All abstracts have been peer-reviewed for oral delivery; full papers have been peer-reviewed where indicated.
Rukhsana Aslam is a
journalist and peace journalism educator from Pakistan who is a doctoral
candidate in communication studies at AUT University, Auckland.
Challenges and
dangers in practising effective peace journalism
In
an age which is marked by globalisation and technological advancement, the role
of media in portraying and interpreting the conflict is acknowledged to be of
great importance, especially in the coverage of political conflicts. And “peace
journalism”, as opposed to “war journalism”, is considered by many media
experts and scholars as the way to integrate conflict resolution in
journalistic training and hence develop a more “socially responsible”
journalism. This paper examines the concepts of peace journalism and conflict
resolution as “an approach” towards conflict and explores the notions of
journalistic practices like objectivity in the media coverage of conflict. The
paper also gives an account of several initiatives and makes a case for
translating these concepts into tangibles. The second part of this paper,
however, deals with the challenges and dangers in practising effective peace
journalism. On one hand, the digital revolution has changed the nature of
information and communication. It has brought many challenges for the developed
world, including the changing global identities, the need to respond to global
events quickly and the need for psychological and physical training programmes
for journalists. But for developing countries, simple tasks such as having
media access to the conflict, providing security to journalists in the field
and arranging adequate resources for them are hard to accomplish. Giving
examples from Iraq, Pakistan and some other countries, the paper discusses the
existing disparity of resources and training in the two parts of the world. It
concludes on the importance of community support in making peace journalism
effective.
Professor
Wendy Bacon is director of the Australian Centre
for Independent Journalism at the University of Technology, Sydney, and an
investigative journalist and lawyer.
Investigating aid and
environmental journalism
Renee
Barnes is a lecturer at RMIT University,
Melbourne, Australia.
Twittering the news: A
case for realigning journalism education
The traditional role of a journalist was to gather
information, shape it into a story and then transmit it as accurately and
quickly as possible to an audience via a mass medium. Today, as the mass media
is declining in influence, the digital media is providing infinite
opportunities for non-journalists to break news. Journalism education, like the
media industry, is struggling to adapt to these structural changes, relying
increasingly on expanding technology training. This paper will argue that what
is needed is a realignment of journalism education from technology training to
online social training. Within an online social training model, it will be
argued that the skill of using social networking sites like Twitter to build
and engage readership is as important as the traditional news gathering skills.
Young journalists will need to understand the nuances, social protocols and
ethical implications of these social networking sites to develop networks and
broaden the reach of their stories. Traditionally journalism education has
focused on technology training that enable the journalist to develop a story
that can be delivered in the lecture format, defined as published or broadcast
without interaction with the audience. It will be argued that if journalism in the
online medium is to be refocused from a lecture to a conversation, then the
skill of engaging the public through networking tools will be a primary one for
journalists. This concept can be further developed through the discourse of
journalist as ‘brand’. Developing an honest and authentic ‘brand’ using social
networking tools is increasingly important for journalists struggling to be
heard in the white noise of information online. This branding takes on added
significance when we consider that we are producing far more journalism
students than ever before, while traditional journalism jobs are shrinking.
Online social training, it will be argued, gives journalism students the skills
to develop profile and even publish and be heard without affiliation with a
mainstream media organisation. Further, traditional journalism defines fact as
information from official sources. But this model of news is in flux as new
social media technologies facilitate the instant, dissemination of fragments of
information from a variety of official and unofficial sources. Within this
context, an understanding and an ability to help the public negotiate the flow
of this information and facilitate the collection and transmission of news is
vital for journalists of the future.
Bill
Birnbauer is an investigative journalist and a
senior lecturer in the School of Journalism and Australian Studies at Monash
University, Melbourne.
