Freedom of the press — a bedrock principle of American democracy — is under threat in the United States.

Here at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism we are witnessing and experiencing an alarming chill. We write to affirm our commitment to supporting and exercising First Amendment rights for students, faculty, and staff on our campus — and, indeed, for all.

After Homeland Security seized and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a recent graduate of Columbia’s School of Public and International Affairs, without charging him with any crime, many of our international students have felt afraid to come to classes and to events on campus.

They are right to be worried. Some of our faculty members and students who have covered the protests over the Gaza war have been the object of smear campaigns and targeted on the same sites that were used to bring Khalil to the attention of Homeland Security.

President Trump has warned that the effort to deport Khalil is just the first of many.

These actions represent threats against political speech and the ability of the American press to do its essential job and are part of a larger design to silence voices that are out of favour with the current administration.

We have also seen reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is trying to deport the Palestinian poet and journalist Mosab Abu Toha, who has written extensively in the New Yorker about the condition of the residents of Gaza and warned of the mortal danger to Palestinian journalists.

There are 13 million legal foreign residents (green card holders) in the United States. If the administration can deport Khalil, it means those 13 million people must live in fear if they dare speak up or publish something that runs afoul of government views.

There are more than one million international students in the United States. They, too, may worry that they are no longer free to speak their mind. Punishing even one person for their speech is meant to intimidate others into self-censorship.

One does not have to agree with the political opinions of any particular individual to understand that these threats cut to the core of what it means to live in a pluralistic democracy. The use of deportation to suppress foreign critics runs parallel to an aggressive campaign to use libel laws in novel — even outlandish ways — to silence or intimidate the independent press.

The President has sued CBS for an interview with Kamala Harris which Trump found too favourable. He has sued the Pulitzer Prize committee for awarding prizes to stories critical of him.

He has even sued the Des Moines Register for publishing the results of a pre-election poll that showed Kamala Harris ahead at that point in the state.

Large corporations like Disney and Meta settled lawsuits most lawyers thought they could win because they did not want to risk the wrath of the Trump administration and jeopardize business they have with the federal government.

Amazon and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos decided that the paper’s editorial pages would limit themselves to pieces celebrating “free markets and individual liberties.”

Meanwhile, the Trump administration insists on hand-picking the journalists who will be permitted to cover the White House and Pentagon, and it has banned the Associated Press from press briefings because the AP is following its own style book and refusing to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.

The Columbia Journalism School stands in defence of First Amendment principles of free speech and free press across the political spectrum. The actions we’ve outlined above jeopardise these principles and therefore the viability of our democracy. All who believe in these freedoms should steadfastly oppose the intimidation, harassment, and detention of individuals on the basis of their speech or their journalism.

The Faculty of Columbia Journalism School
New York

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

He says he is astonished and quite delighted, and feels quite humbled by it all.

“However, I feel that it’s not just me, I owe an enormous amount to my wife, Del, who is a teacher and designer by profession, but she has given journalism and me enormous support over many years and kept me going through difficult times,” he said.

“There’s a whole range of people who have contributed over the years so it’s sort of like a recognition of all of us. So, yes, it is a delight and I feel quite privileged,” he said.

Starting his career at The Dominion in 1965, Dr Robie has been “on the ground” at pivotal events in regional history, including the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior in 1985 (he was on board the Greenpeace ship on the voyage to the Marshall Islands and wrote the book Eyes of Fire about it), the 1997 Sandline mercenary scandal in Papua New Guinea, and the George Speight coup in Fiji in 2000.

In both PNG and Fiji, Dr Robie and his journalism students covered unfolding events when their safety was far from assured.

As an educator, Dr Robie was head of journalism at the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) 1993-1997 and then at the University of the South Pacific (USP) in Suva from 1998 to 2002.

