY: Arnold Clemens Ap: His West Papuan legacy lives on: 1 July 1946 - 26 April 1984
No full textArnold Clemens Ap was born on 1 July 1946 on Numfor Island in Biak, at the time, part of the Dutch colony of Netherlands New Guinea. After schooling at church missions in Biak, he studied geography at the Teacher Training School of Cenderawasih University in Abepura, Jayapura, between 1967 and 1973. That year, he was appointed as the curator of the university’s museum, known as Loka Budaya, which became a centre for West Papuan cultural revival. His work to collect and perform songs in Papuan languages played a vital role in the development of a West Papuan national identity, transcending colonial boundaries and inter-tribal conflicts. He was murdered by Indonesian special forces in 1984. This year, 26 April 2024, marked the 40th anniversary of the death of this charismatic cultural leader. For West Papuans, in exile and at home, it has been an important time for commemoration
Israel’s war on journalism: A Kiwi journalist’s response
Full text linkWhether it is termed as ‘self-defence’ or ‘mowing the lawn’, the Israel Defence Force (IDF) has common phrases to describe its ongoing attacks on the besieged Palestine enclave of Gaza. The phrases obscure the devastation of death and disaster in the 2023/24 genocidal war on Gaza. While global reports have tended to focus on the horrendous and rapid climb of civilian casualties, especially women and children, Gaza has also claimed the worst ever death rate of journalists, many apparently targeted by the IDF because of their profession. Journalists in this article argue that it is time to ‘call these [Israeli state] terrorists by their true name: enablers of genocide.
REVIEW: Defending the right to confidential sources and whistleblowers: Review of Journalists and Confidential Sources: Colliding Public Interests in the Age of the Leak, by Joseph M. Fernandez
No full textJournalists and Confidential Sources: Colliding Public Interests in the Age of the Leak, by Joseph M Fernandez. Routledge Research on Journalism Series. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2021. 287 pages. ISBN 9780367474126
IN 2015, media law professor Joseph M. Fernandez co-authored a comprehensive article for Pacific Journalism Review (Fernandez & Pearson, 2015) about the status of Australia’s shield law regime, drawing on his research to see whether it met journalists’ expectations and whistleblower needs in an era of unprecedented official capabilities. It didn’t, as can be seen from growing concerns over court cases that, according to the peak journalists’ organisation Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA), ‘clearly demonstrate Australia’s patchy and desperate journalist shields fail to do their job’
Legacy media outlets also stand in dock over Gaza: How RNZ, ABC and other Western media failed to challenge Israeli war narratives
Full text linkAs Israel faces charges at the International Court of Justice in The Hague of breaching the 1948 Genocide Convention, for many people Western media institutions also stand in the dock. Critics have pointed to a media failure to effectively challenge a narrative that framed Israel’s actions in terms of an erroneous claim to Israeli ‘self-defence’, a de facto diplomatic cover for war crimes, ethnic cleansing and probable acts of genocide. In the Pacific, news leaders at Radio New Zealand (RNZ) and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), by alleged omission, story framing, inaccuracies, passive editorial stances, including a refusal to adjudicate contentious claims when the evidence was available, fall into the category. Such failures call into question claims of due impartiality, a fundamental tenet media outlets use to anchor their credibility as trusted sources of news. Failure to adequately create awareness of Israeli crimes also raises questions over whether state-funded public broadcasters are fulfilling the informational needs of democratic citizenship and serving the public interest, or whether they are serving the interests of a Western power elite
Artificial intelligence (AI) and future newsrooms: A study on journalists of Bangladesh
