Pacific Journalism Review (Pacific Media Centre, School of Communication Studies, Auckland University of Technology)
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REVIEW: Documentary records continuing independence struggle in West Papua: Review of ABC Foreign Correspondent's The War for West Papua
No full textThe War Next Door, reported by Sally Sara. Foreign Correspondent. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Broadcast: 12 May 2020. 30 minutes. https://www.abc.net.au/foreign/the-war-next-door/12239998
‘WE GOT to keep on pushing forward,’ sings the band Sorong Samarai, which means from the tip of West Papua, Sorong, to Samari, the island which lies at the eastern tip of mainland Papua New Guinea, Samarai. ‘One people, one soul, one destiny.
PREVIEW: Tonga needs Pōhiva’s message so kingdom can move forward: An interview with the biographer of 'Akilisi Pohiva, Michael Field
No full textTHE LATE Tongan Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pōhiva was a clear visioned man whose message was still current, according to veteran Pacific journalist Michael Field. Field, who is writing a biography of Pōhiva, says a book about his life will be useful to the kingdom. Tongans needed Pōhiva’s message, he said (Field, 2020)
The ebb and flow of ‘eve-teasing’ in the news: Front page coverage of street harassment of women in Bangladesh
Get PDFEve-teasing is a euphemism for street-based sexual harassment, which is a widespread issue across Bangladesh affecting the emotional, mental, and physical wellbeing of Bangladeshi women. The media can play a vital role by covering news and raising awareness of eve-teasing. Historically, the headlines in Bangladesh focused on more obvert forms of gender violence—rape, murder, acid attacks—framing eve-teasing as a mere nuisance, a fact of life in the country. How the media portrays eve-teasing in Bangladesh is a subject about which there is currently very little research. This content analysis of the two main national newspapers in Bangladesh assesses how the media reported street-based sexual harassment over the course of a seminal year—2010. It was during this year that the government of Bangladesh enacted the Family Violence Prevention and Protection Act in acknowledgement of the prevalence and seriousness of gender violence in the country. Similar acts had been passed by the governments of nearby countries India and Sri Lanka in 2005, and Nepal in 2008 (Fardosh, 2013). This study looks at how Bangladeshi newspapers covered ‘eve-teasing’ prominently (as front-page news), in a year when it was acknowledged as a serious issue, through the passing of a law by the Bangladeshi government
The political affordances of the ‘coconut wireless’: Rotumans on social media in the 2018 Fiji elections
Get PDFAs a unique group of people, Rotumans make up less than two percent of Fiji’s population, and as a minority Indigenous ethnic group in Fiji, they have remained relatively hidden and silent in political affairs. Outmigration from the island has led to more than 80 percent of Rotumans residing outside of Rotuma. In recent times, the Rotuman diaspora has heavily relied on the use of ICTs and new media technologies as crucial tools for the reinvigoration of Rotuma’s culture. This in itself poses an intriguing paradox as internet connectivity on Rotuma is quite limited. However, social media platforms have been increasingly used by Rotumans outside of Rotuma, and have enabled increased connectivity and greater dissemination of information among the Rotuman diaspora. Recently, the primary purpose of such social media groups has evolved from merely being a tool for rekindling familial ties, to being a platform for political discourse on Rotuman issues. In essence, despite the scattered nature of the Rotuman population, digital technologies are offering Rotumans the affordance of being able to inform and educate themselves and their networks on political issues of Rotuman interest. By employing ethnography and netnography principles and through in-person and online engagement with Rotumans within and outside of Rotuma, this article examines the affordances that digital technologies offer Rotumans concerning national political discourse. This is carried out with a specific focus on the 2018 general elections in Fiji
REVIEW: Exposing reality about the mythic ‘age of truth’: Review of Myth of ‘Free Media’ and Fake News, and Mindful Communication for sustainable Development, by Kalinga Seneviratne
No full textMyth of ‘Free Media’ and Fake News in the Post-truth Era, by Kalinga Seneviratne. New Delhi, India: Sage. 2020, 348 pages. ISBN 9789353881276
Mindful Communication for Sustainable Development: Perspectives from Asia, edited by Kalinga Seneviratne. New Delhi, India: Sage: 2018, 353 pages. ISBN 9789352805518
POST-TRUTH? Was there ever really such a thing as the Golden Age of Truth as trumpeted by the liberal Western press? According to Kalinga Seneviratne in his latest challenging book, quite simply ‘no’. In some countries, such as New Zealand, fake news and the manipulation of half-truths and disinformation has been dismissed as a by-product of the Trump era in the White House and the Brexit debacle
FRONTLINE: The emergence of creative practice as research
