Pacific Journalism Review (Pacific Media Centre, School of Communication Studies, Auckland University of Technology)
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Press freedom and communication rights: What kind of journalism does democracy need?
Get PDFThe task of identifying appropriate models of journalism for Pacific Island nations as they strive for more democratic governance is not a straightforward one. This article summarises several contending models of democracy—market liberalism/competitive elitism, public sphere liberalism, and radical democracy—and their attendant expectations of news media. When measured against the stated ideals of press freedom, and notwithstanding the emergence of the internet, the existing news systems of the dominant Western liberal-democracies, notably the US and UK, have significant democratic shortcomings, in relation to ‘watchdog’, public sphere, community-building and communicative equality criteria. Accordingly, the author argues that the practices and concept of press freedom need to be expanded and supplemented by a broader understanding and implementation of communication rights, entailing legal and cultural forms that support the full participation of all segments of society in the social cycle of communication. Such a paradigm is especially appropriate for postcolonial countries dealing with issues of economic development and inter-ethnic conflict
Questioning public interest journalism in New Caledonia
Get PDFCommentary: François Hollande’s five-year term of office as President of France overlaps a critical time for the future of New Caledonia, where a referendum is set to take place between 2014 and 2019 to decide whether or not the archipelago will remain within the French Republic or become independent. New Caledonia has a unique status in the polity of France. It is a special collectivity, more than a colonial territory, but less than a fully independent state within a Francophone commonwealth. It is the author’s contention, however, that within the public sphere of this unique political entity, it is the media in New Caledonia, rather than the government of metropolitan France that will play the decisive role in influencing the future of New Caledonia. Therefore, this commentary sets out to interrogate the role local media could play in the future of the archipelago and the implications for the New Caledonian public
REVIEW: Meticulous study of early colonial infanticide
No full textEvery once in a while an academic researcher will privately concede they would like to have written the book they have reviewed. Count me in that category. Nicola Goc’s examination of news narratives of infanticide from 1822-1922 in Britain and Australia reveals painstaking scholarship. It yields insights into the primacy of crime news, the ideology of infanticide news discourse, the privileging of medical and legal voices in courtroom reportage, and the personification of infanticide women as maternal deviants, mad women or as celebrity subjects of newspaper campaigning
EDITORIAL: Trials of celebrity
Get PDFTHIS ISSUE of Pacific Journalism Review engages with the theme of the dynamics of fame in a small country. In contrast to the dominant focus in the newly emergent field of Celebrity Studies on celebrity as a global phenomenon, the emphasis in this issue is on the interface between the global and the local; on questions of how the distinctiveness of national and local values fares when caught up in or of willingly imitating the circulation of global fame and influence. Accounts of celebrity often focus on the notion of fetishism—the complex process through which specific idols become objects of veneration on whose admirable or even infamous qualities are presented as emanating from the inner recesses of a luminous personality. The importance of this aspect of celebrity and celebrity worship is not to be denied. But there is another feature of celebrity and stardom that complements and energises the engagement of fans, the interest of the general public and the ambitions of the press and media to create and sustain a market for copy. Celebrities and stars are also totems that create a sense of unity, an imagined community. Individuals express and explore a sense of collective identity, define rituals of belonging, separate themselves from others and manage the relationship between society and nature—in the case of celebrities, the nature in question, is most often, human nature (Rojek, 2012, pp. 130-131). In the case of small countries, like New Zealand, the internal impact of Hollywood stars and celebrities on American popular culture is intensified by the fact that the celebrity system is a totemic import. Patterns and processes for rewarding talent and ascribing fame that have reached the acme of intensity in Global Hollywood, interface with locally situated systems of beliefs and values. This might be seen as a process of colonisation—and to an extent it is
‘Four Worlds’ news values revisited: A deliberative journalism paradigm for Pacific media
Get PDFSouth Pacific media face a challenge of developing forms of journalism that contribute to the national ethos by mobilising change from passive communities to those seeking change. Instead of the news values that have often led international media to exclude a range of perspectives, such a notion would promote deliberation by journalists to enable the participation of all community stakeholders, ‘including the minorities, the marginalised, the disadvantaged and even those deemed as “deviant’” (Romano, 2010). Critical deliberative journalism is issue-based and includes diverse and even unpopular views about the community good and encourages an expression of plurality. In a Pacific context, this resonates more with news media in some developed countries that have a free but conflicted press such as in India, Indonesia and the Philippines. This has far more relevance in the Pacific than a monocultural ‘Western’ news model as typified by Australia and New Zealand. Early in the millennium, this author examined notions of the Fourth Estate in the South Pacific. These were applied through a ‘Four Worlds’ news values prism in the global South that included the status of Indigenous minorities in dominant nation states (Robie, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2009b). This article explores how that has been modified over the past decade and its implications for media and democracy in the Pacific
