PACIFIC MEDIA CENTRE

Asia Pacific Journalism Course (149118)

Postgraduate course elective for Graduate Diploma in Journalism students at AUT.


Graphic: Slane/AUT

Journalists covering the South Pacific face new challenges, as tensions heighten, environmental problems grow and economic development and competition dilemmas increase. 

A decade-long civil war on Bougainville, four coups in Fiji, ethnic conflict in the Solomon Islands, factional feuding in Vanuatu and political assassinations in New Caledonia and Samoa are all part of the volatile mix.

China and Taiwan are also taking an increasingly dominant interest in the region, competing for high-profile aid projects and political influence. There is also the challenge of reporting about environmental issues, such as the endangered rainforests in PNG.

East Timor’s Ramos-Horta … survived an assassination attempt in 2008.

This new postgraduate paper in Asia-Pacific Journalism (149118) examines the political economy of the media in the region and selected countries and territories such as Indonesia, Fiji, Cook Islands, East Timor, Papua New Guinea, Philippines Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu and West Papua. Guest lecturers have included Middle East and Southeast Asian reporter Jon Stephenson; former Reuters correspondent in Jakarta Daniel Eaton; former  Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) women’s advocacy media officer Julie Middleton; Scoop roving editor Selwyn Manning; TVNZ’s Pacific correspondent Barbara Dreaver and TV3’s Ingrid Leary.

The paper also provides reporting strategies to help equip journalists to cover contemporary regional issues.

Associate Professor David Robie

Course leader Associate Professor David Robie, director of AUT’s Pacific Media Centre, is a journalist and author who has covered Asia-Pacific for more than two decades. Dr Robie was awarded the PIMA Pacific Media Freedom Award in 2005 and his blog is Café Pacific.

Students and journalists enrolled in the inaugural course in 2007 came from Fiji, Germany, India, Kiribati and New Zealand. In 2008, the participants were from China, Cook Islands, New Zealand, Samoa and Zimbabwe. Opportunities are available for postgraduate course practicum (149109 Project) scholarships and credits in China, Indonesia and the Pacific funded by the Asia: NZ Foundation.

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