Pacific Journalism Review (Pacific Media Centre, School of Communication Studies, Auckland University of Technology)
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REVIEW: Lively account of the Middle East conflict: Review of Dances With Death, by Tuma Hazou
Dances With Death – Perilous Encounters Reporting on Hostilities in the Turbulent Middle East, by Tuma Hazou. Auckland, NZ: Tuma Hazou. 2020, 148 pages. 978-0-473-50605-6
DANCES with Death is an extraordinary personal account of Palestinian journalist Tuma Hazou’s experiences from a 40-year journalism career mostly spent reporting from the war-ravaged Middle East. As a young Palestinian, Tuma was accepted for a job at the BBC in London – their youngest announcer at just 22 years of age. After 10 years there he transferred to Jordan and in subsequent decades was at the heart of reporting on events in the Middle East
FRONTLINE: Gentle sounds, distant roar: a watershed year for journalism as research
The Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC) 2020 decision on disciplinary categories has profound implications for journalism as a research discipline. Journalism Practice and Professional Writing retain their six-digit Fields of Research (FoR) code within the Creative Arts and Writing Division, a new six-digit FoR of Journalism Studies has been created in the Division of Language, Communication and Culture, and three new FoR codes of Literature, Journalism and Professional Writing have been created for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, Māori and Pacific Peoples within the new Indigenous Studies Division. This categorisation both confirms Journalism as a sovereign and independent discipline distinct from Communication and Media Studies, which has been in bitter contention for more than two decades. The ANZSRC confirmed its 2008 policy that the sole and definitive criterion for categorisation was methodology. This article explores the welcome ramifications of this decision for Journalism within Australasian university-based journalism and charts some of the issues ahead for journalism academics as they embark on the long overdue and fraught path to disciplinary self-recognition as an equal among the humanities and social sciences.
 
Mobile phone registration in Papua New Guinea: Will the benefits outweigh the drawbacks?
Commentary: The government of Papua New Guinea (PNG) has introduced a requirement for mobile phone registration. This commentary is a comprehensive analysis of the registration regulation, the process and key challenges. The paper is based on close observation of developments over several years, including attendance at court cases on the issue. The commentary includes: a description of the regulation, definitions of relevant terminology, a timeline of events, reflections on personal experiences, comparison to other countries, and discussion of related issues. In weighing costs against benefits, the author aims to determine the value of such a regulation. A key concern is the risk of poor and disadvantaged people being excluded from mobile phone ownership. While many countries in Africa and elsewhere have introduced similar requirements for registration with the stated objective of improving security, there is little evidence available that this measure does in fact reduce crime. Additionally, in Papua New Guinea, most people do not have any form of written identification documentation, which makes the process of mobile phone registration challenging
Tropical Cyclone Harold meets the Novel Coronavirus: Dispatch from the Pacific
Abstract: COVID-19 began to manifest in the Pacific Islands by early March 2020, starting in the US and French territories, spreading slowly to the independent countries of Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste. All of the independent Pacific countries responded with aggressive measures, closing borders and establishing curfews. Against this background, Tropical Cyclone Harold, formed on April Fool's Day, began its devastating path through four Pacific countries: Solomon Islands with 27 dead in a ferry accident; Vanuatu whose northern islands, including Santo and Malekula were devastated by the cyclone with wind speeds greater than 200 km/h. The devastation continued in Fiji, with two tornadoes and devastation particularly in Kadavu and the southern Lau group. Tropical Cyclone Harold struck Tonga at the height of the king tide. COVID-19 continues to complicate relief efforts, particularly in Vanuatu. As of May 3, 2020, sixteen Pacific countries and territories had yet to report their first confirmed case of COVID-19: American Samoa, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Pitcairn, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Wallis and Futuna. The Pacific continues to lead by example motivated by collective stewardship with actions and policies based on science. Pacific leaders continue to work with the World Health Organisation (WHO) to implement COVID-19 management recommendations
EDITORIAL: Under the pandemic siege