Full text linkMany Western and economically developed countries have already incorporated Artificial Intelligence (AI) into their newsrooms. As the media industry is constantly addressing new technological advancements, media scholars are highly confident about the combination of AI and the newsroom. This research investigates AI as a new prospect in the Bangladeshi journalism arena, focusing on the current state of AI usage and projecting the future by evaluating professional journalists’ ‘Mental Readiness’ across a variety of media companies. In the first phase, from the survey of 107 working journalists from 20 different news organisations, this study finds that journalists possess a mostly positive attitude towards AI and are willing to incorporate current technologies in their newsrooms. The majority of journalists are informed, yet many of them lack sufficient AI literacy. In the second part, in-depth interviews with five newsroom editors reveal that it is difficult for Bangladesh to make a significant transformation within a short period. Most of them believe that providing AI-enabled newsrooms in a developing country like Bangladesh is still a long shot, owing to economic and technological constraints
Time to rethink 'watchdog' journalism in the Pacific
Full text linkFor more than five decades, ‘Watchdog Journalism’ has been taught as the yardstick for a free media. With the so-called ‘mainstream’ media becoming increasingly commercialised—both in a global scale and domestically—and with the media being primarily owned by business conglomerates, the ‘watchdog’ model has created a journalism culture that is too adversarial and creates conflicts rather than helping to solve today’s problems/conflicts. A new paradigm of watchdog journalism is needed where the media is able to hold powerful players to account for facilitating the development/livelihood needs of communities, especially those in the margins of society. This new paradigm of journalism needs to focus on ‘development rights’ rather than ‘human rights’ taking into account many aspects of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs should be looked at in terms of a new definition of human rights where the journalist could play a similar role to that prescribed in ‘watchdog’ journalism theory, but looking for solutions rather conflicts, and include a larger field of stakeholders which need to be made accountable such as governments, big business and particularly conglomerates—even NGOs and faith-based organisations. This watchdog role needs to be applied to trade agreements and other treaties, including those addressing climate change. To develop a new journalism culture to address these issues, media training programmes in the Pacific need to rethink their strategies and examine how to promote independent social media models that are economically and sustainably viable
REVIEW: Contrasting Al Jazeera’s forensic October 7 report with TVNZ’s Tame interview: Review of October 7 (Documentary), directed by Richard Sanders; and Israeli-Hamas War: Israeli Ambassador on rising deaths in Gaza (Video), presented by Jack Tame
No full textOctober 7, directed by Richard Sanders, Al Jazeera Investigations (Documentary); Israeli-Hamas War: Israeli Ambassador on rising deaths in Gaza,TVNZ Q&A with Jack Tame (Current Affairs). FOR a more informed report of what actually took place when Hamas fighters broke through the perimeter fences surrounding Gaza to attack Israel on 7 October 2023, Al Jazeera’s hour-long documentary, October 7, which was broadcast on March 20, exposed the lies of the Israeli/US propaganda machine, and has been pivotal in transforming the Palestine/Israel narrative and so too the politics of the Middle East
REVIEW: Noted: Planning for the survival of megacities: Review of Come Hell and High Fever, by Russell W. Glen
No full textCome Hell or High Fever. Readying the World’s Megacities for Disaster, by Russell W. Glen. Canberra: ANU Press. 2023. 482 pages. ISBN 9781760465537.
WITH a title straight out a Tom Clancy novel and a writing style that manages to combine facts, analyses and deep understanding of his topic with the pace of a thriller, Russell Glen’s book is as entertaining and it is thought provoking. Russell predicts that the world’s largest urban agglomeration, like Tokyo, are at risk from a variety of disasters and that it is vital for local and national leaders to think seriously about how to deal with them
REVIEW: Even amidst the pain, author manages to show kindness: A review of Excommunicated. A multigenerational story of leaving the Exclusive Brethren, by Craig Hoyle
No full textExcommunicated. A multigenerational story of leaving the Exclusive Brethren, by Craig Hoyle. Auckland: Harper Collins, 2023. 327 pages. ISBN 9871775542018
IN THIS deeply personal memoir, Sunday Star-Times journalist Craig Hoyle turns his lens on his own family and the destructive effects upon them of their religion. Growing up in an Exclusive Brethren family meant closeness and warmth, but it also meant strict discipline, public prayers every day, and not really having schoolfriends for young Craig. It also meant there were family members nobody talked about because they had transgressed increasingly arbitrary sets of rules, or called out high-handed or incompetent leadership.