Abstracts
Monday, December 4: Session 1
Privacy and the media in the digital age
A Legal Perspective
The protection of privacy is being increasingly recognised worldwide by the courts, and media regulators, as a result of what is seen as a more powerful and intrusive media, and the effect of the Internet. A right to privacy may even apply in a public place. What impact does this have on the media in the digital age? New Zealand now has a tort of interference with privacy. The criminal courts are also considering privacy values in issues ranging from suppression orders to release of court information to the public. The Broadcasting Standards Authority has revised its privacy principles. Codes of conduct with regard to the print media also acknowledge privacy. But the protection of privacy has its genesis in the 1890s and not in the digital age. A seminal article by Warren & Brandeis "The Right to Privacy" (1890) was a reaction to what was at that time seen as an over-powerful media. United States jurisprudence evolved to the Prosser & Keeton formulation in the 1960s. New Zealand jurisprudence has relied on this formulation to advance privacy rights. The English courts have taken a similar approach in the much publicised Douglas v Hello! and Naomi Campbell cases. The European courts, as a reaction to an overactive paparazzi, have pushed the bounds of privacy in the Peck and Princess Caroline cases. Over 25 years ago the Australian Law Reform Commission Report "Unfair Publication: Defamation and Privacy" considered reconciling privacy values with the right to information. The Australian High Court has flirted with privacy when Lenah Game Meats wanted to injunct the ABC broadcasting covert filming of its game plant in Tasmania. Privacy values are being pushed in the criminal law. Is the open justice system being eroded with name and evidence suppression? What is the effect of adverse pre-trial publicity (the antithesis of privacy rights) on fair trial rights? Should witnesses have a right to privacy? What is the effect of televising of court appearances? Are privacy values stifling investigative journalism? Finally, has the globalisation of the media and the Internet rendered redundant traditional approaches to defamation, privacy, court reporting, contempt and media ethics? How do we adapt our laws, codes of practice, ethics and procedures to the truly global media in the digital age?
William Akel
Simpson Grierson
The outrage industry and public opinion on criminal justice
Reporting of criminal justice all too frequently tends to manifest itself from what one legal commentator has referred to as 'the outrage industry.' Stereotypically, the outrage tends to be triggered by the media where a horrible crime has been committed and a judicial decision has, for example, excluded important evidence or imposed a lenient sentence. The outrage will be perceived as either complaints about the sentence imposed, or the fact that a criminal has been allowed to go free. Rather than reporting the detail of how the decision or sentence came to be passed the outrage industry focuses on the message that courts are too soft. By reference to a number of actual cases and analysis of published court statistics this paper argues that media perception of "softness" is often incorrect and so far as it diminishes public confidence in the courts, not in the public interest.
Craig Burgess
University of Southern Queensland
Spinning the web: the influence of the internet on the reporting of crime and justice
This paper addresses the question: In what ways has the Internet influenced the reporting of crime and criminal justice? The 'guiding hypothesis' is that certain key journalistic elements are changed, when crime and justice are reported on the Internet. A secondary research question became necessary: How does the Internet report crime? This was answered by compiling a category of crime sites most represented on the Internet. A series of elite interviews was conducted with practising editors and crime journalists, based on loosely-structured open-ended questions. Differences exist between reports in traditional media and the Internet and some areas of difference highlighted were jurisdiction, news values, contempt, defamation, ethical issues and new technology. Preliminary findings of a pilot study reveal instances where elements of traditional crime reporting have been influenced by the advent and nature of the Internet, in particular the traditional news values familiar to every working journalist, sourcing of editorial content and the issue of jurisdiction. The significance of the latter was highlighted by the low level of importance attributed to it by several respondents, despite recent legal landmark decisions involving the Internet.
Joy Cameron-Dow
Bond University
Police/crime reporting is a specialist round needing all a journalist's skills
The paper based on interviews, research and the author's personal experience as a police/crime reporter and former head of Public Affairs for the Australian Federal Police over more than 30 years will examine the unique challenges and role of reporting police/emergency/crime journalism and how it can work and break down. It will particularly examine the at most times unequal relationships between journalists and the official sources where the various emergency services, notably the police, trade on releasing selected information and avoid releasing information if it is unfavourable or inconvenient.It will cover the important aspects of sources both official and unofficial, on and off the record agreements, anonymous sources, ethical and unethically obtained material and the all important overriding considerations of the law including criminal, defamation, subjudice, jurisdictional restrictions, pre-trial publicity and trial by the media.To undertake these stories can challenge even experienced journalists using all their skills and if done properly can fulfil the paramount responsibility of informing the public on critical matters and maintaining the media's role of being an effective fourth estate.
Philip Castle
Queensland University of Technology
Asian news websites: measuring web feature usage (peer reviewed)
Online journalists have an array of web features to use in designing and delivering news on the Web to engage and empower news consumers. But have they fully utilized web features? To address the question, this paper gauges usage of web features through a comparative feature analysis of selected newspaper and television websites in Asia. The results show that they have not taken full advantage of web features. The findings also show that they tend to use more web features on the homepage than on the story page. And services available on the websites remain insufficient. Consequently, online user engagement and empowerment remain severely inadequate. After identifying major factors behind such inadequacy, this paper makes some recommendations for improvement.
Xu Xiaoge
Nanyang Technological University
Online journalism: few New Zealand online newspapers use interactive devices
The immediacy of information dissemination, facilitated by online newspapers, and many interactive features, has enticed large online audiences to access these websites. During major news events - especially breaking news - people access online newspapers, and given the increase in online audiences, web-based newspapers around the world are embracing interactive features to tell stories and involve readers in the news dynamics. This study looks at the interactive features of news websites of New Zealand print newspapers and analyses how news is presented and to what extent the various publications differ in their application of internet and web features in online journalism. Of the 23 daily newspapers, 20 have internet editions with only a handful of newspapers optimising the interactive features available in internet publishing.
Ali Rafeeq
University of Canterbury, Christchurch
Past, present and future: press photography and photojournalism
There has been much discussion about the impact of images whether they be moving or still, discussion have included such topics as the impact; on society, politics, racial and religious groups around the world. Literature suggests that there is a decline in photojournalism being published in mainstream print newspapers, if published at all. Traditionally newspapers and magazines have published photojournalism, it would appear that the main dissemination for photojournalism is changing, but the profession is still getting their work "out there". In order to gain insight into the role photojournalism plays in society and the media, a pilot study was undertaken to assess what news photographers and newspaper photographic decision makers define as photojournalism. The pilot study examined the words of newspaper photographers and either editors or chiefs of staff who are the primary gatekeepers of images used in mainstream print newspapers. Gaining an understanding of what these media professionals believe photojournalism is, and most importantly what is not, has provided essential insight into how photojournalism relates to the image production, use and conventions of these newspapers. The data collection and analysis was informed by constructivist grounded theory. It is these findings, which will be presented.
Naomi Busst
PhD Candidate
Bond University, Queensland
Putting content before delivery: a digital dilemma
A key theme of this paper is that the development of quality content in news and current affairs has fallen behind the quality and range of development in digital delivery. Digital developments in media and telecommunication receive the greatest attention and investment in a corporate environment where timeliness and competitive edge are critical. This paper also asserts the 'mixed-media age' has led to much more un-sourced or half sourced comment. Journalism is diminished while speed of delivery is celebrated. Much of this is represented to the public as much more democratic than the old professional journalism. Professional news production and delivery have been forced into an uneasy pairing with populist forms such as TV One's 'Your News'. Despite Bill Gates' assertion 'content will be king' in the digital age the fact is content is manipulated to fit the digital platforms and deliver to technology savvy audiences. These platforms are constantly upgraded, relentlessly competitive and content is forced to meet corporate financial goals. This situation may be responsible for the lack of vitality and creativity in content production. These qualities are needed to put content on an equally valued footing with delivery in news and current affairs. This is even more critical as newer and more varied platforms provide more opportunities to feature quality content. We need to consider newer (or older) funding mechanisms and a broader range of content suppliers in order to sustain democracy's need for information and policy alternatives.
E.W.Mason
Unitec, New Zealand
Monday, December 4: Session 2
Journalism research between normative and empirical
In an era of growing global awareness journalism research is acknowledging only reluctantly media models other than the Anglo-American one. Australian research in fact shows little awareness of the degree to which it is wedded to this model. Being fixated on this version of media also has implications for the professional model of journalism and serves to continue the gap between the principles of journalism and professional practice. It has further implications for journalism research in that the normative expectations skew results and veil actual practice.