Started Pacific Media Centre
In 2007 he started the Pacific Media Centre, while working as professor of Pacific journalism and communications at Auckland University of Technology (AUT). He has organised scholarships for Pacific media students, including scholarships to China, Indonesia and the Philippines, with the Asia New Zealand Foundation.

Running education programmes for journalists was not always easy. While he had a solid programme to follow at UPNG, his start at USP was not as easy.

He described arriving at USP, opening the filing cabinet to discover “…there was nothing there.” It was a “baptism of fire” and he had to rebuild the programme, although he notes that currently UPNG is struggling whereas USP is “bounding ahead.”

He wrote about his experiences in the 2004 book Mekim Nius: South Pacific media, politics and education.

Dr Robie recalled the enthusiasm of his Pacific journalism students in the face of significant challenges. Pacific journalists are regularly confronted by threats and pressures from governments, which do not recognise the importance of a free media to a functioning democracy.

He stated that while resources were being employed to train quality regional journalists, it was really politicians who needed educating about the role of the media, particularly public broadcasters — not just to be a “parrot” for government policy.

Another challenge Robie noted was the attrition of quality journalists, who only stay in the mainstream media for a year or two before finding better-paying communication roles in NGOs.

Independence an issue
He said that while resourcing was an issue the other most significant challenge facing media outlets in the Pacific today was independence — freedom from the influence and control of the power players in the region.

While he mentioned China, he also suggested that the West also attempted to expand its own influence, and that Pacific media should be able set its own path.

“The other big challenge facing the Pacific is the climate crisis and consequently that’s the biggest issue for journalists in the region and they deal with this every day, unlike Australia and New Zealand,” he said.

Dr Robie stated his belief that it was love of the industry that had kept him and other journalists going, that being a journalist was an important role and a service to society, more than just a job.

He expressed deep gratitude for having been given the opportunity to serve the Pacific in this capacity for so long.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

The King’s Birthday Honours list:

To be Officers of the New Zealand Order of Merit:

• The Very Reverend Taimoanaifakaofo Kaio for services to the Pacific community
• Anapela Polataivao for services to Pacific performing arts

To be a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit:

• Bridget Kauraka for services to the Cook Islands community
• Frances Oakes for services to mental health and the Pacific community
• Leitualaalemalietoa Lynn Lolokini Pavihi for services to Pacific education
• Dr David Robie for services to journalism and Asia-Pacific media education

The King’s Service Medal (KSM):

• Mailigi Hetutū for services to the Niuean community
• Tupuna Kaiaruna for services to the Cook Islands community and performing arts
• Maituteau Karora for services to the Cook Islands community

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

The University of Fiji will be offering its journalism and media studies programme at its Samabula campus from this semester.

UniFiji vice-chancellor Professor Shaista Shameem said the programme started at the Saweni campus in Lautoka in 2022 with only five students and had been growing since then.

She said there would now be more students registering for the programme as it was positioned closer to the court and Parliament for better news coverage.

Professor Shameem said the programme was drafted and written with the help of senior journalists and news media people in Fiji including Communications Fiji Limited chairman William Parkinson, Sitiveni Halofaki from Fiji TV, former Fiji Sun managing editor Nemani Delaibatiki, Matai Akauola, Anish Chand from The Fiji Times and Stanley Simpson of Mai TV.

The vice-chancellor said the programme was different from the other universities and student journalists were sent for training in newsrooms during their first year of study so that they could become well known with their bylines.

She said the university also has a newspaper, known as UniFiji Watch, and a radio station, Vox Populi, which had won an international award for college radio.

Industry teachers
The vice-chancellor said that most of the courses were taught by people in the journalism industry and veteran journalists, including Communications Fiji Limited news director Vijay Narayan, Vimal Madhavan and Matai Akoula.

She said the university also wanted to add film and a documentary course to the programme.

Head of department Dr Kamala Naiker said journalism students needed opportunities for innovation. The first lot of student journalists would be graduating next year.

Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

A media network publishing an international research journal has vowed to expand its activities into community media and training initiatives.