Building the non-profit road: Investigative lessons and
models from other places
In March 2009, the minnow-sized
Voiceofsandiego.org found itself among the big hitters of American
investigative journalism. The non-profit organisation established in 2005 with
an editorial staff of 11 young reporters won the country’s most prestigious
award for internet-based investigative journalism. The Voiceofsandiego.org’s
reporters had exposed corrupt relationships between two government agencies and
developers involving lucrative contracts and a clandestine bonus system. The
revelations resulted in the agencies’ leaders being replaced, criminal
investigations and reforms. The award
was presented by Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc. which in 1975 was the
first non-profit journalism organisation established in the United States and
whose goal is to improve the standard of investigative reporting. In April
2010, the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting was awarded to both The Philadelphia Daily News and to ProPublica’s
Sheri Fink for a 13,000-word narrative reconstruction of the horrific choices
facing medical staff at Memorial Hospital, New Orleans, in the wake of the
devastating Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Fink’s two-year investigation, also
published in The New York Times Magazine, showed that health
professionals deliberately injected several patients with lethal drugs. What
ProPublica, Voiceofsandiego.org and 45 other US-based investigative reporting
centres have in common is that they are supported by wealthy philanthropic
foundations and contributions from “mum and dad’’ Americans who might donate as
little as $US35. Non-profit investigative reporting centres also have been
established in more than 43 countries as diverse as Brazil, Armenia, Romania,
Africa, Chile, England, Canada, Colombia, Nigeria and Serbia. With traditional
newsroom resources thinning due to budget and staffing constraints, two ideas
are proposed to bolster the amount of in-depth reporting in Australia and New
Zealand. Journalists and journalism educators should lobby politicians,
especially the Australian independents and Greens, to press for tax
deductibility for donations to investigative reporting centres and funds. Secondly, university journalism schools might
establish and fund a centre that produces investigative journalism using
supervised students across multiple campuses working on collaborative projects.
Dr Paul G. Buchanan
is the principal of Buchanan Strategic Advisors, Ltd., a New Zealand-based
political risk consultancy.
Facilitated news as control of
information flows: The origins and rationale for ‘embedded’ journalism
The
paper traces the origins and rationale behind the practice of “embedded”
journalism. It argues that the practice emerged as a post-Vietnam response by
the US military to the “problem” of independent news coverage of conflicts in
which the US was involved. For the State, the problem of independent news
coverage is that it often contradicts the official war narrative and if left
unhindered undermines public confidence in and support for the war effort.
Since home country public support is deemed crucial for success in any foreign
war, particularly during lengthy engagements, independent news coverage is seen
as a threat to the unity of the home front and therefore a threat to the war
effort itself. The response, first elaborated during the Reagan administration
and honed and perfected in subsequent decades of fighting by subsequent
Democratic and Republican administrations, is to facilitate favourable news
coverage via the practice of “embedded” journalism. “Embedded” journalists are those that are
vetted and selected based upon their propensity to support “the troops,” who
they consequently become dependent on for their care and welfare while in
combat zones. Current news industry
practices, of which the military is acutely aware, facilitate the use of
controlled news sourcing by focusing on the “embedded” reporter’s story and
those of the troops in which the reporter is “embedded” rather than the
military context in which they operate. The terms and conditions to which the
“embedded” reporters agree preclude critical scrutiny of potentially negative
aspects of the combat experience on innocents and ensure that the journalistic
narrative conforms to the military’s preferred interpretation of events. Withdrawal
of security guarantees for independent journalists and termination without
warning of “embedded” status for reporters who violate the terms and conditions
of the facilitated news contract provide strong physical disincentives to
engage in non-sanctioned and uncontrolled reporting in combat zones. Even a
contrary incident such as an embedded reporter’s or accompanying troop’s death
or injury suits the military narrative as to the unsavoury character of the
adversary and the risks to the soldiers involved in bringing freedom to
oppressed people against their will is highlighted for the home audience.
Sympathetic and de-contextualised coverage of contrary events serve to make
real the immediate costs to the “good” team and re-emphasises the need for
public support for their sacrifice in what otherwise is otherwise seen as a
distant and seemingly inconsequential, meaningless or futile conflict (since in
no modern conflict involving the US and New Zealand are core national state
values at stake). The beauty of the facilitated news strategem is in the synergies
produced by the overlapping interests of security forces and news outlets: each
gets to convey its own particular message of legitimate effort and real-time
involvement in mutually reinforcing fashion without delving into the
circumstances and ethics involved in the larger context into which journalists
are “embedded.” In doing so the war narrative is controlled, contrived,
manipulated and sanitised in the interests of corporate and governmental elites
far removed from the conflicts in which the “reporting” occurs.
