Pacific Journalism Review : Te Koakoa

EDITORIAL: He waka eke noa: 'In a time of crisis, we're all in this together'

Philip Cass — 2023-07-31

Our roots are firmly based in the Wansolwara—the Pacific—but this edition truly reflects our global range of interests, with contributions from authors in Indonesia, Malaysia, Fiji, Hawai’i, Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. We are delighted to bring you a range of global perspectives on the media and journalism and to connect scholars and practitioners, covering everything from conspiracy theories and corruption to newsroom practice, employment, training and much more in between. Although we are separated geographically we all share common interests and common concerns. As this edition of Pacific Journalism Review, once again produced under the auspices of the Asia Pacific Media Network, goes out, the world continues to face threats from war, climate change, disease and the resurgence of rightwing regimes.

Intersections of media influence: Radical conspiracist ‘alt-media’ narratives and the climate crisis in Aotearoa

Byron Clark — 2023-07-31

This article explores a neglected, but important aspect of the misinformation challenge posed by some alternative media platforms in Aotearoa: namely, the spread of denialist or denialist-adjacent discourse on climate change, featuring messaging which aligns with the broad themes of medical misinformation and anti-vaccination propaganda seen during the COVID-19 pandemic. As will demonstrated through a case study of Aotearoa New Zealand’s 2021 ‘Groundswell’ protests, locally-based influencers and ‘alt-media’ platforms have disseminated conspiracist, unscientific narratives on both COVID and global warming to audiences likely to be receptive to these associations. The authors identify some of the tropes and narratives circulated by influencers during the demonstrations as bearing the fingerprints of radical right-wing discourse originating in the USA. The case is made that there is a high degree of cross-pollination of ideas at play within the phenomenon of anti-authority, conspiracist protest movements in Aotearoa, of which ‘Groundswell’ was an instructive example (uniting rural protesters with anti-vaccine demagogues); the discourse is infused with emotionally potent falsehoods and American-style ‘culture wars’ language. While these narratives remain relatively fringe, their toxic messaging may become more influential as more people turn to ‘alt-media’ sources for news. Indeed, the extent to which some of the influencers and language from this movement are edging closer to the outer boundaries of mainstream media and politics may represent an early warning sign for the future trajectory of this phenomenon. Finally, the authors tentatively pose some recommendations for professional media engagement with the growth of 'content that misrepresents critical social challenges.

Media, the courts, and terrorism: Lessons from the Christchurch mosque attacks

Gavin Ellis — 2023-07-31

Commentary: Court proceedings against the alleged perpretrator of the Christchurch mosque attacks in 2019 led to what may be ground-breaking cooperation between the judicial system and the media to balance fair trial rights and a determination to (a) avoid retraumatisation and (b) prevent the court being used as a platform for white supremacist propaganda. The case, and the willingness of media to honour these imperatives, demonstrates the centrality of publicity in acts of terrorism known as ‘propaganda of the deed’. The research outlined in this article suggests that institutional cooperation can avoid ‘giving oxygen’ to perpetrators and their causes without sacrificing journalistic integrity or a duty to bear witness in the interests of open justice. A change of plea resulted in proceedings being limited to a sentencing hearing. A lengthy trial may have tested the robustness of the measures put in place but, nonetheless, the planning processes employed in New Zealand lead to a conclusion that they could provide a basis for similar cooperation in other judicial jurisdictions, such as Australia.

Media ethics in the Pacific: Ethical challenges in the Marshall Islands

Ann Auman — 2023-07-31

Media ethics in the Pacific Islands varies considerably among nations in practice, as shown in scholarship. This case study of 16 Marshall Islands journalists aims to provide evidence of ethical decision-making in practice in one Pacific Island nation, and demonstrate the intersection of imported journalism values and local culture. It builds on survey work of Pacific Island journalists’ roles by Singh and Hanusch (2021), the Worlds of Journalism study by Hanitzsch et al. (2019) and works by Robie (2004, 2014 and 2019). Responses from 16 journalists in the Republic of the Marshall Islands who made ethical decisions during a journalism workshop facilitated by the newly established Pacific Media Institute at the College of Marshall Islands in June 2022 were analysed. First, the participants identified ethical conflicts in carrying out their professional duties. Next, they applied standard ethics codes from democracies (absolutism), to local scenarios. Discussion centered on how to address the core value of independence because of dominance of the church and the strongly influential chiefly system in RMI. Personal relationships were also factored in their ethical decision-making because the journalists considered the perspectives of all stakeholders in reporting on Marshallese culture and society. They were keenly aware of the consequences of their reporting on their community. They offered unique, locally derived solutions from different perspectives. They often exhibited an ‘ethics of care', prioritising humanity and sometimes societal harmony.