The non-profit Asia Pacific Media Network, publisher of the ranked Pacific Journalism Review, says media and community advocates believe there is a need for minority and marginalised groups that feel neglected by the mainstream.

Network chair Dr Heather Devere told the annual general meeting of the publishing group in Mt Roskill yesterday that now that APMN had been consolidated it could turn to some of its wider community goals.

• READ MORE: Other APMN reports

Members from Australia, Fiji and Tahiti joined their New Zealand colleagues via Zoom in discussing many plans, including community media mentoring and training for diversity groups.

A proposal for a media conference in Suva, Fiji, next year by Pacific journalism associate professor Shailendra Singh was tabled and adopted in principle.

Dr Devere told the members that the network, established in 2021 to fill the void left by the closure of the Pacific Media Centre and to take on publication of PJR, had made great progress.

The ad hoc group was registered as an incorporated society last year.

“This first year of APMN we have concentrated on establishing a sustainable network that maintains the respected reputation that had been established at the Pacific Media Centre,” Dr Devere said.

“And I am happy to report that thanks to the commitment of a number of people who have the skills and expertise to continue some of this work, APMN is in a good place to look at moving forward into the coming year from a firm base.”

Pressing need
Community advocate Nik Naidu, an APMN member from the host Whānau Community Centre and Hub, said there was plenty of potential for the new network and there was a pressing need for media skills training to empower marginalised groups.

Retired Sydney journalism professor Chris Nash lamented that journalism schools had become very conservative and were “failing journalism”.

Pacific Journalism Review founder Dr David Robie and network deputy chair said he was encouraged by the developments and believed that APMN was consolidating its innovative role.

Current editor Dr Philip Cass said work on the July 2023 edition of PJR was underway.

“We have received a number of submissions that fall far outside our frame of reference from very distant countries,” he said.

“While this is slightly puzzling, it does indicate how far our name has travelled.”

‘Excited’ by developments
This second AGM of the network attracted new supporters, including Filipino media educator, filmmaker and PSTv5 podcaster Rene “Direk” Molina and broadcaster and community social media campaigner Ernestina “Tina” Bonsu Maro.

Maro, of Pacific Media Network, who works with Cook Islands and African communities, said she was “excited” by the developments.

“We need more opportunities to tell our own stories,” she said. “The mainstream media isn’t interested in us or our stories.”

Pacific Journalism Review, founded at the University of Papua New Guinea in 1994, has published two independent editions with the APMN, and hopes to celebrate its 30th year in Suva next year.

A presentation was made to AUT scholarly communications librarian Donna Coventry and the Tūwhera digital journals platform in gratitude for the “tremendous” support for PJR since the online edition was launched in 2016.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

The Papua New Guinean government has been bluntly and frankly reminded to leave mainstream media alone as a long awaited consultative workshop on the recently introduced National Media Development Policy took place in Port Moresby.

Media stakeholders stood in unity with the PNG Media Council yesterday to express their concerns on the alleged threat it would pose if the government enforced control over the media in PNG.

Transparency International-PNG chair Peter Aitsi reminded the government that a “free and independent media deters corruption and underpins justice”.

“If we take some more independence away from the media, we [are] only adding more fuel to the flames of corruption,” Aitsi said.

TIPNG’s response to the policy was that licensing through a government-enforced process would be a threat to the media professionals and that there were already existing laws that the media was abiding by.

Also the draft policy did not explain why this was not sufficient to ensure accountability.

Before Aitsi spoke, PNG Media Council president Neville Choi said the purported policy was not encouraged and that the national government’s push to control narrative was not supported.

He stressed that every media house in PNG had its own complaints mechanism, own media code of ethics, code of conducts as guides and that there were laws that the media abided by. He saw no reason, based on the draft policy, for it to be progressed.

‘Lack of government support’
“We remind government, that the current level and standard of journalism performers is largely a result of lack of government support to the journalism schools and institutions in our country,” Choi said.