Beate Josephi
Edith Cowan University
Online assessment of news articles (peer reviewed)
The paper will present a tool for news texts assessment (NTA), the main components of which are used in job psychology and in business to assess performance of workers, including newspaper employees. NTA focuses on one element, although arguably the most important, of the performance appraisal of news reporters - the quality of their news articles. This tool is essentially a set of descriptions of over 20 criteria, from "importance" and "accuracy" to "attribution to sources". Descriptions are arranged in rubrics from "unpublishable" to "outstanding" within the criteria. The criteria are arranged in dimensions, including "newsworthiness", "factual quality" and "structure". The research at this stage is focused on the evaluation of the elements of NTA with the help of journalism experts. NTA will then be validated in an online experiment with journalists of a developing country in which a trainer will be able to identify individual deficiencies in news articles and address them, including by establishing hyperlinks to the relevant learning material. With certain modifications, NTA will be able to be used in a news writing course in university journalism programmes; as a check list in a newsroom against which editors or journalists can verify the quality of news articles; or to assess news articles at professional journalism contests.
Yevgenia Munro
University of Canterbury
The Virtual Newsroom - using wiki technology to create a learning environment for student print journalists (peer reviewed)
The paper will analyse how, during a one-year project, a wiki was established to allow student print journalists to collaborate to create a professional news product. The idea was to replicate a professional newsroom where a second set of eyes is always cast on material before publication but to do so in an environment that provided flexibility of access and therefore accommodated demanding student timetables. The wiki provided a space for student peer editing of news and feature stories enhancing the collaborative, creative and critical literacies of those involved. It will explore how peer review (sub-editing process) helps these reviewers become better writers and ultimately better journalists. It will review literature regarding the use of wikis as a collaborative learning tool and use student surveys to assess the success of the pilot project.
Susan Hetherington
Queensland University of Technology
Online hypotheticals - are they worth the anguish?
At the last JEA conference I introduced an online hypothetical designed to teach students investigative journalism skills. Twelve months on, the online hypothetical has survived its first intake of students - just. In this paper, I am proposing to discuss the trial. At the end of the day, the trial was a success, but only after near nervous breakdowns and a threatened walkout by a cohort of students. Students were appeased when the coordinator threatened to have his own nervous breakdown first, thereby leaving them to their own devices. In this presentation, I'm proposing to discuss the positives and negatives of the hypothetical. I will walk colleagues through the hypothetical (something we couldn't do last year) and discuss which parts worked, which didn't and why. I will also be including some feedback from students (very brave, I thought, on my part to canvas them after the event). The trial produced a number of findings that have the potential to influence the way we teach students and approach our own teaching:
(a) Not all Generation Y students are as computer literate as they are made out to be; skills that we take for granted are often missing.
(b) Asking students to submit work electronically can be problematic - especially when it disappears into the ether, never to be located again.
(c) Students have their own views on how much work they should do - even if it is 'fun' and designed to mirror 'real life work practices'.
(d) Assessment practices need to change, while ensuring that skills are conveyed; and
(e) Academics are human - perhaps even fallible, but don't let the students know. Each of these will be discussed in the context of the 'Birds of Paradise Hypothetical.
Steve Tanner
If they won't read the real thing, let's try the unreal: fiction as a teaching tool
It has long been a complaint of journalism academics that students simply do not consume enough of the material that will help them to learn their craft, i.e. reading newspapers, textbooks and journal articles, or taking in radio or television news and current affairs. At the same time, students are not backward in reading for pleasure those fictional works that from time to time come to prominence. This paper suggests that academics may be able to make use of this student interest in popular fiction by analysing the fictional portrayal of journalists and their activities as a means of impressing on students the good (and the no so good) sides of journalistic activity in the real world. The portrayal of journalism in general and one journalist in particular in the highly successful Harry Potter franchise forms the case study for this paper. It finds that the portrayal of journalistic work in these books could form an alternative means of teaching journalism ethics, and stressing the important role journalists and the media have in keeping the public informed.
Cathy Jenkins
Griffith University
Welcome to the real world: how to build a bridge between academia and community journalism
Many small-town publications lack the staff and time to do in-depth reporting and investigative journalism. And editors complain that many of today's journalism graduates leave school with subpar reporting and writing skills. A unique programme at California State University has addressed both issues. Under the direction of a professor who functions as a city editor, students have published professionally over 600 news and feature stories in just five semesters. Stories have appeared in over a dozen weeklies and dailies, and have included such in-depth projects as a corruption investigation that led to a state governmental investigation and a nine-story package on the impact of the health insurance crisis on a small city of 15,000 people. This paper examines how the programme--which has drawn raves from editors and students alike--can build a bridge between the academic and professional journalism communities and provide students with an unprecedented educational experience.
Gary Rice
California State University, Fresno
Visual journalism: the new basics (peer reviewed)
This paper argues that strategies being adopted by print media in a world increasingly saturated with visual images are bringing the work of designers and photographers closer to that of journalists - and this has implications for Australian journalism education. Journalists are being challenged to acquire skills and knowledge in visual communication to a greater extent than in the past as newspapers upscale emphasis on graphics, photographs and design to both focus reader attention and convey information in a rapid, visual way. The paper centres on a case study of Fairfax Community Newspapers (FCN), a leading suburban newspaper group based in Sydney and Melbourne. The study highlights FCN's emphasis upon visual communication skills acquisition among journalism recruits, as part of a strategy to maximise appeal to time-poor readers with proliferating options for accessing news, information and entertainment. A key aspect of FCN's emerging approach is 'story packaging', by which reporters and sub-editors break down story information into visually-appealing modules to create multiple options for 'entry' to pages. FCN also emphasises graphic page elements, strong captions to link visuals to copy, and extensive use of brief news items. This approach is strongly influenced by research findings that most readers engage with pages through large graphic elements, rather than small print. The paper explores implications of the growth of visual journalism for university journalism courses, arguing that it should play a role in curriculum development.
Harry Dillon
Charles Sturt University, Bathurst
Reaching out: inspiring and empowering journalism students in remote areas with multimedia delivery technology
Journalism in the first decade of the 21st Century is becoming more diverse in nature and journalists are often required to report from the field or remote bases using ever-changing communication technology. Yet universities often maintain the traditional on-campus delivery of courses without moving to the technologies for delivery of course material that graduates will have to use in their workplace. This paper will discuss the challenges of delivering differing notional streams of journalism education to off-campus students. The goal to prepare industry-ready graduates of Central Queensland University is met by aiming at three pedagogical outcomes: an understanding of the culture and history of journalism and its place in contemporary cultures; the engendering of a critical and wide-based world view; and a set of tactile skills to meet the needs of modern newsrooms. The delivery of courses such as radio and television journalism is often considered beyond the pale of off-campus delivery. This paper details the use of a diverse suite of multimedia communication technologies that is meeting success in current journalism teaching at Central Queensland University.
Bruce Honeywill
Cental Queensland University
Rockhampton
Monday, December 4: Health Issues (session 3)
Obesity in the media: political hot potato or human interest story?
Australia and other developed countries are in the grip of an obesity epidemic. Community and media interest in the problem of obesity is rising. Media coverage is likely to shape public understandings of the issue and drive political solutions. Few analysts have examined Australian media coverage of obesity and none, apparently, have analysed Australian television coverage of the issue. This study analyses Australian television news and current affairs coverage of overweight and obesity. A content analysis of a structured sample of 50 free-to-air television news and current affairs items about overweight and obesity broadcast in New South Wales, Australia, between May and October 2005. The sample was analysed for content including which types of stakeholders were given voice in the obesity debate. The people most frequently given the opportunity to advocate solutions to obesity were individuals affected by overweight or obesity [27%]. The second largest group was experts [27%]. Politicians made up only 4% of the people shown voicing their opinion, just 3% were government officials and industry spokespeople made up just 4%. Despite the holding of two obesity summits in Australia in 2002, Australian television coverage of overweight and obesity in 2005 portrays obesity as a personal health and human interest story not as hot political news.