Pacific media freedom since the pandemic

Amanda H A Watson — 2023-07-31

Commentary: This article discusses the status of media freedom in the Pacific region and the impact of the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. It primarily draws on informed comments made by experienced Pacific journalists of an online discussion in December 2021. Further, it updates the situation in several Pacific countries, based on reflections made by the same journalists in March 2023. There have been two major developments in 2023: the newly elected government in Fiji has repealed the country’s controversial media law while the government of Papua New Guinea considers introducing a media law. The article highlights the importance of ongoing vigilance with regard to media freedom in Pacific Island countries.

It also considers the impact of media freedom in Pacific Island countries during the unprecedented health crisis.

Training journalists in New Zealand: The industry view of training 1979-2002

Jeremy Rees — 2023-07-31

Commentary: What skills should student journalists and then working journalists be taught? This paper is an analysis of two decades of reports by editors in the New Zealand media on what they wanted to see. The reports were part of the annual Commonwealth Press Union review of the year. They show a focus by editors on the practical, craft skills of journalism, even as academics and teachers were questioning what was best. The reports cover the years 1979-2002. Many of the same issues then are still being faced; how do you ensure training is up to standard, what do young journalists need to know, how to deliver training to journalists during their careers, and how to ensure that a diverse range of people enters the industry? These questions remain today.

Failure of political governance in Fiji: Dysfunctional policy and the media

Sanjay Ramesh — 2023-07-31

Failure of political governance in Fiji is a common place where lack of democratic bargaining, political transparency, and accountability has led to political dysfunction and often political strife in the Pacific Island countries such as Fiji due to endless coups and lack of democratic accountability including suppression of the media and critical journalism. Democratic deficit theory highlights that so-called democratic governments such as Fiji fall short of fulfilling the principles of democracy in their practices and operation because of military coups, regime formation based on decrees and ethnic policies and controls on media based on coup traps where coup masters map the future state of the country entirely on ideologically engineered and institutionally supported political infrastructures.

Social media and democracy: The Fiji 2022 National Election

Jope Tarai — 2023-07-31

Since the 2014 Fiji General Election, social media political campaigning has continued to be a consistent feature in the country’s politics. This was evident in the 2022 National Election with many more political parties engaging in creative and innovative ways to campaign and engage voters. Since the 2018 elections, there have been a number of developments that led to the formation of new parties and declining popularity of the ruling FijiFirst party. This has provided a new context for social media political campaigning. Building on reviewed work around social media political campaigning from the 2014 and 2018 national elections, this article examines social media use in the 2022 General Election. It discusses some of the emergent trends and patterns of campaigning that are likely to prevail in social media use and Fiji elections.

Government loudspeakers: How Indonesian media amplifies the state's narrative towards the Free West Papua movement

Justito Adiprasetio — 2023-07-31

In early 2021, the Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Politics, Law and Security, Mahfud MD, made a statement that all armed actions in West Papua carried out by individuals or groups with the aim of liberating themselves are ‘acts of terrorism’. This was the moment when the Indonesian government formally labelled the Free West Papua Movement as ‘terrorist suspects’ and ‘terrorist organisations’. Indonesian online media responded by providing extensive coverage of Mahfud MD’s statement and the excesses after this statement. Indonesian online media tend to use the term ‘terrorist’ in their reporting to label ‘separatist’ West Papua movements, those seeking independence or self-determination. The term ‘terrorist’ replaces Armed Criminal Group—Kelompok Kriminal Bersenjata (KKB). This study shows how six Indonesian mass media organisations frame cases of labelling terrorists against West Papuan pro-independence groups. This study, using quantitative framing analysis, examines framing conducted by six national online media which are dominant in Indonesia and have the most audience share: Okezone, Detik, Kompas.com, Tribunnews, CNN Indonesia and Tirto. This study also elaborates the experiences and perceptions of journalists who write on the issue of West Papua, particularly in terms of labelling West Papuan ‘separatist’ groups as ‘terrorists’ by the government and how the media frames West Papua. The findings of this study show that the media tend to only be a ‘loudspeaker’ for the government, use all discourses issued by the government, and even participate in using the term terrorist to replace the KKB.