No full textThe term ‘Creative Practice as Research’ is now in common usage in the tertiary sector, although it is relatively new in its inception. This article traces the rise of the term (and its variations), which emerged about the same time as the tertiary auditing processes, such as Aotearoa New Zealand’s Performance-Based Research Fund (PBRF). But creative practitioners had already been sneaking production into the traditional university, at times facing resistance and even derision from scholars undertaking more conventional research within the arts, humanities and social science departments. The author argues that the term Creative Practice as Research, and the many practices under its umbrella such as journalism, is now widely accepted, in part because it has been convenient, fulfilling particular needs within a changing tertiary landscape. Its greater acceptance allows traditional universities to respond to student demand for skills-based learning without losing their reputation for research excellence. But the term also suits the former polytechnics, or ‘new universities’, that are eager to imbue their craft and technical teaching history and practice with richer research content. Drawing on a new wave of ‘production studies’, the article also explores how a specific instance of Creative Practice, the documentary, does indeed fulfil the requirement of research as articulated through other academic disciplines such as the social sciences. Furthermore, documentary and other creative practices can contribute to ‘impact’, an increasingly important metric deployed in the assessment of research within the tertiary sector
FRONTLINE: The sociology of a pandemic: Countering a COVID 'disinfodemic' with a campus media initiative
No full textParallel with the global spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic, a dangerous ‘disinfodemic’ has been infecting the flow of information worldwide. Communication and media outlets have faced a new challenge with not only being responsible for reportage and analysis of a fast-moving public health emergency—the biggest this century, but forced to sift through the mass circulation of falsehoods that have spread as rapidly as the virus. Concerned about the risks for both health and public responses to disinformation, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres identified the ‘new enemy’ as a ‘growing surge of disinformation’. The UN launched a COVID-19 Communications for Solidarity Initiative to rapidly inform people about facts and science and to ‘promote and inspire acts of humanity’ globally. New Zealand is one of the few countries in the world whose strategy of COVID elimination has been a sustained approach to ‘keep the virus out, find it and stamp it out’. Evoking a theme of ‘our team of five million’ and national kindness, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has led a remarkable campaign blending decisive action and transparency. In this context, this article critically examines a four-month ‘Coronavirus Plus’ initiative conducted by the Pacific Media Centre at a communication programme in one of the New Zealand’s universities in response to the pandemic, deploying the Asia Pacific Report website, asiapacificreport.nz. 
REVIEW: Media must build and retain trust: Review of A Day Like Today, by John Humphrys
No full textA Day Like Today, by John Humphrys. London, UK: William Collins, 2019. 400 pages. ISBN 9780007415595 400pp.
JOHN HUMPHRYS will be less well known outside the UK than his contemporary from BBC World, John Simpson, but his autobiography is an entertaining and informative recounting of his career and well worth reading. For more than three decades he presided over BBC Radio 4’s flagship early morning current affairs programme, Today. Like Jeremey Paxman on BBC2’s Newsnight, he built a reputation for taking no prisoners in interviews and for having a keen sense of what makes good radio journalism
Talking the talk: Navigating frameworks of development communication
Get PDFAbstract: Journalism in Melanesia faces many challenges. Journalists strive for independence and objectivity while carefully navigating the needs and demands of communities, fragile states, and increasingly repressive governments. Personal safety is a concern in some places and there seems to be no abate to the growing encroachments on press freedom. There are also more insidious pressures. The influence of the global aid industry means that Melanesian journalists may find themselves under pressure to conform to dominant narratives of development in order to appease donors and training providers. This can result in journalism that paints a misleading picture of the way things are, instead showing donors and international interests what they want to see. This article offers a critical review of the approaches to development communication that may impact on the ways in which Melanesian journalists are able to work within this pervasive development discourse
Pacific journalism solidarity in the face of overwhelming forces
Get PDFCommentary: The Melanesian Media Freedom Forum (MMFF) notes democracy is in retreat and journalists like Victor Mambor (West Papua), Scott Waide (Papua New Guinea) and Dan McGarry (Vanuatu) are carrying the baton for media freedom. There has been a global reversal for a free press that has spanned countries in every region, including long-standing democracies like the United States and consolidated authoritarian regimes like China and Russia. The pattern has been consistent and ominous