Simon Collins is
social issue reporter on the New Zealand Herald and facilitator of the Jesson Journalism Awards; Jon Stephenson is an independent journalist and a member of the
awards committee. http://brucejesson.com/item/2010/04/bruce-jesson-journalism-awards-2010-call-for-nominations
The Jesson Journalism Awards – a small
NZ public journalism initiative
Donor-funded grants and centres for
public interest journalism are increasingly seen as vital responses to the
shrinking economic base of traditional mass media and the now-dominant
commercial values of most remaining media outlets. A small and lonely New
Zealand example is the Bruce Jesson Foundation’s $3000 annual award for
“critical, informed, analytical or creative journalism or writing which will
contribute to public debate in New Zealand on an important issue or issues”.
Unlike other journalism awards, the Jesson grant is paid in advance of
publication to fund research costs, including the time that may have to be
taken off paid work. Since its inception in 2003 it has funded important work
on NZ foreign policy, economic and welfare policies, transport issues and NZ’s
involvement in Iraq. However it has struggled to get publicity and to attract
more than a handful of applications. The Jesson trust is committed to its
continuation, although possibly in a changed form in the future. The key to its
success will be to find ways to reach a wider audience of potential applicants.
Dr Kayt Davies
is a lecturer in journalism at Edith Cowan University, Perth, WA, Australia.
Workshop: Using journalism as a
research methodology: How to do it
Part
one: With concern
mounting about future sources of investigative journalism, the latent potential
of the expert journalists teaching and conducting research within universities
is worth considering. This thought has given rise to the establishment of a new
peer-reviewed journal called Research Journalism,
dedicated to publishing best-practice journalism. This presentation will cover
the history of journalism as a research methodology. While journalism has, in
recent years, been considered to be fundamentally unlike other university
research, the usefulness of this disconnect is now waning and the ERA process
in Australia is drawing it out of the shadows.
Part
Two: Peer-reviewed
academic journalism is like existing forms of high quality journalism, but a
little different. It is a hybrid creature with some features borrowed from
academic writing, while still, at its core, being hard headed, and fourth
estate oriented. This part of the presentation will focus on how it is written,
how is it referenced, how it differs from other forms of journalism and the
benefits of having work published as academic journalism over simply being
published or broadcast in mainstream media.
Part
Three: Participants will be asked to consider
journalism projects/stories that they are, or have recently worked on, or that they
are considering tackling. We will then talk through how those articles could be
written and published as academic papers. This section can include discussion
about timing concerns, ethics committees, referencing, dealing with sources,
exegesis writing, documentation of processes, peer review and anything else
that they raise as concerns or questions.
Kunda Dixit
is editor of the Nepali
Times and author of Dateline.Earth:
Journalism.as.if.the.planet.mattered and
the People War trilogy.
Real
journalism for a virtual world
Barbara Dreaver is
Television New Zealand’s Pacific affairs correspondent and has carried out many
investigations in the region.
Investigating
the hidden stories
Melissa Gould is
a postgraduate student in the School of Communication Studies, AUT University.
Religion
sells: Television advertising, religion and New Zealand society
This paper will demonstrate how a
critical-interpretative approach to television promotional messages can provide
insight into the place of religion in society. The media, in particular
television, are said to be socially central because of their influence on
social issues and attitudes and in fact, no evaluation of a given society can
be adequately executed without accounting for the reflexive relationship
between a given society and its media (Berger, 2007; Farnsworth &
Hutchinson, 2000; Maguire and Weatherby, 1998; Fiske, 1990; Muggeridge, 1977).
Television commercials can be an indicator of the dominant influences in
society because their primary goal is to create desire in their audience by
drawing on appealing concepts that will convert the largest possible proportion
of the audience into consumers. The paper will therefore demonstrate how a
quantitative content analysis that deconstructs the inclusion of religious
iconography in promotional messages for non-religious companies can offer
insights into the place of religion within New Zealand society. The content
analysis will explore the use of religion as a promotional tool in
advertisements and channel promotions that were broadcast during 90 hours of
prime-time programming across five free-to-air channels. The paper will
conclude that, in using religious cultural markers to promote non-religious
companies, advertisers can use religion as a reason to consume, as a ‘player’
in the making of a product and as a calendar marker. Specifically, it will show
that the secular popular culture in which these advertisements draw on
religious references acts as a mirror and a window to the blurring of 'the
sacred' and 'the secular' cultural realms in New Zealand.