Public actors in new spaces: A case study of digital Malaysia in transnational public deliberation

Sara Chinnasamy — 2023-07-31

This article examines the role of new transnational public actors and their influence on public deliberation processes in Malaysia. Malaysia is one of the world’s most social media-connected countries where online platforms greatly influence the Malaysian public sphere. Our study suggests considering digital news portals as specific ‘public actors’ since they enable new political debates in an otherwise fragile national public sphere. While national media are controlled by the state, digital news portals offer not only an alternative news perspective but are a stage for a diversity of voices. Furthermore, they link the Malaysian civic discourse to transnational political debates, such as human rights and ethnic interests. Results from eight in-depth semi-structured interviews with news journalists and editors of traditional media and independent digital news portals provide insights into their perceptions concerning the implications of digital news portals for new aspects of public discourse in Malaysia.

Anti-vaccination conspiracy theories: Pacific Islands communities and the media

Philip Cass — 2023-07-31

This article is intended to provide an overview of the role of anti-vaccination conspiracy theories in Pacific Islands communities in New Zealand, setting it within the broader context of the Pacific and among Pasifika communities in Australia during the first years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of their key roles in Island communities and communicating information about COVID-19, it focuses on the role of churches, drawing a contrast between evangelical/Pentecostal and mainstream religious bodies. Research findings suggest that much of the language used to oppose vaccination derived ultimately from the United States and that an inclination towards End Times eschatology was likely to have been key to the spread of conspiracy theories. However, the article also suggests that in spite of the presence of conspiracy theories and the media’s concentration on the controversial behaviour of Bishop Brian Tamaki, most mainstream Pacific churches were highly alert to the reality of the virus and supportive of their communities.

Benefits of the project model capstone: Key experience themes for journalism students

Kathryn Shine — 2023-07-31

Capstone units are culminating experiences typically offered in the final semester of a tertiary degree. Capstones are common across higher education, and are increasingly being offered in university journalism programs. However, there is no consensus about the most effective capstone for journalism. At least three models have been identified: the project, the newsroom simulation and the internship. While traditionally popular, the newsroom simulation and internship models have certain limitations, some of which have become more pronounced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journalism educators see merit in the project model but it is not widely used. To date, there has been a lack of research about how journalism students respond to the various capstone options. The study presented here makes a contribution to this field by describing graduating students’ feedback about a new project model capstone unit offered through an Australian journalism undergraduate program. It describes some of the key themes to emerge from survey responses from three cohorts of graduating students. The project experience was found to enhance both tradecraft and transferable ‘life skills’, and helped many students feel more prepared to enter the workforce. The project shows significant promise as a valid alternative capstone experience for journalism students.

SPECIAL REPORT: The world according to China: Capturing and analysing the global media influence strategies of a superpower

Johan Lidberg — 2023-07-31

This project captured and analysed Chinese strategies seeking to influence global media in its coverage of China. While there is ample literature defining some of these strategies, there is a lack of empirical data tracking the strategies in practice. The project addressed this by surveying officials from journalism unions in 87 countries on their perceptions of Chinese influence on the media in their country. The surveys were complemented by focus groups with senior journalists and editors in six countries. The findings illustrated how China’s global media outreach policies have grown increasingly sophisticated and how the country utilises a multi-pronged approach to influence global media. Dukalskis’ (2017) authoritarian public sphere (APS) framework was used to conceptualise the studies and to analyse the findings. It is argued that China is attempting to offer its APS as an alternative to the traditional Habermasian (1989) public sphere.

FRONTLINE: ‘Voice of the voiceless’: The Pacific Media Centre as a case study of academic and research advocacy and activism

David Robie — 2023-07-31

For more than a decade, the pioneering Pacific Media Centre at Aotearoa’s Auckland University of Technology led the way in journalism research and publication, publishing the globally ranked peer-reviewed journal Pacific Journalism Review, monographs, and a series of media and social justice books and documentaries. Perhaps even more important was the centre’s role in nurturing young and challenging Asia-Pacific student journalists and communicators seeking social change and providing them with the opportunity, support, and encouragement to enable them to become confident changemakers and community advocates. This article is a case study of a style of academic advocacy and activism that was characterised by its own multiethnic stakeholders’ advisory board as ‘the voice of the voiceless’. A feature was the ‘talanoa journalism’ model (Robie, 2014), focused more on grassroots people and community resilience, especially faced with the global COVID-19 pandemic and climate crisis. The inspired initiative ended with a change of management to a more neoliberal approach to education at the university with scant appreciation for the vision.

Original DOI as first published in the Okinawan Journal of Island Studies (Japan):
https://doi.org/10.24564/0002019736

PHOTOESSAY: Refugee migration: Turning the lens on middle Australia.