It is possible that future generations will think that BC stands for Before Coronavirus—and possibly that AD stands for After the Donald. All joking aside, here in Aotearoa New Zealand we have been far luckier than most countries, with early and decisive action by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her advisers rapidly bringing the pandemic threat under control. Several Island nations remain COVID-free, thanks again to early intervention and strong measures, including border control. In countries which did not react properly, the results have been catastrophic. The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2019) has predicted that the appalling death toll in the United States will reach and possibly surpass 250,000 by the time Donald Trump is finally ejected from the White House. Comparatively safe as we are in New Zealand, this is still the second edition of Pacific Journalism Review we have produced with COVID-19 in the background and even when the pandemic is over, or at least brought under control, we will still be threatened by a host of challenges—not least that of climate change, which has already forced internal migration in Papua New Guinea and Fiji and threatens to do the same in the ASEAN region, with its incomparably larger population
REVIEW: Noted: Documentary exposes dark side of Tongan diaspora
Gangsters in Paradise—The Deportees of Tonga. Documentary. 2019. Director: Ursula Williams. Vice/Zealandia.‘IT’S LIKE crabs being stuck in a bucket scratching each other to get out.’‘It’s like rubbish dumping.’Those are two views about the crisis facing Tonga as countries like the United States, Australia and New Zealand deport criminals to the kingdom
Investigative journalism: Faith, hope and charity: 1996 PACIFIC INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM AWARD 2
1996 Pacific Investigative Journalism Award WINNER: Yashwant Gaunder, publisher and editor of The Review in Fiji, won the inaugural 1996 Pacific Investigative Journalism Award for his report on the failings of the National Bank of Fiji
1950s vibe, 21st century audience: Australia’s dearth of on-screen diversity
The difference between how multicultural Australia is ‘in real life’ and ‘in broadcasting’ can be seen through data from the Census, and from Screen Australia’s most recent research into on screen diversity. In 2016, these sources of data coincided with the Census, which takes place every five years. Conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, this presents a ‘snapshot’ of Australian life. From the newest Census figures in 2016, it appears that nearly half of the population in Australia (49 percent) had either been born overseas (identifying as first generation Australian) or had one or both parents born overseas (identifying as second generation Australian). Nearly a third, or 32 percent, of Australians identified as having come from non-Anglo Celtic backgrounds, and 2.8 percent of Australians identify as Indigenous (Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander). Nearly a fifth, or 18 percent, of Australians identify as having a disability. Screen Australia is the government agency that oversees film and TV funding and research. Conducted in 2016, Screen Australia’s study looked at 199 television dramas (fiction, excluding animation) that aired between 2011 and 2015. The comparison between these two sources of data reveals that with one exception, there is a marked disparity between diversity as depicted in the lived experiences of Australians and recorded by the Census, and diversity as depicted on screen and recorded by the Screen Australia survey
EDITORIAL: Terrorism and democracy
THIS edition of Pacific Journalism Review is a special issue on several fronts in our 25th year. First, it is a double issue—the first in our history. Second, it began production as an ‘unthemed’ issue, partly to catch up with a backlog of accepted peer-reviewed papers that had missed recent themed editions. However, the tragic mosque massacre in the New Zealand city of Christchurch in March, and recent ballot box expressions over political futures and independence meant a group of papers emerged with a ‘terrorism dilemmas and democracy’ theme. New Zealand will be learning to live with its ‘loss of innocence’, as Mediawatch presenter Colin Peacock describes it, for the months ahead after the shock of a gunman launching his obscene act of livestreamed terrorism with a bloody assault on two mosques in Christchurch during Friday prayers on 15 March 2019 designed to go viral on global social media. Fifty people were killed that day, with another dying from his wounds several weeks later, unleashing an extraordinary and emotional wave of #TheyAreUs solidarity across the country
The New Zealand mosque massacre: 2. ‘End of innocence’ for media and nation
Commentary: The March 15 massacre at two mosques in Christchurch on 15 March 2019 forced New Zealand’s news media to rethink the way they work, whose voices they amplify—and why. Telcos, bloggers, advertisers and the government have all reacted in ways that changed what people see, hear and read. The author examines some of the ways the massacre has left a mark on the New Zealand media