Nicky Hager is an
independent New Zealand investigative journalist and is author of The
Hollow Men.
More
investigation when there is less journalism
Dr Mark Hayes
is a lecturer in journalism in the School of Journalism and Communication,
University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia
After the Blockbuster Investigation: Telling the Royal Commission Story
On
Monday evening, May 11, 1987, ABC TV’s Four
Corners broadcast Chris Masters’ blockbuster investigation into official
and police corruption in Queensland, The
Moonlight State. Soon thereafter, the Queensland Government was forced to
set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry headed by Tony Fitzgerald, Q.C. For the
Queensland, and national media, reporting on the Inquiry and its proceedings
was an exhausting, exhilarating, and highly complex exercise lasting almost two
years. In the vast amount of daily reportage on that enormously significant
Royal Commission between July 27, 1987, and the release of the Fitzgerald
Report on July 3, 1989, and in the even larger amount of analysis and
commentary on the Fitzgerald reforms and their impacts on Queensland
governance, one significant aspect of the story has never been told. During the
Royal Commission’s hearings in 1988, the then Queensland edition of ABC TV’s
long running weeknight current affairs program, The 7.30 Report, reported on the proceedings using daily re‐enactments of evidence and cross
examination. This sustained, genuinely dramatic, often truly sensational,
reportage of equally dramatic and sensational disclosures at the Royal
Commission was and remains a landmark in Australian journalism. Drawing on firsthand
experience, extensive interviews with key participants, ABC TV archives,
Fitzgerald Inquiry evidence and transcripts, and news reportage, this paper
finally tells as complete a story as possible of how and why the re‐enactments were done, and examines
their impacts on the Royal Commission and its historic revelations.
James Hollings
is a lecturer in journalism at the Massey University School of Journalism,
Wellington.
The Informed Commitment
Model: A model of best practice for journalists engaging with reluctant and
vulnerable whistleblowers
Investigative journalism is often said
to be based on two pillars of information gathering – documents and sources.
Yet while document retrieval and analysis has received much attention in recent
years, particularly with the advent of computer-assisted reporting and Freedom
of Information legislation, remarkably little attention has been given in the
journalistic literature to best practice for developing and maintaining
sources, especially vulnerable sources with high-risk information. This study
analyses four high-profile examples of New Zealand investigative journalism
based on revelation by vulnerable and reluctant sources. Using interviews with
both the sources and the journalists who persuaded them to speak out, it draws
on persuasion and social psychology theory to explain the decision-making
process of the whistleblowers and establish a model of best practice for
journalists wishing to persuade reluctant, vulnerable people to speak out
safely and effectively.
Louise James
is from the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) Oceania, Auckland.
Look what they’re doing:
Media monitoring violations of codes related MDGs on child mortality
In
1981 the World Health Assembly (WHA) endorsed the International Code of
Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes (the Code) and over the years has
strengthened it with a number of resolutions. This year the WHA endorsed a
resolution that urged Member States to develop and/or strengthen legislative,
regulatory and/or other effective measures to control the marketing of
breastmilk substitutes. Within the Code is an article that requires the
industry to adhere to it regardless of country’s legislation and policies, as
often the most vulnerable are living in those countries where governments
haven’t put anything into law or have problems monitoring. The Infant Feeding
Association of New Zealand (IFANZ), affiliated to IBFAN, holds the Oceania
office and is funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation
(NORAD) to further the global Breastfeeding Initiative
for Child Survival (gBICS). The gBICS is a worldwide civil
society-driven initiative aiming to accelerate progress in attaining the
health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, especially Goals 4,
reduction of Child mortality, and 5, reduction of maternal mortality, by
scaling up 6 months exclusive and continued breastfeeding. One of the ways we
are working to improve breastfeeding is by ensuring the baby food industry is
adhering to the International Code and thereby not undermining breastfeeding. We undertook a
monitoring exercise in the Oceania region this year to see what the baby food
industry was doing and to find out what legislation or policies governments had
in place in the various countries. Using our IBFAN contacts throughout the
region we contacted them asking them to send us any violations they had found
in the media, health services and retail outlets in their countries. The Code
restricts the marketing practices of infant formula, baby food labelled for use
for infants under six months and bottles and teats, yet we found evidence of
all of these products being marketed in Oceania. This presention provides an overview of the Code, what
legislation and/or policies are in place in the various Pacific nations and
what the baby food industry is getting up to.
