Back Issues
Abstracts of Vol 11 (1), April 2005
Theme:
THE INDIGENOUS PUBLIC SPHERE
Editorial
Elusive issues of identity
Barry King and Ian Goodwin pp 5-7
Commentaries
Post-colonial options in media conversations
Paul Spoonley pp 8-12
The Maori public sphere
Ian Stuart pp 13-25
The case for Pacific media reform to reflect island communities
Kalafi Moala pp 26-35
Journalism and indigenous public spheres
Michael Meadows pp 36-41
Challenges lie ahead for MTS in the Aotearoa public sphere
Joanna Paul pp 42-46
Literacy and the media in the Fiji Islands
Paul Geraghty pp 48-57
Abstract: In a previous article in this journal (Geraghty 2001), I pointed out that while Fijian and Fiji Hindi are by far the most commonly used languages in everyday interaction in Fiji, the language of the media is almost exclusively English. There are historical reasons for this, but now that colonialism is past, nominally at least, the question arises as to whether it is possible to promote vernacular media that more accurately reflect actual language use, and hence better serve the people of Fiji. In this commentary, I point to the potential problems with vernacular media in Fiji, specifically Fijian, and suggest ways to overcome them.
Articles
Keeping public cyberspace open: Lessons from the Pacific Islands
Marianne Franklin pp 60-89
Abstract: A number of empirical and conceptual lessons can be drawn from a closer look at atypical, non-western uses of the internet. Drawing on a study of two pioneering discussion forums, the Kava Bowl (KB) and the Kamehameha Roundtable (KR), maintained by diasporic Pacific Island communities, this article celebrates the existence of open, accessible cyberspaces in an increasingly privatised internet environment. The day to day operation of the KB/KR fora are argued to demonstrate the limitations of classical ‘public sphere’ thinking. In particular, the way in which power and influence is rendered in these online formations calls for a new conceptualisation of ‘public-ness’. Michel de Certeau’s concept of ‘everyday life’ is argued to provide a fertile link between Pacific Island internet practices and broader internet debates. In conclusion, it is argued that the way in which the ‘public’, the ‘private’, and ‘technology’ are construed in western literatures, leaves non-western internet practices subsumed under ethnocentric and techno-determinist assumptions about the interrelationships between technology, culture and society.
The corporate takeover of the online public sphere: A critical examination, with reference to the New Zealand case
Lincoln Dahlberg pp 90-112
Abstract: Much communications research is in agreement about the failure of the mass media to adequately facilitate a public sphere of open and reflexive debate necessary for strong democratic culture. In contrast, the internet’s decentralised, two-way communication is seen by many commentators to be extending such debate. However, there is some ambivalence among critical theorists as to the future role of the internet in advancing the public sphere. On the one hand, the internet is providing the means for the voicing of positions and identities excluded from the mass media. On the other hand, a number of problems are limiting the extensiveness and effectiveness of this voicing. One of the most significant problems is the corporate colonisation of cyberspace, and subsequent marginalisation of rational-critical communication. It is this problem that I focus on in this article, with reference to examples from what I will refer to as the ‘New Zealand online public sphere’. I show how online corporate portals and media sites are gaining the most attention oriented to public communication, including news, information, and discussion. These sites generally support conservative discourse and consumer practices. The result is a marginalisation online of the very voices marginalised offline, and also of the critical-reflexive form of communication that makes for a strong public sphere. I conclude by noting that corporate colonisation is as yet only partial, and control of attention and meaning is highly contested by multiple ‘alternative’ discursive spaces online.
Engaging sexualities: Lesbian/gay print journalism, community belonging, social space and physical place
Rob Cover pp 113-132
Abstract: This article argues that lesbian/gay print journalism publications are strategically utilised by younger readers to forge a sense of community belonging. It is shown that such publications mediate an important dynamic between self-identity and group or community identity through motifs of belonging, engagement and access. Utilising interviews with younger readers of lesbian/gay journalism, it is argued that such publications are understood by readers as a public ‘social space’, but that a strong desire to engage in lesbian/gay in a local, geographic and physical sense is identified by the readers, suggesting that such publications perform an important but incomplete role in the construction of sexual identity and community belonging.
A ‘heart to heart’ on race relations: TVNZ’s State of the Nation as public sphere discourse
Sean Phelan, Judith Bernanke and Susan Fountaine pp 133-153
Article: This article considers TVNZ’s audience discussion programme, State of the Nation, as a moment of public sphere discourse. The programme’s pre-broadcast branding and deliberate construction of a bicultural television space is examined, while particular attention is given to the hosts’ framing of the discussion and the programme’s treatment of identity. The article concludes that the programme was a questionable public sphere contribution, partly because the structuring of the discussion reinforced the established polarities of the Aotearoa/New Zealand ‘race relations’ debate, over-privileged producer control at the expense of audience participation and was, more generally, indicative of the limits of TVNZ’s post-Charter commitment to public service broadcasting.
Frontline reports
‘Rolling Thunder’: Changing communication and the Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjara public sphere
David I. Tafler pp 155-173
Contested homelands: Darwin’s ‘itinerant problem’
Steve Spencer pp 174-197
Reviews
The Manipulation of Custom: From Uprising to Invervention in the Solomon Islands
By Jon Fraenkel. Reviewed by Michael Field pp 199-201
Mekim Nius: South Pacific media, politics and education
By David Robie. Reviewed by Charles Riddle pp 202-206
The Trial of the Cannibal Dog
By Anne Salmond. Reviewed by Dan Bedggood pp 206-210
Ka Whawhai Tonu Matou: Struggle Without End
By Ranginui Walker. Reviewed by Evan Te Ahu Poata-Smith pp 211-217
Black and White: John Tamihere
By John Tamihere with Helen Bain. Reviewed by Jon Stokes pp 218-219
Long Drive through a Short War: Reporting on the Iraq War
By Peter Wilson
Chain of Command: The Road from Abu Ghraib
By Seymour M. Hersh. Reviewed by David Robie pp 220-224