Kasun Ubayasiri — 2023-07-31

This non-traditional research paper explores the role of photojournalism and documentary photography in shifting the power dynamic inherent in photographing refugee migrants in Australia—the refugee as an object of photographic scrutiny. It draws on visual politics literature which argues refugees have been subjected to a particular ‘gaze’, where their migration narratives are mediated, mediatised, dissected and weaponised against them in the name of journalistic public accountability in and for the Global North. This photo-documentary praxis project subverts this ‘gaze’ of the Global North and decolonises the power dynamics of the visual politics of refugee migration by turning the lens on middle Australia. Instead of questioning refugees, this project asks what is our moral responsibility to support them? These images are drawn from three years of photographically documenting the Meanjin (Brisbane) community that rallied around and eventually triggered the release of about 120 medevaced refugee men locked up in an urban motel in Brisbane for more than a year in 2020-21. In these images taken outside the detention centre, community members go ‘on the record’ to articulate their motivations for taking a stand—an enduring Fourth Estate record of their social and political stance as active participants within the mediated democratic process of holding power accountable in the refugee migration space. The refugees central to this project have now been released into the community but as they continue to languish in an immigration purgatory, the project is ongoing and continues to manifest through an activist journalism framework, drawing on human rights-based photojournalism practice.

OBITUARY: Shirley Shackleton: A Timor-Leste hero's quest for truth

Peter Cronau — 2023-07-31

Shirley Shackleton said that after her husband Greg was killed in Timor-Leste in October 1975, for seven weeks she became a campaigner for justice for the journalists murdered in Balibo, then after Indonesia invaded in December 1975 she became a campaigner for justice for all the East Timorese too. Shackleton saw the Australian government treatment of the killings as a litmus test of Australian East Timor policy. She continued to pressure the government for a Federal Police investigation of those responsible for the deaths, culminating with Australian politicians and diplomats being put in the dock and scrutinised under oath in a Coronial Inquiry in 2007.

OBITUARY: Jill Jolliffe: Running for her life

Fiona Gruber — 2023-07-31

Journalist and author Jill Jolliffe’s work took her around the world, including 16 years in Portugal, reporting on corruption and injustices, including the killing of five Australian, British and New Zealand journalists at Balibo on the eve of the Indonesian invasion of Timor-Leste in 1975. Her commitment to East Timorese independence endured over decades. Paying tribute, Timorese leader Xanana Gusmão, said: ‘Jill was an activist, a rebel and a fighter . . . She is one of us.’

OBITUARY: Tui Rererangi Walsh O’Sullivan: The ‘flying bird in the sky’

Dominic O'Sullivan — 2023-07-31

In 1977, Tui O’Sullivan (Te Rarawa) became the first woman and the first Māori appointed to a permanent position at what was then the Auckland Technical Institute (it became Auckland University of Technology in 2000). At AUT, she developed the first Women on Campus group. She helped establish the newspaper Password, a publication introducing new English speakers to New Zealand society and culture. She taught courses on the Treaty of Waitangi when the treaty was a subversive idea. She contributed to the change in social and political thought that has brought the treaty—that her tupuna signed—to greater public influence. The justice it promises was a major theme in Tui’s working life. She was also a founding member of the Pacific Media Centre advisory board and advocate for Pacific Journalism Review from 2007 until she retired in 2018.

REVIEW: SAS exposé a masterclass in investigative journalism

Johan Lidberg — 2023-07-31

Crossing The Line: The inside story of murder, lies and a fallen hero, by Nick McKenzie. Sydney: Hachette Australia. 2023. 454 pages. ISBN 9780733650437

I WILL forever remember choking on my morning coffee when I read The Age on 8 June 2018. Nick McKenzie and Chris Master’s article detailing the alleged war crimes in Afghanistan of a highly decorated Australian war hero was confronting, to say the least. ‘This is crazy brave,’ I remember thinking. ‘I really hope they’ve done their homework.’

REVIEW: Learning from Oceania peace activists

Heather Devere — 2023-07-31

Peace Action: Struggles for a decolonised and demilitarised Oceania and East Asia, edited by Valerie Morse. Te Whanganui-A-Tara (Wellington): Left of the Equator Press, 2022, 178 pages. ISBN 9780473634452.

THE AIMS of Peace Action as stated by the editor, Valerie Morse, are ‘to make visible interconnections between social struggles separated by the vast expanse of Te Moana Nui-A-Kiwi [the Pacific Ocean] … to inspire, to enrage and to educate, but most of all, to motivate people to action’ (p. 11). It is an opportunity to learn from the activists involved in these struggles.

REVIEW: Radio Australia speaking to the world

Rowan Callick — 2023-07-31

Australia Calling: The ABC Radio Australia Story, by Phil Kafcaloudes, ABC Books, 2022. 224 pages. ISBN: 9780646852430.