Catriona Bonfiglioli, Lesley King, Simon Chapman, Ben Smith, Simon Holding
School of Public Health, University of Sydney
AIDS is boring to report - so let's try to make it interesting
The title of this abstract is an exact quote from Anna Solomon, a highly respected former PNG journalist whose reporting career in the Pacific spanned more than 30 years. She recognised the seriousness of the unfolding HIV epidemic in her country and urged fellow journalists in PNG to use imagination, initiative and sensitivity to cover the disease. This is not an isolated viewpoint because interviews with editors and journalists from PNG and Fiji in 1999, 2002 and 2005 uncovered a similar problem - how do you present fresh angles and material about a disease that has been around for 25 years? And extensive surveys, examining media coverage of HIV in the United States and in several Southern African countries from the mid 80s onwards, echo a similar concern. This paper analyses how the media in some countries have framed and presented the disease and then examines new media initiatives in South Africa where infection rates vary from 12-19 per of the population. How to report HIV, which is inseparable from defining of the role of the media on this topic, needs a clear response since international health experts now warn that some Pacific countries, and PNG in particular, could experience an AIDS epidemic on a scale similar to that in several sub-Saharan African countries where infection rates are as high as 25 per cent. This issue presents an ongoing challenge for working journalists and journalism educators throughout the world, and in particular in the Pacific region where emerging HIV epidemics are expanding rapidly.
Trevor Cullen
Edith Cowan University
Response Ability in 2006 - keeping pace with current issues in reporting suicide and mental illness
The Response Ability Project, funded under the Mindframe National Media Initiative in Australia, seeks to influence tertiary curricula so that graduates in journalism will be aware of and able to respond appropriately to issues relating to suicide and mental illness. The original multi-media resources to support journalism educators were developed in 2001 and actively disseminated to Australian Universities in 2002. These multi-media resources recognise the important influence the media can have on shaping community attitudes and provide teaching options to expose journalism students to the conflict between professional, commercial and ethical obligations when reporting on suicide and mental illness. Engaging with media organisations and individual journalists under other Mindframe projects have revealed further complexities associated with the reporting of suicide and mental illness. In particular, journalists have indicated that the issues become more problematic and less clear when they are required to report suicides in other contexts, such as murder-suicides, deaths in custody and voluntary euthanasia. Similarly, the reporting of mental illness was more complex in the context of crime and in the reporting of the mental health care system. This paper will highlight some of these new complexities of reporting and discuss how the Response Ability project has responded through the development of supplementary resources to allow educators to raise such issues with students.
Jaelea Skehan
Hunter Institute of Mental Health, Australia.
Suicide and the New Zealand media
The relationship of health professionals working in suicide prevention and the New Zealand news media has been manifestly problematic with strongly divergent views about what should be reported. Research by Tully and Elsaka (2004) concluded that guidelines for reporting suicide developed by the Ministry of Health in 1999 had been largely ignored by the media. Their report to the Ministry of Youth Development recommended a process of continuing dialogue between health professionals and key industry groups that could lead to protocols acceptable to both. This paper traces the process, facilitated by the author, that led to the protocols announced this year.
Jim Tully
University of Canterbury
Power and parody: suicide, the Australian Press Council and For Him magazine
Four Australian mental health organisations, the Hunter Institute of Mental Health, SANE Australia, Lifeline Australia and Suicide Prevention Australia lodged a complaint with the Australian Press Council in relation to an article printed in the April 2006 edition of FHM (For Him Magazine), published by EMAP Australia. The article: "Suicide: Is it all it's cracked up to be?" covered nine common methods of suicide and gave a verdict for each. It also included graphic illustrations of public suicides including hanging, jumping from structures, gunshot and self-immolation. An adjudication was made by the Australian Press Council's Complaints Commission (Adjudication No 1319) on 15 June 2006, upholding the complaint from the mental health organisations. Students enrolled in the Introduction to Journalism course at the University of Newcastle in semester 2, 2006, were invited to discuss the article and the adjudication. This paper examines and analyses the issues pertinent to the APC decision, the FHM response and the themes and attitudes that emerged in the resultant student discussion.
Paul Scott, University of Newcastle
Jaelea Skehan, Hunter Institute of Mental Health
Kellie Cathcart, Hunter Institute of Mental Health
To publish or not to publish? A student's ethical dilemma
In September the student team producing Te Waha Nui was approached by Homeowners Against Line Trespassers (HALT) to consider running an advertisement for its campaign against Transpower's proposal to build new power pylons. The newspaper is produced by AUT University journalism students as part of the News Production course. Generally adverts for the paper are prepared by the AUT creative advertising students and are often award-winning work. Unlike a "real newspaper" Te Waha Nui is able to decide how many adverts to run, their placement in the newspaper, and to a certain extent, the artwork being used. The point of difference with the approach from HALT was it proposed Te Waha Nui run a full-page colour advert depicting wounds inflicted by a person committing suicide by cutting their wrists. The issue the Te Waha Nui team faced was whether to represent the views of a lobby group which had found research to suggest links between high capacity power lines and health effects such as miscarriage, leukemia, Lou Gehrig's disease, stress and depression. Or, did Te Waha Nui need to consider research which showed a link between media representation of suicide and "copy-cat" suicides and choose not to run the advert. This paper examines the process undertaken by the Te Waha Nui team in reaching a decision on running the adverts and current industry standards and attitudes to the depiction of suicide in the media.
Helen Twose
AUT graduate
Mobility, media and trauma
As awareness and understanding of the reporting of traumatic situations on journalists has developed, the use of mobile communications technology in journalism has also been increasing. With the greater immediacy and portability that mobile technology provides journalists are under even greater pressure to deliver reports in real time, to produce material 'on the run' and to respond with greater immediacy to emerging news situations, especially those involving trauma and dangerous situations. Developments associated with the use of mobile technology in journalism, including 'back-pack journalism', 'parachute journalism', the increasing practice of placing sole practitioner journalists in the field, and growing numbers of freelance operators, including 'citizen journalists', place journalists in new or more intensive situations where they experience or respond to trauma. From accidents and war zones to cyclones, floods and other natural disasters, journalists must increasingly be placed in harm's way in order to deliver real-time, on-the-spot reporting. The use of mobile communications technology is integral to this development because it facilitates such reporting. This paper examines developments in mobile journalism in relation to the reporting of trauma to discuss how contemporary journalism is being affected, and is likely to be affected in future. It also examines the nature of the understanding that journalists have of the technology they use and discusses this in relation to training.
Kerry Green, Collette Snowden
University of South Australia
Tuesday, December 5: Session 1
Balance and broadcasting
In 2006 the Broadcasting Standards Authority held a symposium in Auckland with broadcast news executives, journalists, documentary makers and various interested parties. Discussion was lively, often heated, and the topic at hand - balance in broadcast programming - found a few detractors. The BSA will be launching its book recording the proceedings at the 2nd joint JEANZ/JEA conference, and all delegates will receive a copy. What is balance and why is it required in news and other factual broadcasts? Do broadcast media get a raw deal compared to the print media? What does the BSA say about balance requirements? Is 'balance' even the right word? Does requiring balance create a 'chill effect' on freedom of speech? Or is it just reasonable that journalists should present different sides of an issue so their audiences can make up their own minds? Different countries take different approaches, with some preferring the concept of 'impartiality'. Is there a difference? And does the brave new interactive global content world render the debate redundant? Jane Wrightson, chief executive of the BSA, will outline the symposium debates and discuss how the BSA has interpreted the relevant broadcast standards to date.
Jane Wrightson
Broadcasting Standards Authority
Who's who in the digital zoo: How digital technology is re-shaping the mass media (peer reviewed)
This paper does not argue the 'death' of broadcasting, rather it suggests that a more subtle, but equally dramatic change is taking place. The television screen is being integrated with the power of computing through digital convergence. But this is a process of commercial as well as technological integration that is also remaking televisual and journalistic cultures. This shift in the structures and culture of the media is also impacting on the 'reportorial community'. The boundaries between journalists and audience are blurred through the explosion in blogging, independent media websites and the rise of the so-called 'citizen-journalist'. This paper argues that journalists and news outlets are caught up in this emerging digital dialectic as new business models and new reportorial communities colonise the traditional space of the declining mass media.
Martin Hirst
Edith Cowan University
Podcasting: a case history from the New Zealand Broadcasting School at CPIT
This paper describes an experimental video podcast, believed to be the first from a tertiary institution in New Zealand, which was part of a group project done by a number of students at the Broadcasting School. The students were a mix of television and journalism students, whose primary project was to deliver a weekly news programme to the local television station, CTV. However one student was determined to make her project a daily video podcast based loosely around the news stories being generated for the programme. Using all the resources available to the group, journalistic and technical, she created a series of podcasts whose subject matter and style was very different from the conventional news programme. Two key issues will be explored in the paper. The first is the content produced for the podcast, its relationship to the content of the news programme, its suitability for the podcast's target audience, and the demands placed on the journalists by the podcast producer. The second issue relates to the fact that podcasts are not subject to content regulation - with no broadcasting codes to worry about, what approach to content standards should the School have taken? The experiment is seen as important by the School, as it was judged highly successful as a learning experience and is likely to lead to more such projects in the future.