Dr
Rosser Johnson is head of postgraduate programmes in
the School of Communication Studies, AUT University, Auckland.
Promoting a promotional culture: children,
advertising and local newspapers. A case study of the Junior Franklin County News
Although the extraordinary
level of commercial speech in New Zealand media is relatively commonly
acknowledged (see, for instance, Bell 1995, Campbell 2000, Farnsworth 1998,
Hope 1996, Horrocks 2004, Lealand 2002, Thompson 2003), there is very little
academic work that focuses on this commercial speech in its own right.
Particularly emblematic case studies, like Xenical
(Johnson & Hope 2001), peculiarly successful forms of advertising, like the
infomercial (Johnson & Hope 2004, Johnson 2007), or persistent trends in
policy, like the lack of maximum limits of advertisements per hour (Johnson
2005), allow for a wider, more critical perspective. To date, however, there has been
little, if any, research into the lived experience as people they negotiate
this commercialised media culture. This paper aims to investigate one aspect of
that experience by focussing on the Junior
Franklin County News, an annual insert into a community newspaper. The
paper will argue that the insert, by being produced by primary school students,
offers a real insight into their conception of “advertising”, “newspapers” and
their inter-relationship. It will show that the commercial media’s contemporary
“advertorial” focus can deployed by children through relatively sophisticated
techniques and will conclude by arguing for more clarity and precision when
teaching children about the “doing” of media.
Dr
Janine Little is senior lecturer in journalism in
the School of Communication and Creative Arts at Deakin University, Geelong,
Vic., Australia.
‘The ephemeral’ crime story and longer
investigations: Journalism and recent Australian creative non-fiction on court
trials
This paper compares two works of
book-length journalism on criminal trials in Australia in order to make some
observations about the role of creative non-fiction in countering what George
Orwell called ‘the ephemeral’ nature of journalism. Helen Garner’s Joe Cinque’s Consolation (2004) and Honeymoon Dive (2010) by Lindsay Simpson
and Jennifer Cooke are read as part of the trend of writing long creative
non-fiction about criminal cases, which was pioneered in the US by Truman
Capote. The expanded court-based writing portrays “real people” in the fullness
of their experience of often horrific events, so that hard news reports grow
into investigative works of social and personal complexity. In Australia,
Garner and Simpson and Cooke’s longer studies followed news reports of the
trials of those charged with the manslaughter of Australian university student
Joe Cinque and, a decade later on her honeymoon in Far North Queensland,
American bride Tina Watson. This paper argues for the importance of such
follow-up creative non-fiction in fostering journalism’s investigative project.
Selwyn Manning
is co-editor of Scoop Media and a masters in communication studies student at
AUT University, Auckland
Political documentary
used as a vehicle to communicate a contemporary reality
This presentation will display how
documentary can be used as a vehicle to convey a version of contemporary
reality. It will explore how the various modes of documentary each have their
strengths and weaknesses, and how they can be used and blended to create
dynamic theatre even while holding to the discipline of representing a reality.
The presentation will also demonstrate how today, relatively low-cost
technology can produce feature length, film-styled, documentaries. Two
documentaries that have yet to be released will be promoted: Morality of
Argument – sustaining a state of being nuclear free, and In the Nation's
Interest – juxtaposing the frailties of intelligence and tradecraft.
Jim Marbrook is a television lecturer and filmmaker, AUT
University, Auckland. This project was assisted by Pacific Media Centre and
Creative New Zealand grants.
Cap
Bocage: exploring concepts of legitimacy and militancy in local environmental
protest in New Caledonia
In 2008, I started
shooting the documentary Cap Bocage,
tracking the conflict surrounding the clean-up of a mining landslide disaster
at the SMCB’s nickel mine near Houailou, in New Caledonia. This conflict was
characterised by a strike, blockades and, most importantly, a protracted legal
battle which saw local environmental group, Mèè Rhaari, struggle to legitimise
its position as plaintiff in the legal case against La Société des Mines. At
stake for many members of the tribe of Ba/Kaora was a coastline and reef that
has deep, underlying cultural significance for its clan owners. For the wider
group of clans that form the tribe, this landslide zone is also a prized
food-gathering area. Running parallel to this legal struggle was another key
issue: who actually had the moral right to exploit this nickel in the first
place? And where was the document that gave the SMCB initial consent to mine?