“And we remind government that before this policy was announced, the Media Council had already begun a reform process to address many of the concerns contained in this draft policy.

“We ask that this process be respected, and supported if there is a will to contribute to improving the work of the media.

“We call for full transparency and clarity on the purpose of this policy, and reject it in its current v2 form.

“And I say this on the record, so that this continues throughout the rest of this consultation process.

“We acknowledge that there are areas of concern from which solutions can be found in existing legislation and currently available avenues for legal redress.

Thank you to @jo_m_chandler @CainTess @SamisoniPareti @DavidRobie Bob Howarth @TI_PNG and host of other stakeholders who submitted feedback on the Media Development Policy. We were able to have good discussions with secretary Matainaho and his team. @SecPNGDICT pic.twitter.com/nTv7SHwlBI

— Scott Waide🌴🌴 (@Scott_Waide) March 2, 2023

‘Too much at stake’
“There is too much at stake for this to be rushed.

“There are too many media stakeholders, both within our country, the region, and internationally, who are watching closely the process of this policy formation.

“We all owe it to our future generations, to do this right.”

Prominent PNG journalist Scott Waide was also also highly critical of the government’s draft policy and warned against it going a step further.

Pacific Media Watch reports that last month Waide wrote a scathing critique of the policy on the Canberra-based DevPolicy blog at the Australian National University.

Gorethy Kenneth is a senior PNG Post-Courier journalist. Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Papua New Guinea’s new media draft policy would put a stop to reporting news not regarded as “positive” for the country’s image, says former PNG Media Council director Bob Howarth.

Howarth, who was director from 2001-2005, said that the national government needed to seriously look at the way the media scene in Timor-Leste had thrived from next to nothing in 1999 when its violent emergence from foreign occupation became full democracy.

“The small nation has the highest press freedom ranking in the region and has a very active press council supported by the UNDP [United Nations Development Programme] and several foreign NGOs,” said Howarth, who as well as advising Timor-Leste media has helped editorial staff on several newspapers.

“[The Timor-Leste Press Council] has a staff of 35 and runs professional training for local journalists in close co-operation with university journalism schools.”

“Visiting foreign reporters don’t need special visas in case they write about ‘non-positive’ issues like witchcraft murders, tribal warfare corruption or unsold Maseratis.”

The National Media Development Policy has been public since February 5 and already it has been soundly criticised for “hasty” consultations on the draft law and a tight deadlne for submissions.

University input
Howarth said that with easier online meetings, thanks to Zoom PNG’s new look, the media council could include input from the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) and Divine Word journalism schools plus a voice from critical regions such as Bougainville, Western Highlands and Goroka.

“And Timorese journalists can easily contact their President, José Ramos-Horta, a staunch defender of press freedom and media diversity, without going through government spin doctors,” he said.

Howarth said the PNG government could look into the media scene in Timor-Leste to do their media policy.

Meanwhile, in Brisbane the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) — Australia’s main union representing journalists — has passed a resolution endorsing support for the PNG Media Council.

“MEAA supports the [MCPNG] concerns about the possible impact of the government’s draft National Media Development Policy on media freedom; regulation of access to information; and the restructuring of the national broadcaster, including proposed reduction in government funding,” said the MEAA resolution.

Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Papua New Guinea’s Communications Minister, Timothy Masiu, recently told a news conference to mark World Press Freedom Day that the state of journalism and broadcasting in the country has seen a general decline.

He was critical of the quality and the content of the media in general.  The former NBC journalist and broadcaster had reported on Bougainville during the decade-long crisis. He had served with former NBC head and senior journalist Joseph Ealedona.

I agreed with him. But I couldn’t let the statement go without challenge.  While many have been critical of the state of “investigative” journalism in the country and the apparent lack of impact the media has had on the corruption and abuse, there has been very little investment in Papua New Guinea’s journalism schools over 25 years.