Paul Norris, Richard Bell
New Zealand Broadcasting School, CPIT
Visual literacy, broadcast journalism and the digital age (peer reviewed)
In the digital age visual literacy is becoming integral to journalism education. As the production and reception of the screen shifts from an analogue world to a digital constellation, the significance of visual literacy begs to be addressed. While recognizing that traditionally, areas such as television journalism have always worked in tandem with camera operators and vision editors to re-present people and circumstances; the digital age ought to be understood within the context of shifting workplace expectations. Ours is a screen-induced society, around 99 percent of Australian babies are born into a world where, from sunrise through the days of our lives they increasingly observe their friends and neighbours both home and away via TV, PC, MP3 and mobile phone. In this multi-screen entertainment infused environment, production departments have shrunk. Consequently, the digital journalist is increasingly called upon to communicate as both wordsmith and image-maker. As the moving image increasingly underscores the viewer’s screen-based experience from cradle to grave, journalism education would do well to acknowledge how screen-based media attracts, maintains and informs the audience at a time when individual journalists have less access to production personnel.
Bruce Fell
Charles Sturt University
The state of television current affairs: researching the genre in New Zealand (peer reviewed)
The current affairs genre has come in for much criticism in recent years. Many critics have questioned the value and standard of current affairs programmes. It is frequently claimed that the genre has lost its way to such an extent that some consider it to be in terminal decline. This paper will explore some of the major criticisms of television current affairs programmes and consider some of the defences of the form which argue that it has simply changed to be more appropriate for commercial realities and a much more competitive environment. In researching current affairs programmes in New Zealand it is proposed that a research model developed by the University of Westminster to investigate the state of current affairs television in Britain can be adapted to the New Zealand environment. In New Zealand the perceived decline in the form was accelerated by the adoption of neo-liberal policies applied to broadcasting in the late 1980s and the study by the Westminster researchers has a similar starting point to trace the profound changes to the genre in Britain. An outline of how New Zealand current affairs television programmes might be researched using and modifying this template will be outlined.
Sarah Baker
AUT University
Digital broadcasting - a double edged sword in protecting children from disturbing news content (peer reviewed)
The paper will explore how new technologies have the potential to both expose children to and protect them from television news footage likely to disturb or frighten. The advent of cheap, portable and widely available digital technology has vastly increased the possibility of violent events being captured and potentially broadcast. The paper will show why this material has the potential to disturb and harm young children. But on the flipside, it will use data collected as part of a Masters Research project to explore how available digital technology could be used to build in protection for young viewers especially when it comes to preserving scheduled television programming and guarding against violent content being broadcast during live crosses from known trouble spots. Interviews with news directors, parents and a review of published material will be used to explore the issue.
Susan Hetherington
Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane.
Interactive student podcasting: the emerging technology of choice (peer reviewed)
Podcasting represents the future for interactive journalism training. It can deliver teaching resources to on and off campus students who can listen in their own time and at their own convenience. It also presents students with an opportunity to broadcast their assignments and therefore reach a wider audience for their work. In the USA universities are embracing podcasting as an exciting new weapon in the teaching arsenal. The Horizon Report publishes annual research which identifies and describes “emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, or creative expression within higher education.” The 2006 report identifies “personal broadcasting” as one of two emerging technologies that “have exploded over the last year” and are likely to “assume broad adoption” in American universities over the coming year. In Australia universities have been slower to take up the opportunities presented by podcasting. However, in Victoria a journalism department is experimenting with podcasting as a way to bring the world of newsrooms and working journalists directly into the homes of regional students. This paper discusses this experiment, looks at similar experiments around the world, and describes how students are encountering a new world of niche broadcasting on the web.
Colleen Murrell
Deakin University.
The Pope, the Prophet and the Internet
In the past 12 months, the media has reported on two major religious stories; the furore over the Danish cartoons and Pope Benedict XVI's speech at Regensburg. Both were instances of what were relatively small incidents blown into global problems by the media and what we might call the anti-media of the internet. Although the stories originated in Europe and the majority of protests originated in the Middle East, their effect was felt as far afield as the Pacific, where one Fijian paper reprinted the cartoons. The way in which the stories were reported in western and Middle Eastern media demonstrated, on the one hand, an almost complete incomprehension by European media of Muslim outrage at the cartoons and, in the Middle East, an equal incomprehension of what the Pope had actually said. Both stories reflected poorly on the media's ability to report accurately and objectively on religious matters. In an age when religion rather than politics is the driving force behind so much of what is happening, and especially at a time when the internet allows so much unmediated and uncontextualised material to influence people's thinking, this is extraordinarily dangerous. There are solutions, but the question is whether those that are being implemented are too little, too late and too one sided.
Philip Cass
Zayed University
Tuesday, December 5: Session 2
The visibility of female journalists at major Australian and New Zealand newspapers: the good news and the bad news (peer-reviewed)
This study examines the visibility of female journalists in the Australian and New Zealand print news media, by tallying the number of female journalists' bylines relative to male journalists' bylines for a range of major metropolitan dailies. The study extends the global survey of female bylines, by including Australian data and looking in more detail at the visibility of female journalists throughout the newspapers surveyed. Although females account for half the population in each country, female journalists' bylines accounted for only 32 per cent of bylined stories in Australia and 36 per cent in New Zealand. Across both countries, male bylines outnumbered female bylines by a ratio of 2:1. However, female bylines were more prevalent in parts of the newspaper. At some newspapers, for instance, female bylines accounted for over 50 per cent of front-page stories and general news. At the other end of the spectrum, there were very few female bylines on the sports pages and in opinion pieces. It would appear more must done to create a working environment that encourages women to stay in the industry long term.
Cathy Strong, Grant Hannis
Massey University
Media representations of the hijab (peer reviewed)
Over the past decade, questions about the appropriateness of traditional clothing worn by some Muslim women, particularly the head covering known as the hijab, have been the subject of often fierce media debates. The hijab debate has come to symbolise the clash of cultures fanned by links between Islamic extremism and 21st century terrorism. While in several Islamic states such as Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Iran, the full covering, known as the chador or burqa, is mandatory for all women, in some Western countries a backlash against Muslim culture has seen such clothing banned, along with the much more common hijab, in the interests of secularism. In this context, Muslim women are portrayed by the Western media either as veiled victims in need of liberation in foreign lands because of a lack of free choice, or a threat to the Western societies in which they reside because of their choice to adopt traditional Islamic dress.
Julie Posetti
University of Canberra
Surveillance systems and private shopping malls: the media dreams of New Zealand children
This paper describes extensive research, conducted in association with Ruth Zanker (New Zealand Broadcasting School), focusing on the media lives of New Zealand students (8 to 14 years) over six years. (1999, 2003, 2005). We argue that such research is most productive when it is done at such frequent intervals, mirroring rapid technological changes and providing evidence of the kind of media knowledge and skills students display these days. In 2005, for example, more attention was paid to the role of mobile technology (cell-phones, MP3 ) in the lives of students.-but with continuing attention to older media (TV, radio newspapers) In addition to conventional research tools (surveys, focus groups), we use drawings of the student's media worlds, arguing that these provide particularly instructive insights into such worlds, illuminating the pathways children and adolescents take between home, school and the wider world.
Geoff Lealand
University of Waikato
Taking the bypass: voters' use of local media during a local election
This paper explores the relationship between local media and their communities in the context of renewed debate about Australian media ownership and diversity of opinion, concerns about local content in regional media, and divergent views about the media's role in the political process. It examines information sources used by voters in the lead-up to a local government election in Australia's largest inland city. While the local newspaper retained number one spot as the main information source, one-third of voters surveyed bypassed the traditional news media. They preferred instead to learn about the local candidates and issues from brochures, informal social networks and how-to-vote cards. Voters said local mainstream media failed to provide enough information to allow informed choices on election day and had no influence on their vote. These findings suggest challenges to the traditional media's role as gatekeepers over what the public knows, and dissatisfaction with local media's performance as Fourth Estate watchdogs, critically scrutinising the laws and policies (Costar & Economou, 1999) of the local council of the day and reporting and analysing its daily actions.