RADIO AUSTRALIA was conceived at the beginning of the Second World War out of Canberra’s desire to counter Japanese propaganda in the Pacific. More than 70 years later its rebirth is being driven by a similarly urgent need to counter propaganda, this time from China. Set up within the towering framework of the ABC, Radio Australia was, and remains, an institution with a lively multilingual culture of its own. Sometimes it has thrived and sometimes, especially in recent decades, it has struggled as political priorities and media fashions waxed and waned within the ABC and the wider world.

REVIEW: A fascinating, timely account of ABC ‘soft power’

Jeremy Rees — 2023-07-31

International Broadcasting and Its Contested Role in Australian Statecraft; Middle Power, Smart Power, by Geoff Heriot. Melbourne, VIC: Anthem Press. 2023. 292 pages. ISBN 9781839985041

In May 2023, Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong announced what she called a ‘transformational package of support’ for the Pacific, including money for infrastructure, security and criminal justice. It came amid growing competition with China in the Pacific. included in the package was a promise to ‘leverage’ Australia’s strengths, including broadcasting (and sports links), as part of an Indo-Pacific Broadcasting Strategy, enabling more Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) members to access Australian content. Australian external broadcasting was firmly back in the spotlight.

REVIEW: Exposing problems Muslim immigrants face in NZ

Adam Brown — 2023-07-31

How To Be A Bad Muslim and Other Essays, by Mohamed Hassan. Auckland: Penguin/Random House, 2022. 208 pages. ISBN 9780143776215.

This is a collection of 19 short essays by Mohamed Hassan, an award-winning poet and international journalist. He was born in Cairo, but moved to Auckland, New Zealand, at the age of eight. This personal history underlies much of his writing: his fond memories of Egypt and its collectivist society and extended families, versus his adolescence as a migrant with a clearly identifiable Muslim name in individualist New Zealand. After 9/11, suspicions deepened and Muslims were subject to collective guilt and racial profiling, despite that fact that Muslims around the world condemned the attacks.

REVIEW: Fear and loathing in New Zealand

Chris Wilson — 2023-07-31

Fear: New Zealand’s hostile underworld of extremists, by Byron C Clark. Auckland: HarperCollins, 2023. 328 pages. ISBN 9781775542308.

SINCE the horrific attacks in Christchurch in 2019 there has been substantial and growing attention paid to the extreme right in New Zealand. The pandemic—and the conspiracy theories and anti-government sentiment that developed in response—increased that scrutiny, and the sense of unease or alarm many felt about it.

REVIEW: Peace researcher who was a global trailblazer

Philip Cass — 2023-07-31

Peacemonger: Owen Wilkes: International Peace Researcher, edited by May Bass and Mark Derby. Wellington: Raekaihau Press, 2022. 196 pages. ISBN 978191153869196.

THIS volume of essays provides a committed overview of the life of the extraordinary Aotearoa New Zealand peace campaigner and co-founder of the Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa, Owen Wilkes. Drawing on contributions by those who knew him and co-edited by his long-time partner, May Bass, who was for many years editor of Peacelink, it tells the somewhat complicated -- and ultimately tragic --- story of his life.

REVIEW: Disinformation and the end of democracy?

David Robie — 2023-07-31

How to Stand up to a Dictator: The Fight for our Future, By Maria Ressa. London: Penguin Random House, 2022. 301 pages. ISBN 978073559208.

AS WE marched in our pink tee-shirts in solidarity with the diaspora supporting outgoing Vice-President and opposition leader Leni Robredo in Auckland’s Centennial Park in the lead up to the Philippine presidential election in May 2022, the thought weighed heavily on our minds: ‘Surely, Filipinos wouldn’t elect the son of dictator Ferdinand Marcos just 38 years after his corrupt father had been ousted by People Power.’

REVIEW: Award-winning account of Taranaki taonga’s long journey home

Philip Cass — 2023-07-31

Te Motonui Epa, by Rachel Buchanan. Wellington: Bridget William Books, 2022. 251 pages. ISBN: 9781990046582.

TE MOTONUI EPA is a brilliant account of how five carved panels that were smuggled out of New Zealand were recovered after a long struggle and prompted major reassessments in official attitudes towards preserving Indigenous artefacts. The story begins during the Musket Wars when Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Whātua rivalry led to clashes in which warriors armed with European weapons fought for dominance in the North Island. As war spread to the Taranaki, Te Ātiawa hapū dismantled their most important public buildings and hid significant pieces in the Peropero swamps.