As Horowitz maintains in her study of Goro in the south of this territory,
“environmental violence is not driven simply by resource abundance or
scarcity…it mark[s] a crisis of political legitimacy, grounded in a history of
opposition to the colonial power” (Horowitz, 2009). Analysing several brief
excerpts from Cap Bocage – a work in
progress – I will look more closely at the local structures that fuel and
inform debate in this case. As France prepares this territory for
decolonisation and begins transferring powers and compétances, the case at
Cap Bocage provides a clue as to how more traditional French administrative
structures may have to be adapted to deal with the new and militant political
landscape of independence.
Patrick Matbob
is a lecturer in journalism in the Communication Arts Department, Divine Word
University, PNG
The state of investigative journalism
and the growing impact of new media in Papua New Guinea
Journalists
in PNG have done investigative journalism as much as time and resources have
allowed them to. Media organisations generally cannot afford to employ full
time investigative journalists or to release their top reporters from their
daily news rounds to investigate stories full time. In fact, the PNG mainstream
media have always been chronically understaffed and reporters have been too
busy providing daily news coverage. This paper looks at some of the main issues
affecting investigative journalism in PNG today. These include the growing
incapacity of the state agencies to follow up and take action after the media
have revealed some illegal activity or wrong doing. Consequently, the state’s
incapacity also affects the media as they cannot easily obtain information and
data they need when investigating stories. Weak state agencies also mean that
the safety and well being of journalists; media organisations and
whistleblowers are not guaranteed when they are speaking out. However, with the
advancement of the new media in PNG, citizen journalism is seen to be growing
amongst internet users who are mostly young, well educated and concerned about
the future of their country. The new media’s ability to disseminate information
instantaneously is having some impact on public opinion and causing PNG leaders
to be wary of their behaviour and actions.
John
Miller is one of New Zealand’s leading
photojournalists and has over the years gained an impressive reputation as a
chronicler of social and political dissent and national socio-cultural
issues. He was a 2003 recipient of a NZ Media
Peace Award. Dr Geraldene Peters, a
senior lecturer in communication studies with AUT University’s School of
Communication Studies, has collaborated with John on this project. The project
was also assisted by a Pacific Media Centre grant.
Seeing the wood for the trees: media coverage of the 1970s Ngatihine
Forestry Block - a case study
In this presentation, documentary
photographer John Miller (Ngapuhi) will speak to the prototype version of an
interactive audio-visual report or timeline on display in the conference centre
atrium. Focusing on disputes around the
development of the 5000-plus ha Ngatihine forestry block in mid-Northland, the
report represents a case study of how land alienation issues were represented
in the media during the 1970s. In a nutshell, the Ngatihine dispute typified a
confrontation between the prevailing Pakeha ethos of the time that unused Māori
lands should be developed as efficiently as possible, and the countervailing
belief of Tangata Whenua that they
should determine the use put to the land without government or corporate
coercion. The audiovisual report is from
the eyes of a participant and an observer, documenting Miller’s work as a
photographer and land rights activist. His photographs are contextualised with
material from an extensive collection of Maori Land Court documents, minutes of
meetings, press releases, newspaper clippings and telephone call logs
(1977-82). Miller’s phone logs represent the effort it took to pitch this issue
to various sectors of the media. Media
response is of particular interest as it involved an issue peripheral to the
concerns of mainstream media in New Zealand during that time. It can be argued
that those land alienation issues in the 1970s that received considerable
mainstream coverage (Māori Land March, Takaparawhau/Bastion Point and the
Raglan Golf Course dispute) did so because of their spectacular charge, whereas
the smaller issues were largely left to community and alternative media
outlets. In the mid-1970s there were no dedicated Māori news outlets as
there are today - a situation that exemplifies Arlene Morgan’s “blind spot” phenomenon in minority issues
reporting. (Pacific Journalism Review, 2009).
Stephen Olsen has been
working in the NGO sector and is currently a strategic adviser to Community
Housing Aotearoa.