Dianne Jones
University of Southern Queensland
Reporting on evangelical Christian protest in the New Zealand media:the case for training in religion journalism (peer reviewed)
Several of the most widely-followed local and international news stories of the last few years have involved religion or conflicts with religious underpinnings. This development has been somewhat unexpected in the light of the prior dominance of narratives of secularization, but it is now established as a trend that is not likely to fade away in the near future.This paper examines New Zealand media coverage of one such news-event: the protest march on Parliament in August 2004 by supporters of the morally conservative, evangelical, Destiny Church. This coverage demonstrates the validity of claims by American academics who have researched the reporting of religion that, when journalists are not-well informed about issues in religion, they tend to fall back on a number of simplistic topoi (Silk, 1995) or themes, the deployment of which is neither enlightening for the public, nor satisfying to the religious organizations thus covered. I argue that journalism in New Zealand needs to improve its coverage of news about religion by including education about religious organizations, their procedures and beliefs in at least some of its training programmes.
Ann Hardy
University of Waikato
Tuesday, December 5: Media and Terrorism session
The media in the age of terrorism: an Australian experience (peer reviewed)
In the age of 21st century global terrorism, the media face significant challenges in defining their role and responsibility in the public sphere. Foremost is the relationship between the media and the government. In Australia, new counter-terrorism legislation and media fears of threats to editorial freedom raise the question of whether the media serve the public interest or are increasingly purveyors of government propaganda. This paper examines tensions in the media-government relationship in the context of the current Australian experience of the coverage of terrorism. In particular, it considers press and television coverage of government initiatives on terrorism and the introduction of stringent new security measures. Government and bureaucratic expectations of media support in the ‘war on terror’ at times have strained the changing media-government relationship. This raises questions on how media reports are now used to meet a political agenda on terrorism, and the paper asks if there has been a subsequent decline in the role of the media as the fourth estate.
Nancy Blacklow
Charles Sturt University
Islamic communities and terrorism in Australian newspapers
This paper examines newspaper coverage of the lead-up to and aftermath of the counter-terrorism raids in Sydney and Melbourne in November 2005. The raids, which occurred in a climate of intense public and political debate over proposed changes to counter-terrorism laws in Australia, resulted in charges being brought against 17 Muslim men. Analysis of the reporting in four major Australian newspapers shows the papers made concerted attempts to be balanced in their reporting by running stories not only about the accused and their alleged crimes, but also about what were termed "moderate" elements of Islamic communities in Australia. However, this balanced reporting tended to oversimplify the character of such communities. Additionally, the news media's reliance on conflict as a way of telling a story limited the capacity for explanation and contextualisation of issues. The newspaper analysis is part of a national project, Journalism in Multicultural Australia, sponsored by the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs.
Kathryn Bowd, Kerry Green, Ian Richards
University of South Australia
Constitution making in post-Saddam Iraq (peer reviewed)
Iraq's recent 'shift' towards democracy has inspired lively academic debate and research from across the ideological and political spectrum. Traditionally, scholarship on Middle Eastern democracy has been separated into two categories: those who believe that democracy will not succeed in the region and those who support the 'shift'. Despite their differences, some of the work on both sides of this dichotomy has served to further entrench the binary oppositions between East and West by measuring the successes and failures of Middle Eastern democracy against the Western model. Building on earlier research, this paper begins by reviewing the current literature on democracy and the Middle East from across the aforementioned political and ideological spectrum. As a case study, this paper analyses in detail the coverage of two milestones in Iraq's shift towards democracy: the drafting and approval of the constitution by Iraq's interim government (August 2005) and the ratification of this constitution via the Iraqi polls (October 2005). Aside from some rudimentary quantitative analysis, a critical discourse analysis method is utilised to compare and contrast the discursive practices used in three of Australia's leading daily newspapers with three Middle Eastern English-language papers. In essence, this paper finds that the Australian print media continues the neo-Orientalist tradition of media coverage of Middle Eastern democracy, while the Middle Eastern press eschews these discourses in favour of a more open, varied debate on Iraq's constitution and the future of democracy across the region.
Ben Isakhan
PhD Candidate
Griffith University
Tuesday, December 5: Media History Session (Session 3)
The Press Union and the role of journalists 1909-1950 (peer reviewed)
In providing an overview of the activities of the Empire Press Union, this paper will assess more particularly the role played by journalists in its deliberations over the first three decades of the twentieth century. Early press conferences, convened by the EPU, coincided with increased activity by Journalists Associations across the empire and provoked agitation in Australia and elsewhere about the apparent exclusion of journalists from this prestigious forum. Despite the powerful influence exercised from the outset by Newspaper Proprietors’ Associations over the selection of conference delegates, pressures from below revived after World War One, resulting in the attendance of women delegates at the 1920 and 1925 events. Drawing on a range of examples from Britain and the Dominions, including Australia and New Zealand, the author assesses the impact of journalists and related issues at Press Union forums across its first three decades.
Denis Cryle
Central Queensland University
Crossing the great divide: community response to the first year of the Bathurst newspaper, the Bathurst Advocate (peer reviewed)
In late 1847 printer Benjamin Isaacs brought the first printing press over the Blue Mountains to the settlement of Bathurst, 106 miles north west of Sydney. While it was common in the 1800s for a newspaper to be established quite quickly after a settlement was founded, Bathurst had developed since 1815, more than three decades, without a local press. This paper explores the arrival of the press in Bathurst in February 1848 and the first year of community response to a local paper. This paper will explore response to the Bathurst Advocate through three lenses: subscriptions and advertising, community development and public discussion and exposition.
Margaret Van Heekeren
Charles Sturt University
“Harpies, Monsters and Devils”: Daniel Defoe’s 18th-century consumer journalism in the Review (peer reviewed)
Although consumer journalism is typically regarded as having been invented in the United States in the early part of the 20th Century, examples of early consumer journalism can be found in the work of the 18th Century journalist Daniel Defoe. The paper undertakes a critical assessment of all the main examples of Defoe's consumer journalism found in his journal, the Review. Focusing on the price and quality of goods and services, Defoe's work includes some modern journalistic techniques, but in keeping with the journalistic practices of his time, Defoe's consumer journalism was frequently fictional and polemical.
Grant Hannis
Massey University
An Aussie chapter in the print culture of New Zealand
If the life of journalist Pat Lawlor (1893 – 1979) could be likened to a book – and he was, above all, an avowed bibliophile – then one of the chapters at the centre of that book would be the profitable tenure he secured for himself as the editor and promoter of the New Zealand section of the Sydney-published magazine known as Aussie. As recorded in his well-known 1935 collection of reminiscences, Confessions of a Journalist, Lawlor regarded his decade-long connection with Aussie during the 1920s as the most successful he had with any publication. From his base in Wellington, Lawlor built the sale of the magazine to a point where he claimed it was the biggest in the history of the Dominion. A part of the New Zealand Studies programme at Victoria University of Wellington, this paper will focus on the content of the “literary pages” penned by Lawlor during his Aussie years. It explores the exposition of a distinct print culture that was full of middlebrow chatter that largely centred on Lawlor’s lifelong preoccupations and his conception of the role of fellow paragraphists of his era, primarily journalists, as being at the vanguard of literary activity in the land of Enzed.
“My friends assured me that I was a fool to attempt to establish an Australian magazine in New Zealand. In the first place, they said, the very name Aussie was damning.”
Stephen Olsen
Stout Research Centre - Victoria University
Beyond the Social Column? Stella Allan and women’s page journalism
Stella Allan, following a ground-breaking entry into journalism in New Zealand in the late nineteenth century, became a prominent journalist in Melbourne. Writing under the name of ‘Vesta’ (Roman goddess of hearth and household), she edited the Argus women’s column ‘Women to Women’ from 1908. She was also a foundation member of the AJA. This paper will evaluate her contribution to women’s page journalism in the context of the proliferation of women’s columns and women’s pages in newspapers and periodicals in the early twentieth century and the employment of women journalists almost exclusively on the women’s pages. It will attempt to evaluate Allan’s highly competent coverage of many aspects of women’s lives and community affairs and also consider whether her columns contributed to enlightenment or complacency among women readers.
Patricia Clarke
Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities
PhD (Griffith University)
Share 999: British government control of Reuters during World War I
At the outbreak of World War I Reuters was a public company with a widely dispersed and large group of shareholders, including shareholders in Germany. Under the pressure of wartime conditions, the British government determined that, for security reasons, it needed to find a mechanism to achieve greater control of the company and the news it distributed. Censorship laws were, on their own, deemed inadequate to this purpose. In the event, the public company, Reuters Telegram Company, was liquidated following a generous buyout offer to shareholders. It was replaced by a private company, Reuters (1916) Limited. This company was structured so as to enable effective British government control of its operations. These arrangements were, of course, kept as a highly classified state secret. Following the establishment of government control, the resources of Reuters were mobilised for propaganda purposes. Reuters’ connections with papers in Australia and New Zealand provided a conduit for British propaganda news to the Australasian press. The paper is based on archival research in the British National Archives and the Archives of Reuters.