The University of Papua New Guinea’s journalism programme is a shadow of its former self. The once vibrant newsroom centered department of the 1980s and 1990s no longer functions as it did.

Back then, the university produced journalists who were a force to be reckoned with. They shaped the politics, rubbed shoulders with the political and business heavies and were were unafraid to be openly critical of the government abuses.

At Divine Word University, the people focused approach to journalism and development shaped how rural communities were given a voice.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

A journalist who sailed on board the bombed environmental ship Rainbow Warrior, was arrested at gunpoint in New Caledonia while investigating French military garrisons in pro-independence Kanak villages, and reported on social justice issues across the Pacific has stepped down as founding director of the Pacific Media Centre.

Professor David Robie, 75, an author, academic, independent journalist and journalism professor at Auckland University of Technology, retired this week after more than 18 years at the institution.

He has been working as a journalist for more than 56 years and as an academic for more than 27 years.

As well as playing a role in critical moments of history as a journalist in the region, his students have also covered landmark events that helped shape some Pacific nations, especially in Melanesia – such as the 1997 Sandline mercenary crisis in Papua New Guinea and the George Speight coup in Fiji in May 2000.

But a journalism or academic career were not always clearcut pathways for Dr Robie. During his studies in high school, he was heavily involved in outdoor pursuits and he became a Queen’s Scout.

At the time he was thinking of becoming a professional forester and he was recruited by the NZ Forest Service at 17 in 1963 as a forester cadet with a view to studying for a BSc and then forestry science.

But the same year he was selected to represent New Zealand at a World Jamboree at Marathon Bay, Greece – the site of a famous battle between the Athenians and the Persians in 490 BC.

Future options
This brought his future options to a head.

“At school I was interested in three things – writing, art and mapping/outdoors. So, that’s why I initially wanted to become a forester,” he says.

But going to Greece changed everything. He started his science degree course while working part time at the NZ Forest Service publications division at its headquarters in Wellington. He then realised he was more interested in writing.

“I realised that I didn’t want to spend my life talking with trees, even though I love trees,”

At the end of the year, he became a cadet journalist at The Dominion (now the Dominion Post). Shortly after he became the youngest subeditor at the newspaper.

He later went to Auckland to work as assistant editor on Auto Age magazine, had a short stint on The New Zealand Herald as a subeditor before moving to Australia to join the Melbourne Herald.

While working there in 1968, he was strongly influenced by the student riots in Paris and took a serious interest in politics over the student protests against Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War.

Youngest editor
At 24, he became the youngest editor of a national Sunday newspaper, the Sunday Observer, which campaigned strongly against the Vietnam War.

In his mid-20s, Dr Robie migrated to Johannesburg, South Africa, and was appointed chief subeditor of the Rand Daily Mail, the country’s leading newspaper crusading against the apartheid regime.

Even though Dr Robie’s social justice views as a journalist became shaped while he was working at the Sunday Observer in Melbourne, this was not risky as in South Africa.

“In South Africa, we were really pushed hard. I probably learned most of what I have learned in my career as a journalist in South Africa.

“Mainly because of the threats and experiences. I worked with a number of ‘banned’ and inspirational people, like photojournalist Peter Magubane.

“I was threatened many times and on one occasion I drove Winnie Mandela’s two daughters from their home in Soweto to a multiracial school in Swaziland because Winnie, being banned, could not travel.

“I drove the girls 360 km through roadblocks to take the children to school,” Dr Robie recalls.

Threats against journalists
The late Winnie Mandela was the wife of imprisoned anti-apartheid revolutionary Nelson Mandela who became President of South Africa 1994-1999 and died in 2013. The two daughters are Zindziswa Mandela and Zenani Mandela-Diamini.

While working in South Africa, Dr Robie learned a lot of things he had never experienced in New Zealand – the vital need to campaign for social justice, threats against journalists and jailings, and the role of human rights journalism.

