Many thanks for your contribution to a very successful conference. Now visit the rebranded Pacific Media Centre website for updates about the proceedings and journal publication, articles about the conference and other information. www.pmc.aut.ac.nz

Conference website can also be fiound on the PMC website HERE

Conference papers and articles can be found HERE

Conference proceedings and journal publication can be found HERE

Kia ora - see you all in Auckland this weekend.

The latest Pacific participants are Koroi Hawkins, chief-of-staff of Television One Solomon Islands, and publisher Kalafi Moala of the Taimi Media Network in Tonga, who are supported by the New Zealand National Commission of UNESCO. The final programme has been posted. Check it out here with the linked poster below. Registrations are still open.

Conference poster can be downloaded here

Practitioners, journalists, academics, researchers and students who work in the creative industries are invited to participate in a Fourth Estate “conversation” at the inaugural Media, Investigative Journalism & Technology Conference 2010.

The conference will be held at AUT University in Auckland, Aotearoa/New Zealand, on December 4 & 5, 2010. This international conference is dedicated to exploring investigative journalism and documentary techniques, methodologies and technologies of critical value to public interest issues and to identify and support journalists, photographers and film makers facing pressures and obstacles.

Pressures faced by investigative journalists include resistance from publishers, editors – due to time and resource constraints – and also post-publication issues such as legal and related to contacts. Investigative journalists risk being isolated where a professional media environment fails to encourage probing Fourth Estate-style reportage.

It is hoped that a legacy of the conference will be the establishment of a collaborative and supportive group dedicated to investigative journalism in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

Academic papers will be peer-reviewed. Papers and presentations (commentaries) from the conference will be considered for publication in a double blind peer-reviewed special edition of the Pacific Journalism Review in May 2011.

South Pacific and diversity investigation case studies are particularly welcome. Also, a broader range of papers on media and democracy are encouraged.

Confirmed keynote speakers include Kunda Dixit, editor of the Nepali Times and a leading Asia-Pacific investigative journalist, and Professor Wendy Bacon, director of the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism, and leading New Zealand investigative journalist and author Nicky Hager. Dixit will be visiting NZ as the PMC's 2010 Asian Journalism Fellow sponsored by the Asian New Zealand Foundation.Another keynote speaker is Barbara Dreaver, Pacific correspondent of TVNZ, who has covered many high profile news stories in the region such as the George Speight attempted coup in 2000 as well as investigating many scams and hushed up political deals. The conference will also feature an exhibition of a collection of photojournalism and peace journalism Frames of War, comprising investigative images of the 10-year Maoist War in Nepal, and excerpts of emerging investigative documentaries such as Jim Marbrook's Cap Bocage about an environmental and mining conflict in New Caledonia. Shailendra Singh of the University of the South Pacific will present a paper about investigating corruption in Fiji, and Patrick Matbob of the Divine Word University will speak about investigative journalism in Papua New Guinea.

A special Masterclass investigative journalism course will be run for younger journalists and postgraduate student journalists involved in investigative journalism courses on the Sunday, convened by Simon Collins of the New Zealand Herald and James Hollings of Massey University. A parallel peace journalism workshop will be convened by Dr Heather Devere of the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at Otago University and Ruhksana Aslam, a journalist and journalism educator from Pakistan.

We look forward to welcoming you to Auckland in December 2010.

Associate Professor David Robie
Conference Chair
Director, Pacific Media Centre, Auckland University of Technology