Peter Putnis
University of Canberra
Anzac Day at Gallipoli: what is past, passing and to come
Anzac Day, a public holiday on 25 April in both New Zealand and Australia, commemorates the Gallipoli landing in Turkey in WW1 and the soldiers and personnel in all subsequent wars. Attendance at Anzac Day ceremonies declined in the 60’s and 70’s but has steadily increased since then and now it seems Anzac Day is a more significant cultural event than ever. Nowhere is this more evident than at Gallipoli itself, where the site has become a major focus for celebrations on the day. This paper will look at the televised coverage of the Dawn Service at Gallipoli 2004-2006 and the similarities and differences in focus and theme between the Australian and New Zealand coverage and the change in perspective from one of remembrance to the display of a cultural event.
Alison Wilson
Manukau Institute of Technology
An “interesting” time: Malcolm Ross at the Somme in 1916
Malcolm Ross, New Zealand's first official war correspondent, set sail along with 3000 Anzac troops, from Alexandria on March 30, 1916. The converted cruise liner was bound for Marseilles and Ross and the troops for the Western Front. This battlefield was far removed from the dry, rugged hills and ravines of the Dardanelles. Would this change in locale see any change in Ross's work? After much criticism of his writing, Ross's despatches had been pared back to 500 words and he was now on strict instructions to report back only information of "direct interest" to New Zealand on matters concerning the country's troops. There were to be no digressions into fanciful asides for which he had previously attracted some derision. Despite the censure he received from some quarters for his coverage of the fighting on the Gallipoli Peninsula, Ross still had the staunch support of his employer - the New Zealand Government, and the military. He was firmly supportive of the latter's demand that war correspondents not "give the show away". While he may have been exemplary in meeting his masters' demands his efforts on behalf of his audience were proving more jejune. This paper will examine Ross's coverage of the New Zealand troop's actions at the Battle of the Somme to see whether he had learned from his experiences at Gallipoli and answered his critics.
Allison Oosterman
AUT University
Wednesday, December 6: Broadcasting Session (Session 1)
The power and the passion: community radio audiences in Australia talk back
This paper will report on completion of the first national, qualitative audience study of the Australian community media sector. It will reveal the ways in which various audiences use local radio as a cultural resource-from generalist, urban radio listeners to those from Indigenous and ethnic communities. It is possibly the first and most comprehensive study of its type in the world and while reinforcing some anecdotal evidence about the role of local radio and television, it challenges other concepts of the ways audiences prefer to access factual information such as news, for example. The presentation will feature edited audio grabs from some of the 45 focus groups conducted around Australia over the past two years. This study seems likely to become an international benchmark for all future audience research around community media.
Michael Meadows
Griffith University
Radio journalism in the age of podcasting
Since the advent of Internet audio distribution doomsayers have been predicting the demise of broadcast radio. Much like earlier predictions that television would 'kill' radio, the argument that the medium is outdated and out-manoeuvred by the new technology has been prevalent in new media ecologies. However, radio has responded by utilising the storage, time-shifting potentials of digital production and distribution technologies to enhance the linear and time bound model of broadcast radio by making content available on line. This ability to provide content that can be selected, listened to and passed on at will has real potential for radio journalists. They now have the ability to provide further insight into our world by making extra content available beyond the 30-second sound bite of modern radio news. How journalists will use this potential is critical to story telling in the age of podcasting and challenges the accepted norms of audio information production, distribution and reception. This paper explores recent developments in New Zealand, such as recent Radio New Zealand web content developments and the success of the NewsTalk ZB web presence in enhancing their product and relationships with their audience. These examples are used to provide insight into the potential the Internet offers radio journalists. It also surveys the ongoing utility of radio in that it is free to air, usually the first on the scene, mobile and the information source we can use all day. The conclusion reached is that today's radio journalists will need to embrace and adapt to the new technologies, while applying the tried and tested radio newsgathering and story telling skills to the emerging models.
Matt Mollgaard
AUT University
Ninety per cent employment for post-graduate broadcast students: how did we do it?
In 2005, Edith Cowan University started a new post-graduate course in Broadcasting. The one-year course replaced the three-year Bachelor degree in Broadcasting. The challenge was to turn a successful three-year programme into a one-year intensive course, which would turn out employable graduates. Four months after our first graduates finished classes, 90% had paid work in the broadcasting industry! So, how did we do it? One major factor was the findings from a series of meetings with media managers in Perth and Sydney. Nearly all of them commented on how pleased they were to talk "because people from journalism courses never come to see (us)". Their initial responses pointed to the fact that graduates in conventional journalism had limited general knowledge, often little understanding of good conversational broadcast writing, and lacked the innate curiosity needed to become a worthwhile employee. Radio and TV news directors particularly targeted a lack of political, historical and financial knowledge in graduates. Employers in other areas of radio and TV (lifestyle programs, local radio programs etc) cited disappointment in poor writing skills, and said many graduates could research on the internet, but had no broader understanding of how to track down good stories. Feedback from employers helped to focus what we needed to provide and revise. Despite the success of the 2005 graduates, we have already substantially changed the course to make it better. There is no doubt that consulting with industry is the single most important thing we do to make the course relevant.
Jo McManus
Edith Cowan University
The broadcaster, the college and the university: educating the broadcast journalist in the digital age
The suicide in July 2003 of British Ministry of Defence scientist David Kelly, the Hutton Inquiry into his death, and the BBC internal inquiry (the Neil Report, 2004) that followed the Hutton Report together constitute a critical narrative of broadcast journalism. The BBC's internal inquiry concluded that the organization lacked 'coherent' standards of journalism. It found BBC journalists showed poor understanding of editorial standards and their knowledge of ethics and the law was patchy. As a result, the BBC decided to set up a 'College of Journalism' within the Corporation and determined five main areas of instruction. This paper explores this narrative of contemporary journalism and its standards and compares it with a specific journalism education programme: the BA (Media and Communications) at the University of Sydney. It does this within the wider context of the future of journalism in the digital age, incorporating empirical research conducted in ABC local radio. The paper concludes that these two public service broadcasting organisations are at a liminal point; one that might at last see a new recognition of the value of universities to journalism education.
Anne Dunn
University of Sydney
The rocket in your pocket: how mobile phones became The Media by stealth (peer reviewed)
Where is your mobile telephone? Is it turned on? For most of us the mobile telephone has quietly become the technology that is always with us, and is always on. The mobile telephone is suddenly no longer simply about voice or text communication; the latest models are a portable digital media production and delivery system in their own right. This paper describes the diffusion of mobile phones around the world, and focuses on their use by younger people as a media and social management tool. The paper also describes some of the new media content forms developing around mobile phones, and considers the features of mobile media in terms of their capacity to deliver, produce and share content.
David Cameron
Charles Sturt University, Bathurst
Wednesday, December 6: Cultural Issues session
Living in harmony: journalism in multicultural Australia
This paper will report on the outcomes of a 2005 analysis of prime-time evening television bulletins across three Australia sites: Perth, Sydney and Shepparton, Victoria. The research project followed the intensive TV news analysis project "Knowing News" conducted in Perth in 2001. Although the authors did not realise it at the time, the 2001 study apparently provides a retrospective snapshot of a pre-9/11 world, where nightly news programs were pre-occupied with Anglo-Saxon content and multiculturalism was a non-existent consideration for TV news editors and their mainstream Anglo audiences. The November 2005 study tells an entirely different story of an Australia pre-occupied with terrorism, bombings, riots and the rise of threatening "un-Australian" behaviour. In this presentation the authors will discuss the contemporary picture of Australian-ness painted by primetime TV news. The portrayal of culturally and linguistically diverse communities in Australia, and particular the representation of Islamic communities, provides interesting insight into the cultural tensions and apprehension now felt in a post 9/11, post Bali bombing Australia.
Suellen Tapsall
AIMŸUWA Business School Alliance
Can the media take credit for indigenous language revival?
Over the past 10 years there has been a renaissance of the Maori language and culture, much of this attributed to the rise of a Maori media. Maori magazines, television, iwi radio and newspapers as well as use of the worldwide web are taking much of the credit. But the model is not new. In Wales the Celtic language has also been revived and its media has taken pro-active a role in this. Many of the lessons learned and the growing pains have parallels. There is also significant debate over whether minority language media studies should be seen as a distinct area of learning away from general media studies. Even more, there is debate as to whether the culture of the media corrupts the culture of a minority language. This paper will look at the initiatives which have taken place in Wales and the successes, compared to the revival of Te Reo Maori in New Zealand and the role the media has played in both countries.
