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PACIFIC MEDIA CENTRE
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REGION: PJR features political blogging, TV war reporting
Pacific Media Centre: 20 October 2008
SYDNEY: Political blogging and digital technology’s impact on television war reporting are featured in the latest edition of Pacific Journalism Review launched in Sydney at the weekend with a collection of public right to know media research papers.
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Launched by former Australian Centre for Independent Journalism director Chris Nash at the PR2K conference, the edition features several articles analysing the run-up to last year’s Australian federal election that swept Kevin Rudd’s Labor Party into power in Canberra while Helen Clark’s Labour-led government in New Zealand is struggling for survival with an election due on November 8.
Nash, who is now professor of journalism at Monash University, wrote one of the articles – about political blog Possum Pollytics.
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Possum had a critical impact on coverage of the Australian election and is now linked up with the independent media website Crikey.
Other political analysis includes articles by sociologist Mark Bahnisch, founder of the blog Larvatus Prodeo, and former Deputy Ombudsman Richard Mills, with Jane Johnston and Professor Mark Pearson analysing the media freedom context in Australia.
Broadcast journalist and author Tony Maniaty, current director of the ACIJ, looks at the future of televised reporting of wars after examining negative trends from digital technology.
“The relentless quest for real-time war drama has much to answer for, shifting increasingly previous resources away from more nuanced and informative reportage,” he says.
Professor Nash announced that selected peer-reviewed research articles from this weekend’s PR2K conference at the University of Technology, Sydney, would be published in PJR next year.
Other articles featured in the latest edition include an account of NZ war correspondent Malcolm Ross and the Samoan “troubles” of 1899; Asian crime and New Zealand media treatment; and a commentary entitled “Māori terror threat: the dangers of the post 9/11 narrative” about news coverage of the controversial state intervention in Tuhoe territory.
Two new Pacific media publications, Media and Development and South Pacific Islands Communication, are among featured book reviews.
Managing editor David Robie, director of the Pacific Media Centre at AUT University, said this was the second joint edition of PJR published with the ACIJ and would set a tone for stronger future collaboration.
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