Subsequently, he travelled overland as a freelancer across Africa and ended up in Nairobi, Kenya. There, he worked as group features editor of the Aga Khan’s Daily Nation for a year before travelling to West Africa, Nigeria and across the Sahara Desert to Algeria and France.

In Paris, he camped in the Bois de Boulogne forest until he found a garret to live in a refurbished 17th century building in Rue St Sauveur.

He worked for Agence France-Press global news agency for three years and covered the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games when there was a black African walkout in protest about New Zealand playing rugby against white South Africa.

While working for AFP, he gained familiarity with French foreign colonial policies, and especially the nuclear testing issue in the South Pacific.

He says it was ironic that it took travelling to France for him to “wake up” to the Pacific right on New Zealand’s doorstep.

Foreign editor
Dr Robie returned to New Zealand in 1979 and became foreign editor on the Auckland Star. He started doing trips to the Cook Islands, New Caledonia, Tahiti, Vanuatu and elsewhere as a freelance in his holidays. He thought he might as well go fulltime freelance to do the stories he was interested in.

In 1984, he set up the Asia Pacific Network which he ran for 10 years from his home in Grey Lynn.

He became a chief correspondent for Fiji-based Islands Business news magazine covering investigative and environmental stories and decolonisation issues. He also reported for the Global South news agency Gemini, The Australian, the New Zealand Times, RNZ International and other media.

In 1985, he sailed on board the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior for 11 weeks and took part in the evacuation of islanders from Rongelap Atoll.

French secret agents bombed the Rainbow Warrior on 10 July 1985 and he wrote the book Eyes of Fire: The Last Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior – the first of 10 books.

In early 1987, he was arrested at gunpoint near Canala, New Caledonia, for taking photographs of “nomadisation” style military camps design to intimidate Kanak villagers seeking independence.

In 1993, Dr Robie was appointed as a lecturer and head of the journalism department at the University of Papua New Guinea. His students published the award-winning fortnightly newspaper Uni Tavur and they covered the 1997 Sandline crisis when the military commander arrested foreign mercenaries hired by the PNG government to wage war against rebels on Bouvainville in a “coup that wasn’t a coup”.

PJR launched
While at UPNG, Dr Robie launched Pacific Journalism Review, the only specialised research journal to investigate media issues in the South Pacific, Asia-Pacific, Australia, and New Zealand.

As a journalist and journalism educator, he raises a concern that “most media organisations sent someone to cover a particular event – they go in and they come out. Quickly. It is parachute journalism. Unfortunately, it is not a good way to cover things.

“Often journalists who work on a parachute basis don’t have enough background. They don’t have enough information or the sources to get a deeper understanding of the complex nuances,” he says.

After serving Papua New Guinea as a journalism educator for more than five years, he shifted to the University of South Pacific in Fiji.

In 1998, Dr Robie began his new journey as head of USP’s journalism department. He was teaching while actively writing news articles, academic journal articles, and books.

“One of the lessons I learned as a journalism educator is that a journalism project is the best way to learn,” he says.

He cites the George Speight coup in Fiji in May 2000 when his students covered downtown riots in Suva, the seizure of the elected government in Parliament at gunpoint by Speight’s renegade soldiers, and a protracted siege as an example.

The PMC Project – A short documentary by Alistar Kata. Video: PMC

Crisis website updates
The students updated their website Pacific Journalism Online several times daily at a time when the mainstream newspapers did not have websites and they produced the Wansolwara newspaper that the university tried to confiscate.

“What we were doing is contributing to empowerment. To me, empowerment is really important. It is not just about writing a good story, and things like that. But empowering giving people the information that they need to make decisions in a democracy,” he says.

Dr Robie also gained his PhD in history/politics from the University of the South Pacific as well. After serving the country for five years, he moved back to New Zealand.

Since 2002, Dr Robie joined AUT and became director of the Pacific Media Centre in 2007 and remained editor of Pacific Journalism Review.