Annabel Schuler
Waiariki Polytechnic
The Tampa boat people incident - visual representations in Australian media
When the Tampa boat sank off the coast of Australia in 2001, photographic images were used by the Government to support their position against asylum seekers. These visual representations have been particularly contentious due to the interpretive nature of visual images and their role by Government as a propaganda tool. A quantitative analysis of one national tabloid and one national broadsheet identifies what images were produced during the time frame of the pre-election event, in 2001. The qualitative analysis of The Australian and Daily Telegraph newspapers investigates what kind of photographs were chosen to illustrate this incident, with a view to question whether the choice of image in Australian media is being carefully chosen by decision-makers aware of potential governmental propaganda uses.
Louise Grayson
Queensland University of Technology
Wednesday, December 6: Sport session (Session 2)
Sport rules - ok? A study of media usage in 2005 (peer reviewed)
They say there are only two certainties in life – death and taxes. The author suggests you add another for the average Australian: the need to know ‘the latest score’. The author has ‘crunched the numbers’ on the ‘News Value’ column in The Australian’s media section during 2005 to demonstrate the overwhelming popularity of sports coverage in the Australian media. Of the ‘top five’ stories nominated in the column in the 44 weeks surveyed, 41% involved sports coverage, nearly double the next category. There are also preliminary findings of a study of the first 41 weeks of the surveys for 2006. The author asks why sports’ reporting is not offered in more tertiary journalism courses?
Roger Patching
Bond University
Media coverage of disabled sport
The media has often been criticised for its coverage of issues involving people with disabilities. In this paper, the authors look at media coverage of disabled sport in Australia and New Zealand. Sport is a media staple, but will the media cover any sport? Is elite disabled sport considered to be 'less important' and of a lower standard than the achievements of elite athletes without disabilities? Do media organisations in the two countries cover these sports in different ways? Does the size of the media outlet and the market it is seeking to reach a factor in whether or how it covers disabled sport.
Jim Tully, University of Canterbury
Stephen Tanner, University of Wollongong
Wednesday, December 6: General session (Session 2)
Promoting a promotional culture: children, advertising and local newspapers
One definition of a promotional culture is a society where various forms of commercial speech pervade media systems and texts. Commercial speech in itself is neither new nor necessarily unwelcome; however, the extent of such speech and the degree to which various media forms depend upon it varies temporally and societally. Within this framework, one under-researched question is how promotional culture is itself promoted. The obvious key to engendering and embedding a promotional culture is by "speaking to" children. This can both normalise commercially-oriented speech and delegitimise alternative or oppositional views. Academic and popular debates about television advertising to children are one example where these issues can be touched upon, yet the argument that children "deserve" to become advertising-literate in order to be "normal" citizens in consumer society is, generally, hegemonic. This paper will argue that standard approaches (whether positive or more critical) do not necessarily unpick the mechanisms through which children are acculturated within a wider culture where promotional / commercial speech is the norm. It will analyse a number of print advertisements created by primary school children for a local newspaper in South Auckland in an attempt to provide some insights into the conception of advertising held by the children themselves.
Rosser Johnson
AUT University
The place of creative non-fiction in the tertiary journalism curriculum
This paper looks at the place of creative non-fiction in the journalism curriculum. While creative non-fiction - a genre of writing based on the techniques of the fiction writer - has had a rocky relationship with journalism, this study shows there is a place for the genre in j-education. The paper is based on the results from a study using elite interviews with writers who are experienced in both journalism and creative non-fiction, and a survey of heads of journalism departments. The elites chosen were Hugh Lunn (Walkley award winner and author of books including Over the Top with Jim), Helen Garner (Walkley award winner and author of books including The First Stone), Sarah MacDonald (former JJJ journalist and author of best selling memoir Holy Cow), Nikki Gemmell (former ABC radio journalist and author of a range of novels and non-fiction articles), and Edward Southorn (a newspaper journalist working on his first creative non-fiction work). The survey of heads of journalism departments was a census of all 20 Australian universities with practical journalism programs. Through the literature, and the responses of the elites and survey respondents it was possible to show how creative non-fiction aids journalism students in their careers and in changing the face of journalism.
Molly Blair
Bond University
Contesting labour law
This paper tests the proposition that media treatment of trade union activity and labour law generally favours employer interests, by analysing leading print media coverage of the passage of the Employment Relations Law Reform Bill (ERLRB) through Parliament. The paper takes a critical Marxist perspective arguing that the main thrust of coverage was ideological in content, seeking to present the Bill as harmful to New Zealand's national interest. Most of the coverage of the Bill in the New Zealand Herald and the National Business Review followed the tendency to highlight business objections to any reform which strengthened unions. It is argued that this approach was calculated to influence Government to modify the Bill much as they had done against the Employment Relations Bill of 2000. The paper argues that union attempts in the media to counter this offensive made media a "site of struggle" between these opposing forces. There was a sustained offensive through the media against the Bill by the employer lobbyists which attempted to portray the Bill as bad for business, and therefore bad for the country. The criticisms worried unionists who attempted to reassure business that the new law would be good for business, and therefore good for the country. The union response was within the ideological frame set by business and followed the Government line that union and business interests could be expressed as a "partnership". The Government was largely unresponsive to media pressure for change from business. They made only minor alterations to the Bill. I argue this was because the Bill was not intended to fundamentally reform the original Act. The Government seems to have been reassured by an agreement reached by the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions and BusinessNZ, even though neither party acknowledged it in public. Ultimately, the media coverage of the Bill did not produce significant changes to the Bill.
Janet Bedggood
AUT University
Wednesday, December 6: Media History session
Alternative media in Brisbane 1965-1985
Queensland under the Bjelke-Petersen National Party regime is often seen as a cultural desert arising from the petty censorship and political repression that was his stock-in-trade. This paper points out how that political repression encouraged those with alternative views to utilise technological change to create new audiences. In particular this paper shows how new print reproduction methods, FM radio and light-weight video equipment were adapted by alternative forces to counter Bjelke-Petersen's skilful management of the mainstream media. This particular arena provides the opportunity to test the hypothesis that for every new development in communication technology there is a period between its invention and its institutional control when it provides the opportunity for progressive, oppositional and democratic voices to create audiences through alternative channels.
Stephen Stockwell
Griffith University
Hearing the 1930s: the gramophone and its discontents in New Zealand
The gramophone was a relatively familiar piece of audio technology in New Zealand by the 1930s. It was heard in a wide variety of settings and was used for recreation as well as more serious purposes such as education. This paper is an extension of my Ph.D. research and investigates the ways in which the gramophone was heard in New Zealand. There were conflicts over how it should be used, what should be played on it and how it should be listened to. These conflicts were played out in the press and in specialised musical and educational journals. They illustrate changes in attitudes to culture, behaviour and the body that were part of the formation of new ideas of identity at both the individual and national levels. I begin by discussing the role of the gramophone in education before examining its recreational usages and conclude with the invention of Maori music as an economic commodity by transnational media companies. I argue that the sounds people heard from the gramophone played a role in transforming contemporary ideas about cultural hierarchies.
Peter Hoar
AUT University
A comparison of the Treaties of Limerick and Waitangi and their implications for the indigenous peoples of Ireland and New Zealand
As a New Zealander of European descent, my family's history only goes back in New Zealand as far as the 1850s, then reverts to Europe. Although identifying as an ethnic New Zealander, much of my cultural heritage stems from overseas. In researching my own cultural roots, especially those of Ireland, I have found strong parallels between the colonial histories of both countries. Although the dates and the indigenous peoples may be very different, the colonial policies and the effects on those peoples have been remarkably similar. It is my view that there are cultural, political and economic parallels between Irish and New Zealand societies because they both have indigenous cultures with civil rights and cultural maintenance issues. They have both been highly influenced by British settlement. They are both island nations of similar populations that rely on the skills of their peoples for economic well-being based on export-driven economies. Because of these similarities, a comparison of the two counties may shed some light on current cultural, political and economic issues. In the fields of journalism and journalism training, it would be of value to have a broad overview of these issues in order to support more informed reporting of both Ireland and New Zealand in the digital age. Various information sources will be covered including oral traditions, print and online newspaper articles and website information.
