Review: A PNG media era when development mattered

Abstract

Review of: Press, Politics and People in Papua New Guinea 1950-1975, by Philip Cass. Auckland: Unitec e-Press, 2014, 205pp. ISBN 978-1-927214-09-1

Press, Politics and People should be required reading for people who are concerned with the history and current trajectory of Papua New Guinea. It is also a book with much to offer for university courses in journalism, history and social science methodology. Philip Cass shows in considerable detail how to research and write a detailed study about an important topic by employing a wide range of research methods, including interviews, content analysis of newspapers, analysing academic and popular literature, and engaging in archival searches. Significantly, he does not waste any time ‘interrogating the Other’, but sustains several arguments about the place of the press during a critical moment when major change was in the air for the people of Papua New Guinea.