When 'community journalism' hits the wall in the world
of NGOs
Faint signs of
journalism are subsumed in the world of NGOs under the rubric of
'communications'. In this presentation a snapshot and helicopter view will be
presented of the state of 'community journalism' as practised across a
cross-section of NGOs in New Zealand, primarily Wellington based though not
exclusively and primarily in the social services - including the NZ Federation
of Voluntary Welfare Organisations, NZ Council of Social Services, NZ Council
of Christian Social Services, Aotearoa NZ Association of Social Workers,
Healthcare Aotearoa and Community Housing Aotearoa.The snapshot will include a
critique of an NGO grouping called ComVoices that ostensibly provides a means
for a grouping of NGOs to enter into the 'media fray' by way of joint media
releases and common positions. This is a grouping that is, to all intents and
purposes, controlled by a private sector public relations company - which begs
the question: At what point are autonomous journalism skills being developed
within, for and by full-time members of the NGO community in New Zealand? The presentation will also incorporate
commentary on the social justice imperative of these NGOs and using examples of
either specific public campaigns that have been entered into in recent years or
the interface with both media and government processes explore "the
wall" that NGOs hit when pushing for quality reportage as a precursor to
or element of policy change.
Professor Mark Pearson, head of
journalism, Bond University, Gold Coast, Qld, Australia
Investigating mental illness and open justice –
navigating the legislative and policy frameworks
This paper
surveys the array of publication restrictions on the reporting of mental health
tribunal proceedings and, by implication, crimes committed by mental health
patients across the 10 Australian and New Zealand jurisdictions. It assesses
the delicate balance between the privacy of the patient and the right of the
public to be informed about serious crimes and considers the difficulties of
navigating the non-publication and confidentiality elements of mental health,
prisons and freedom of information laws. It examines some of the key policy
considerations and the implications for reporters conducting investigative
research in the field. Seed funding for the project has been provided by the
Mindframe National Media Initiative in Australia.
Dr B. K. Ravi is associate
professor in the Department of Communication, Bangalore University, Karnataka,
India.
Techno-media amplifications of investigative
journalism
Media as a message carrier is observed as a part of journalistic
activity which includes Investigative Journalism as an accepted chore. The calibre of investigative journalism in
India is brought out in the paper. The impact of technology on the media practices,
including the changing design of print and the new
wave in radio broadcasting are recognised. Television and its
proliferation due to technological ramifications are explained. The paper
probes the ethics of investigative journalism, the good and the bad, the legal position on “stings”
in India, the pressures on investigative reporting, the success stories amid
controversies are brought out in the study. The
advanced electronic way of investigative reporting in the pretext of cleansing
the society is viewed critically. The new dimensions of citizen journalism and
its contribution are also discussed. The ethics in the emerging trends of the
new genres of TV production are questioned.
Finally the relevance of investigative journalism to social responsibility
is examined to draw inferences and conclusion.
Dr David Robie is director
of the Pacific Media Centre, AUT University. This is an adaptation of a paper
presented on environmental journalism at the recent Oceans, Islands and Skies:
Oceania Conference on Creativity and Climate Change at the University of the
South Pacific in Fiji.
Environmental journalism in Oceania: Investigative icons from nuclear
refugees to climate change migrants
The fate of 2700 islanders from
the Carteret Islands off the north-eastern coast of Bougainville has become an
icon for the future of many communities on low-lying small states globally and
especially in the Pacific – the so-called ‘climate change refugees’ or
‘environmental migrants’. They are a controversial casualty of the failure of
developed nations to deal decisively with the global warming crisis. Iconic
images of islanders leaving their ancestral homeland and relocating also
resonates with earlier environmental parallels in the Pacific such as the
evacuation of Rongelapese and other Marshall islanders in the wake of nuclear
testing and the forced shift of Banaban islanders to Rabi in the Fiji Islands
because of phosphate mining. Despite an inspired and colourful campaign by
Pacific Island delegates at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in
Copenhagen in December 2009, global geopolitics stifled the outcome to the
disadvantage of Oceania. This paper examines investigative and communication
strategies in reporting climate change in both mainstream and alternative
public spheres.