Online coverage of the 2008 Olympic Games on the ABC, BBC, CBC and TVNZ
Get PDFThe same pervasive strategies that relegate women’s sports coverage to secondary status in the traditional sports media are apparent in online coverage. Content analysis of the extent and nature of 2008 Olympic Games coverage by four national public broadcasters shows men and their sports were the story in Beijing. The gender gap in story numbers favoured male athletes by a margin of four to one. Men’s achievements were given more prominence than women’s with twice as many lead stories and photographs of male athletes taking top spot on the websites’ splash pages. The content of photographs and the language of online stories also perpetuated gender stereotypes and sexual difference by framing sportswomen as emotionally weak or dependent and less committed than male athletes
Life imitating art: Asian romance movies as a social mirror
Get PDFAs a genre of mass media, the romance movie has the potential to influence and shape audience’s views on socio-cultural issues of the time (Rahman, 2013). Asian romance movies often depict behaviours that challenge thei moral code such as obeying authority, adherence to cultural norms and putting society before self. For dramatic effect, such movies would often showcase scandalous themes and socially objectionable behaviours which are eventually resolved, indicating a return to socially accepted codes of conduct. There is a clear appreciation of values considered ideal in romantic partnerships including honesty and fidelity. Interestingly, such movies appear to capture the Asian diaspora, challenging social norms and negotiating its values, behaviours and beliefs against foreign elements. This article explores the scandals and consequences portrayed in some of these Asian movies, evaluating the effect this might have on their actors and a receptive audience. Elements of scandal in the personal lives of some of the actors make a case for life and art imitating the other in a cycle of challenge, compromise and conformity
FRONTLINE: Climate change reporting in an Australian context: Recognition, adaptation and solutions
No full textExegesis: This exegesis is based on the production of three features that explore local impacts of climate change. The features are part of a journalism research project that investigated the question: how can journalistic practice generate an accurate, balanced account of climate change issues in Australia? The journalist rejects an approach that positions environmental reporting—or the ‘green beat’—as a form of advocacy journalism. In contrast, the researcher positions her journalism practice within mainstream Australian journalism. The researcher sets out to produce reports, which adhere to the conventional journalism norms, including those of ‘balance’ and ‘accuracy’. She explicitly critiques and rejects the phenomenon known as ‘balance as bias’, explored by Boykoff and Boycoff (2004) which, by over accessing climate sceptic sources, obstructs the reporting of climate change as an important economic, social, political and environmental issue. This exegesis explains and defends a different approach that focuses on local reporting rather than large-scale events in distant places. Robert Entman’s definition of framing is used to explain how climate change issues were addressed in each narrative
REVIEW: A fresh take on journalism authority
No full textReview of: Citizen Witnessing, Stuart Allan. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2013, 253 pp. ISBN-13; 978-0-7456-5195-8The implications of the internet for journalism practice have been widely explored in journalism studies scholarship, and interest in new forms of digital journalism practice has outgrown interest in the analysis of traditional forms of news production. It has been some time since journalists lost their exclusive right in deciding what publics see, hear and read. In a digital environment, information is no longer scarce or hard to produce. Having a smart phone easily opens a door to publishing and the potential of new technologies to create a situation where everybody could be a journalist seems endless
Foreign and travel journalism on West Papua: The case of the Swedish press
Get PDFThis article analyses the characteristics of a considerable part of the foreign and travel journalism on West Papua that was published in Swedish press during the period 1959-2009. The analysed material comprises press items, articles, and reports on West Papua published in 27 different Swedish newspapers and periodicals. The comprehensive frame identified in the material is West Papua viewed as a primitive country. Four frames, characteristic of this general frame, are found in the foreign and travel journalism: 1) the primitive Others as dangerous and destructive; 2) the primitive Others as victims; 3) the primitive Others as admirable; and 4) the primitive Others as timeless and unchangeable. In the foreign and news material, a clear élite and big power perspective is apparent, which has been fundamental for when the conflict in West Papua is brought up on the journalistic agenda, and when it is not. A power fortifying integration between the frame of West Papua as a primitive country, and the élite and big power perspective exist in the material that during the entire time period covered by this investigation, has resulted in the Papuans being made invisible, and/or maintaining the Papuans and the conflict in West Papua as something odd, not holding a high value