Call for Papers: Media freedom in Melanesia, (26#1, July 2020)
The deadline for the next edition: 26(1) July 2020: February 28, 2020.
The next edition of Pacific Journalism Review after our double special edition last July will be an edition devoted to media freedom in Melanesia in collaboration with the Melanesian Media Freedom Forum. It will be edited by Dr Kasun Ubayasiri and Faith Valencia-Forrester of Griffith University, Brisbane, with Professor David Robie and Dr Philip Cass of PJR.
This special issue on Media Freedom in Melanesia will focus on political and socio-cultural challenges and impediments to a free press in Melanesia. The journal invites presenters at the special Melanesian Media Freedom Forum in Brisbane, Queensland, on 11-12 November 2019, and other interested scholars, to contribute papers. The edition seeks to examine contemporary media in Melanesia within the global understanding of freedom of communication and media as a fundamental human right and a cornerstone of a democratic culture. Within this context, this special issue invites a wide range of theoretical and applied research exploring press freedom in Melanesia, particularly studies that explore culture sensitive solution-based studies that are cognisant of the intersect between contemporary Fourth Estate journalism practice and community-based custom and indigenous knowledge. The journal especially seeks papers developing inclusive and culture-sensitive solutions to contemporary media issues.
Papers can include but are not restricted to:
- The politics of press freedom in Melanesia.
- Intersect between custom and indigenous knowledge in contemporary Fourth Estate practice.
- Gender and identity in Melanesian journalism.
- Human rights journalism in Melanesia.
- Environmental journalism: Reporting climate change and human migration.
- Circumventing censorship and restrictions to free and fair publication
- Legal safeguards to press freedom.
The above list is a guideline and other related topics will also be considered, such as social justice, human rights, environmental and climate change reporting in the Melanesian media. The journal also publishes an unthemed section and other papers related to journalism studies, and journalism education, theory and practice will also be considered by the editors.
The double blind peer-reviewed journal has five main sections: Research articles (6000 words), Commentaries (industry insights, developments and practice (1500-3000 words), Frontline (investigative journalism and reflective journalism-as-research – 6000-7000 words), Forum (up to 800 words) and Reviews (books, documentaries and online developments – 800-1500 words, commissioned).
The APA-based style guide is at: https://ojs.aut.ac.nz/pacific-journalism-review/style-guide
Submissions must be uploaded to the OJS open access website for Pacific Journalism Review on the Tuwhera indigenous research portal at Auckland University of Technology:
https://ojs.aut.ac.nz/pacific-journalism-review/
More information here on on the Melanesian Media Freedom Forum at Griffith University, 11-12 November 2019. Also see the embedded flyer.
Melanesia Media Freedom Forum contact: k.ubayasiri@griffith.edu.au
PJR contact: pjreview@aut.ac.nz
Professor David Robie's pre-conference lecture on October 28.
A two-part special report by Dr Philip Cass on the Melanesian Media Freedom Forum - Part 1 | Part 2