He became an associate professor in 2005 and a professor in 2012. During his academic career, Professor Robie gained a number of awards nationally and internationally, including the 2015 AMIC Asia Communication Award in Dubai, Vice-Chancellor’s Teaching Excellence Award in 2011, the PIMA Special Award for Contribution to Pacific journalism in 2011 and the PIMA Pacific Media Freedom award in 2005.

Dr Robie was also an Australian Press Council fellow in 1999, and has been on the editorial boards of Asia-Pacific Media Educator, Australian Journalism Review, Fijian Studies, Global Media Journal and Pacific Ecologist.

He is currently the New Zealand representative of the Asian Media, Information and Communication Centre (AMIC) and a life member. His books are listed at NZ Pen.

One thing can be sure. Social justice will remain high on his ongoing agenda.

Laurens Ikinia is a Papuan Masters in Communication Studies student at Auckland University of Technology who has been studying journalism. He is on an internship with AUT’s Pacific Media Centre.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

How disappointing to read another opinion piece in Australian papers repeating time-old arguments that fail to acknowledge the excellent education in journalism provided by universities around the country, an education many working journalists – and therefore readers – have benefited from.

It is concerning that anyone would argue that there are thousands of journalism graduates in Australia each year. There are not thousands of journalism graduates in Australia, as anyone who has tried to hire one in regional Australia would well know.

At my own university, RMIT, we can barely graduate enough journalism students for the needs of the Victorian news industry.

READ MORE: Back to the future: It’s time to rethink the way we train journalists

Universities in the states also report excellent employment opportunities for recent and soon-to-be graduates.

Australian universities generally offer a more general communications degree that can be used for a range of careers beyond journalism. Very few programmes offer straight journalism degrees and even those that do provide students with a range of courses that give graduates a much greater range of skills than the vocational skills taught in the legacy news organisations of yesteryear.

Thirty years ago, there was some in-house training for journalism cadets. I am also a product of the “straight from high school” cadetship system of this period, and I am acutely aware of its deficits.

On-the-job training at legacy media was well-intentioned and concentrated mostly on correct grammar rather than the skills required for modern reporting.

Critical thinking, research skills
Today’s university graduates who want to become are likely to have completed courses that allow them to manipulate data spreadsheets, create visualisations, fact check and verify information, capture photographs and audio, take photographs, and put together audio and visual packages. They also develop critical thinking and research skills, and learn about politics and the economy.

New technology has provided journalism students with opportunities far beyond what is offered by the legacy media. Media fragmentation and the speed of disseminating information and opinion present opportunities for graduates with a good understanding of how to leverage new technologies and platforms such as social media, digital and interactive TV, and how to produce rich mobile content.

I certainly agree with it would be fantastic to have entry-level journalism students paid while learning. For me, the legacy media is no longer in a position to provide sufficient in-house education to young trainees because they’ve been cut to the bone with no space for training and certainly cannot provide the depth of training that a university offers.

However, I’m sure all educators would welcome legacy news offerings offering paid journalism internships which are already an important part of a journalism university programme.

While some are pessimistic about the industry, I have no hesitation in encouraging anyone interested in a career in journalism to enrol in a university programme. Journalism is not only a fun-filled and exciting course of study, it is one from which, when our work is done well, every Australian benefits.

In short, our work is critical to and underpins civil society.

Dr Alexandra Wake is president of the Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia (JERAA).

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Sri Krishnamurthi, contributing editor of Pacific Media Watch

Desperate times call for desperate measures and so it is with journalism schools throughout the Pacific with each of them trying new and innovative methods in the age of Covid-19 coronavirus.

Faced with the global pandemic, they are following an overarching dictum, safety of students first and then looking at ways of teaching them – albeit remotely.

Without a doubt The Junction, a collaborative university student journalism publication covering Australia, NZ and the Pacific, is a highly creative and enterprising website – and it’s ahead of the game.