George Lusty
Waikato Institute of Technology
Wednesday, December 6: Pacific Affairs Session (Session 3)
Media coverage of the Fiji 2000 coup: an analysis
Much criticism of the both the local and international media's role during the May 2000 coup in Fiji emerged after the crisis. Critics included editors and journalists of the local and international media and political analysts and historians who knew the "real reasons" behind the attempted coup and did not see this being reported. This paper analyses a summary of interviews with journalists and editors who covered the coup and their reaction to criticisms made against them over coverage. It also assesses possible effects on some journalists by the so-called Stockholm Syndrome because of their close association with businessman George Speight and his fellow captors holding the Mahendra Chaudhry government hostage.
Christine Gounder
Reporter on Radio Niu FM
Post-Courier and media advocacy: a new era in Papua New Guinea journalism?
The PNG media is often described as 'free' and 'vibrant' compared to other media in developing countries in the region. The style of journalism and the news values is based on the Western model familiar in the developed countries where objectivity is one of the conventions of the journalism practice. This is a result of influence on the PNG media by western news values through a history of ownership of the local media and training in journalism provided at the workplace and at journalism schools in PNG. However, recently the coverage of two major national issues by PNG's national daily Post-Courier has signalled a shift in the style of coverage typical of journalism in PNG to one of advocacy journalism. The two major issues are the NASFUND crisis and the anti-gun campaign and although at the moment, both issues are no longer in the media, they have yet to reach satisfactory conclusions. The prosecution of those involved in the NASFUND mismanagement is pending while the anti-gun campaign report has been tabled in Parliament and nothing has been heard of since. This paper examines the role of Post-Courier and its coverage of the two issues, and why it chose to employ the advocacy style of journalism in its coverage. The coverage has drawn criticisms from sectors of society and fellow journalists. It also examines the views of journalists in PNG regarding Post-Courier's coverage and the advocacy journalism.
Patrick Matbob
Divine Word University
Media freedom in small Pacific island states: a Kiribati case study
For more than 50 years, the governments of Kiribati have interfered in the affairs of the Broadcasting and Publications Authority (BPA). The authority runs a radio station and newspaper reaching the majority of the population of Kiribati. The interference is simply a warning to those working for the Authority that they do not have the freedom to inform the public. In practice, the political opposition would hit back at this interference, describing it as draconian and demanding more freedom for reporters working for the Authority. But when the opposition came to power, they would also close the doors of the Authority against their rivals and restrict the work of journalists. As a result, reporters have often been caught in the crossfire between the politicians. Some of them have been accused of being anti-government or sanctioning stories that embarrass the political leaders. Today, the picture of the press remains unchanged, despite the birth of more newspapers and radio stations. Governments have repeatedly claimed that they support a free press, and the international media organisations have believed this. Another part of the story has been left out - BPA is not free, and even if it is free, its reporters are "scared". They are scared of government but they also do not want to lose their job. It is widely accepted in Kiribati that "BPA is part of the government, and therefore it must work for government". In other words, BPA seems to be a colony within an independent state. More importantly, BPA is a model in Kiribati producing reporters for other news media organisations - such as Kiribati Newstar, FM, Mauri. No government has ever attempted to grant greater freedom to the Authority. This paper explains - from the firsthand experience of this reporter - why the public's right to know is at stake. The only radio station that provides them with information does not have the absolute freedom to do the job.
Taberannang Korauaba is a former senior journalist with Radio Kiribati Broadcasting. He now lives with his family in New Zealand.
Pacific Media in NZ: The challnges ahead.
Ever since Pacific people began coming to Aotearoa they have needed to keep in touch with each other and up-to-date with issues in their island homes. This desire spawned a whole raft of media services which fulfilled the information requirements of the community while entertaining them at the same time. Today many of these media services still exist however, they are coming under increasing pressure from new forces which are threatening to change the face of Pacific islands media in this country as we know it. The traditional audience for Pacific islands media is changing, it is getting younger and fragmenting. In many cases, it is forcing a re-evaluation of content, approach to media discourse and presentation. At the same time, technological change is offering up new opportunities to reach these fragmented audiences and some Pacific media owners are already utilising this new medium. Add to this the alarming lack of new and experienced journalists, media technicians and managers and you have a situation where the voice of the Pacific community could become lost in the media diaspora. In this paper I will give an overview of Pacific Media in New Zealand, look at some of the historical trends and discuss their impact on various media services – the casualties and the success stories. I will also discuss the implications of this force for change on the Pacific and wider community here in Aotearoa.
John Utanga is the chair and a founding member of the Pacific Islands Media Association (PIMA) in New Zealand. Part of PIMA’s brief is to encourage more Pacific people into journalism. He is currently a senior reporter on the Tagata Pasifika TV programme at TVNZ. John is a Cook Islander and has been a working journalist in New Zealand for over 15 years.
Covering the Fiji coups (peer reviewed)
The Australian coverage of the coups in Fiji in 1987 and 2000 provides a clear example of how the quality print media deals with a crisis in their own region. This paper raises a number of questions about the way the coups were represented. How did the journalists go about their work? Who did they use as sources? How did the massive advances in technology between 1987 and 2000 make a difference to their work? How can news organisations of the future improve their coverage of the Pacific? This paper is based on interviews with leading journalists and other research conducted as part of a PhD thesis at the University of Canberra.
Anthony Mason
PhD Candidate, University of Canberra
Two Australian Islander communities as Audiences, and their News Needs (peer reviewed)
Many of the 8000 mapped islands within the Australian Exclusive Economic Zone are home to full-time but small communities, and many in the far north are home to relatively large Indigenous communities. But small remote communities such as on these islands, and individuals within those communities, become isolated because conventional news media providers regard them as unviable markets. Community development is at risk in such apparently unviable news media markets because individuals can lose touch with each other, others in the community and those in the “outside world”. This paper collects the author’s benchmarking research about news channels available on two significant islands in the sample, and discusses and brings together key residents’ views on how news and communication channels might be improved.
John Cokley
The media's contribution to peace in post conflict Solomon Islands
This paper critically examines the role of media in helping to establish peace in post conflict Solomon Islands. Solomon Islands has experienced a divisive ethnic conflict from 1998 to 2003. In late 1998 armed Guadalcanal militants started driving out settlers from the nearby island of Malaita who settled on their land for decades over continued land dispute. Up to 20,000 Malaitans were displaced, their homes looted and burnt to the ground by the Guadalcanal militants. After the Government failed to respond to their demands for compensation for their lost and damaged properties, the Malaitans, formed the Malaita Eagle Force (MEF) to counter the Guadalcanal militants. Though the conflict officially ended in October 2000 with the signing of a peace accord in Australia, militancy movement continued in the country's capital city, Honiara, and the mountainous areas of the Weathercoast, Guadalcanal. Honiara is situated on Guadalcanal. In 2003, with the help of an Australian led Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) law and order was restored. The paper examines the importance of media's contribution to the attainment of peace in the Solomon Islands. It focuses mainly on the post conflict period (February - June 2003). In order to achieve that I focus on the two main news organizations the Solomon Star Newspaper and Solomon Islands Broadcasting Cooperation (SIBC) in the post peace signing agreement, using in-depth interviews with involved editors, journalists and individuals and a content analysis of news stories around the same period on the newspaper. The Peace journalism approach is the main the theoretical tool.
Robert Iroga
Journalist, Solomon Star
Media Representations of Culture(s) in PNG: Fragmented images of a Diverse Nation
PNG is known for its high cultural diversity, whether that is linguistic, tribal, or regional. It can be argued that PNG is still a nation in the making, a collection of regions and distinct cultural identities that exist in parallel but not yet co-existing. This paper is based on research that seeks to identify how media represent culture (s) in PNG and how the media represents the cultural complexities of a diverse nation where constant negotiation is taking place between the traditional but still living lifestyles and modern practices. Despite the country's vast cultural diversity, there is limited presence of PNG's cultures in the media. From electronic to print media, the portrayal of culture does not reflect the reality of the PNG daily lifestyles, experiences, beliefs and values. The limited representation of PNG cultures in the media occurs mainly in context of news presentation and/or advertisements that have commercial value. The paper discusses the general situation of media's performance in PNG and the role of culture and cultural symbols in the everyday life of contemporary Papua New Guineans. The research uses content and textual/visual analysis of the three national newspapers and the only TV station to study how 'culture' is represented over the month of May and June 2006. It uses as a case study a recent debate sparked as a result of the ACP-EU meeting, on the way symbols of cultural significance have been abused for the purpose of entertainment. It compares this debate as presented by the media with other coverage on cultural issues.