Thakur Ranjit Singh
is a former publisher of the Fiji
Sun, political columnist and Master of
Communication Studies student at AUT University, Auckland
Coup
culture in Fiji: An analysis 1987 to 2006 from an investigative journalism
perspective
Since
attaining independence from Great Britain in 1970, Fiji enjoyed a period of “multiracial
peace” for 17 years under Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara and this gave this country the
utopian slogan: “Fiji-the way the world should be.” But was this really so? Beneath
the notion of peace, democracy and racial unity was a racial volcano that
erupted when democracy took another turn. Subsequent to the loss of the chiefly-led
Alliance party in the 1987 election, a third-ranking military officer, Sitiveni
Rabuka staged a coup to topple a Fijian-led but Indian-dominated government. He
later handed the controls back to the indigenous Fijians. Since then, Fiji has
never really tasted any long lasting political peace and stability. Despite two
constitutions and some five elections since the first coup, the Western concept
of stable democracy has eluded Fiji. It had some four coups since 1987 and this
notoriety relegated it to a rogue state status, cursed with a “coup culture” or
as some academics and journalists have described it as “coup coup land”. This
paper weaves through some pertinent issues relating to the prevalence of a coup
culture in Fiji, and views them through an investigative journalism
perspective. It argues for a greater degree of investigative journalism and better
journalism training in Fiji as a contribution to a more stable democracy.
Shailendra Singh is divisional head of journalism at the University
of the South Pacific
Investigative
journalism in Fiji: Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats and some case
studies
Fiji does not
have a strong history or culture of investigative journalism, although
there are some fine examples of undercover work, exposés and in-depth research
carried out by Fijian journalists to bring to light some major scandals
involving the rich and powerful. Given the high level of public and
private sector corruption in Fiji, and its negative impact on development,
there is a need for more investigative journalism in the country. But a
lack of training, depth and experience in newsrooms and a shortage of
journalistic expertise specialist fields are a hindrance. Furthermore, most
media companies prefer the economical option of running cheaply produced and
packaged news pieces rather divert precious resources towards chasing
investigative stories that might not yield any results. Another setback is that
the Bainimarama government, which seized power in a coup in 2006, recently
decreed punitive media laws that may also discourage investigative journalism.
In the face of these challenges there are some opportunities. New media
technology can be used to overcome censorship barriers. While journalists in
Fiji lack specialist qualifications in finance, economics and business, they
can work collaboratively with civil society organisations and
professional bodies and use the expertise available in these
organisations. Such pooling of expertise can help overcome to skills shortages
in the news media. Furthermore, case studies of investigative journalism in
Fiji show that proper support, mentoring and and guidance from senior newsroom
leaders, as well as journalistic zeal, can make up for lack of training
and experience.
Jon Stephenson is
an Auckland-based investigative journalist who has focused since the terrorist
attacks of 11 September 2001 on issues and events associated with the so-called
“war on terrorism”.
How the war was spun:
the media, the New Zealand Defence Force, and Afghanistan
This paper takes as its starting point
the definition of journalism posited by the noted Israeli reporter Amira Hass –
“Our job is to monitor power, and the centers of power”. The writer will argue
that, if this “Fourth Estate” definition is accepted, there can be few more
important areas of journalism than reporting on conflict, where lives –
sometimes thousands, even tens of thousands, of lives – and the fate of nations
are at stake. Media coverage of New Zealand’s involvement in the 2001–
Afghanistan conflict will be discussed, with particular emphasis on New Zealand
Defence Force (NZDF) activities. The writer will argue that, with few
exceptions, reporting on what is now this country’s longest war has been
seriously deficient. Reasons for the woeful coverage of our commitment to what
is arguably the world’s most important conflict will be outlined and analysed,
with specific reference to the writer’s on-the-ground experience in Afghanistan
and interactions with the NZDF. Arguing that the NZDF has essentially received
a “free pass” from media since the Afghanistan war began, the writer will look
at the costs of failing to monitor our nation’s involvement in what many regard
as an illegal, immoral, and intractable conflict. The paper will conclude with
suggestions for improving New Zealand media coverage of the Afghanistan war.
UNESCO NZ-supported
Pacific media panel: Koroi Hawkins,
chief-of-staff of Television One Solomon Islands and a member of the Pacific
Freedom Forum and Kalafi Moala, CEO
and publisher of Taimi Media Network, vice-president of the Pasifika Media
Association and a member of the Tongan Media Council.
Conference peer-review convenor