Back Issues
Abstracts of Vol 10 (2), September 2004
Theme:
EDITORIAL:
Corporate media news – pp 5-7
Wayne Hope
Commentaries
1. Media ownership policies: pressure for change and implications – pp 8-19, Steven Barnett
2. Welcome to Havana, Mr Corleone: issues of media ownership and control – pp 20-31, Robert W. McChesney
Case Studies
3. City Voice, an alternative to the corporate model – pp 32-45 Simon Collins and Jeremy Rose
4. Media ownership in Oceania: three case studies in Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Tonga – pp 47-68, Shailendra Singh, Kevin Pamba and Kalafi Moala
Abstract: The news media in Oceania are small but remarkably diverse and vigorous. Ownership ranges from large transnational corporations and robust local media companies, as in Fiji and Papua New Guinea, to local entrepreneurial and Government media interests, such as in Tonga and smaller South Pacific nations. News Corporation, through its South Pacific subsidiaries, owns the two largest English-language dailies, The Fiji Times and the PNG Post-Courier, while the Malaysian timber company Rimbunan Hijau is a major media investor in Papua New Guinea (The National) as well as having interests in New Zealand and South-East Asia. Australia’s Channel Nine owns PNG’s national TV broadcaster, EMTV, and New Zealand has played an important role in the development of Fiji Television. All three countries have had constitutional freedom of expression guarantees under assault in recent years and the role of the media in good governance has been an emerging theme. Three authors, prominent journalists (and, in the case of two, now also media educators), analyse the trends in their countries.
5. The political cartoonist's right to freedom of expression – pp 71-80, Malcolm Evans
Abstract: On 11 August 2003, after producing some 1600 cartoons, Malcolm Evans was controversially dismissed from his position as editorial cartoonist at The New Zealand Herald because he had refused to accept that the editor had the right to dictate the subjects he might address. This invited commentary for Pacific Journalism Review is published to further debate. Evans argues: ‘While I have always respected the editor’s right to reject a cartoon, he can never have the right to direct it – an understanding that was mutually agreed as a condition of my hire when I took the Herald job six years earlier. Rejection is an editor’s prerogative – direction is censorship. Although I have moved on personally as a professional cartoonist, I am concerned that the precedent set has the potential to affect the work of others.’
Articles
6. Media ownership in the Pacific: inherited colonial commercial model but remarkably diverse – pp 82-110, Philip Cass
Abstract: This article describes the historic conditions governing newspaper and media ownership in the Pacific. It argues that historically there have been three kinds of media in the Pacific: Mission or church-owned or directed, governmen- owned or directed and commercial. The missions and churches were responsible for the first newspapers aimed exclusively at indigenous populations and in Papua New Guinea have continued to play a key role in the media. The commercial press could only exist when there was a sufficient population to support it and so it tended to appear in those countries with the largest expatriate populations first. The continued dominance of the commercial media by Western companies in the largest islands has been largely due to the cost of producing these commodities. Locally-owned commercial media have been on a much smaller scale, but they have nonetheless had an impact. The national or government-owned or directed media were generally inherited from the departing metropolitan powers and represent a much diluted version of the public service model. While the article argues that the dominance of the commercial press in such markets as PNG, Fiji and New Caledonia by Murdoch and Dassault-Hersant is probably commercially inevitable, it also argues that the media scene in the Pacific is actually remarkably diverse.
Appendices
7. Better journalism or better profits?: A key convergence issue in
an age of concentrated ownership – pp 111-129
Stephen Quinn
Abstract: Convergence has become an accepted form of journalism at media organisations around the world. These organisations are adopting a range of business models to find ways to pay for these innovations. The main drivers behind this radical change in media production are consumers’ changing media habits, cheaper digital technology, and the disruptive forces that these two drivers generate. Technology also makes possible new forms of storytelling, which potentially allows journalists the chance to do better journalism through convergence. This article focuses on the key issue of whether editorial managers and journalists are embracing convergence to save money, or to do better journalism. It begins by defining convergence (while accepting the wide variety of definitions) and describing two main models of implementation. It then considers the factors that lead to easy introduction of convergence followed by the factors that hinder its introduction. Examples are provided of converged media around the world. This article ends with a warning about the dangers for democracy of misapplied convergence in an era of increasing concentration of ownership.
8. Dumbing down democracy: trends in internet regulation,
surveillance and control in Asia – pp 130-150
James Gomez
Abstract: This article argues that the trends in state regulation, surveillance and control of the internet in Asia stand to effectively reduce political expression. A variety of international media watch and human rights organisations have noted that since 11 September 2001, a slew of anti-terrorism laws have been adopted in Asia which place greater restrictions on the internet. Laws against online pornography, gambling, hate speech and spam have been revised to cover online political content and mobilisation. Such measures limit and reduce the space cyberactivists have to push the democratic agenda online. These cybersecurity measures, introduced as part of the ‘war against terrorism’, represent an extension of already draconian regulations in South-East Asian countries.
9. Ross Stevens and Uni Tavur: A Kiwi legacy among wantoks – pp 153-170, David Robie
Abstract: A pilot training project for Papua New Guinean journalists in New Zealand in 1974 ended as a failure. This led to a five-year New Zealand Government aid scheme to establish the South Pacific’s first journalism school at the national University of Papua New Guinea in 1975. New Zealand journalist and broadcaster Ross Stevens was the founding lecturer and his legacy included Uni Tavur, the region’s first independent newspaper produced by student journalists under an innovative ownership and editing model. The UPNG programme educated a generation of journalists in Papua New Guinea and today PNG journalists have the highest level of tertiary education and training in the Pacific. The experiment also had a profound impact on the traditions of free speech and journalism training for the rest of the Pacific region. This article examines the contribution made by the late Stevens and how the country’s political pressures have impacted on his legacy.
Research Report
Still young and female: A (modest) survey of New Zealand journalists – pp 173-196, Geoff Lealand
Abstract: Modelled on earlier national surveys of 1987 and 1994, this 2003 survey polled New Zealand journalists on their educational background, formal training, experiences on the job and professional development. Even though the returns (297) were fewer than expected, those participating provided useful insights into the profession. Participants responded to questions about changing aspects of journalism (such as the impact of the internet, and the consequences of commercial pressures on newsgathering), which are compared with American journalists responding to the same questions. They also responded to questions about use of te reo language and coverage of Maori news and issues. Despite the constraints of the sample size, there is ample evidence in this survey to show young New Zealand journalists take their profession seriously, and demonstrate a willingness to address the imperfections and shortcomings of the Fourth Estate.