READ MORE: Student journos form ‘biggest newsroom’ to cover election

It cut its publishing teeth back in 2018 with the UniPoll Watch project covering the state elections in Victoria and then quickly took off with a national newsroom and live television presentation from Melbourne for the federal election last year.

The coverage was supported by the Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas.

Some 24 universities, including Auckland University of Technology and Massey University, participate in producing The Junction and it has regularly published special collaborative team projects such as climate crisis – and now coronavirus.

The Junction is published by the Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia (JERAA) as its first news website, although it has published a successful research journal, Australian Journalism Review, since 1978.

As pioneering editor and founder Associate Professor Andrew Dodd, director of the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Advancing Journalism, says, “The Junction reflects the output of 24 universities”.

The website adds that The Junction “showcases the best university student journalism from Australia, [New Zealand] and the Pacific and allows universities to work together to produce impactful and creative reportage.”

It takes the students’ work to wider audiences and encourages those audiences to visit the publications of university journalism programmes.

Check the tabs
“The best way to gauge what the universities are doing in Covid-19 coverage is to check their output under the Universities tab. You can click through and see what they’re filing,” says Dr Dodd.

“We’re coping well because we have a diffuse publishing approach. We empower our member universities to publish their best work.

“We set projects (of which coronavirus is one) and parameters and keep watch for quality, but we are unlike The Conversation because our members are experts at commissioning, editing, writing and publishing. So, we encourage them to do just that.

“It’s unlikely they’re coming into a newsroom. The kinds of stories they are working on can be seen by what’s being published.

“But it would be safe to say that many students have embraced the challenge of reporting on coronavirus. One of the parameters we set for that is that it’s done safely.”

Dr Alexandra Wake, journalism programme manager at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), says the current challenges are when innovation takes precedence. She is also president of JERAA.

“RMIT University transformed overnight from face-to-face teaching to a virtual teaching place. Some classes have required little change other than to the parameters of assessment, while others have needed to be re-imagined in light of new production techniques required in the COVID-19 era,” she says.

‘Operating remotely’
“Everything is now operating remotely, publications, radio and television programmes. All sorts of industry-based technologies are being used as well as normal teaching tools.

“My journalism teams are using a mixture of tools – including Teams, email, Canvas Collaborate Ultra, Skype, Slack, Trello.

“Some classes have become Covid-19 free zones, others are drilling down into life around the virus. It depends on the class and the learning outcomes.

“Looking after our student’s mental health is equally as important as their technical skills right now, and it’s important that for at least some of the week they aren’t being consumed by Covid-19.

“We’re finding huge engagement in our online classes, and requests for extra work to be done. We’ve happily obliged and suggested courses in coding, podcasts and books.”

A similar approach has been taken by Professor David Robie, director of AUT’s Pacific Media Centre, a postgraduate research and publication unit.

“I would describe this is as the biggest challenge to journalism schools in my experience since covering the George Speight rogue military coup in Fiji in 2000, when our students at the University of the South Pacific formed a courageous unit and covered the crisis through their newspaper Wansolwara and website Pacific Journalism Online for three months,” says Dr Robie, director of AUT’s Pacific Media Centre, a postgraduate research and publication unit.

‘Character building’
“It is times like these that are tremendous for character building. I always remember the headline on a Commonwealth media freedom magazine that, after interviewing our students, captured the quote, ‘All I needed was a coup to become a journalist’. In a sense, it was true because that bunch all went on to do great things as journalists.”

The PMC last month launched a special coronavirus reporting section on its Asia Pacific Report website with a two-person core and contributors from journalism schools around the region.

“This is an extraordinary pandemic challenge; it is devastating and requires extraordinary response and sacrifices from journalism schools just like most sections of our imperilled society.

“We have a tiny team, but we are flat out producing stories for our coverage through our students and throughout network of academics, journalists and student journalists across the Pacific.

“Apart from doing a series of lockdown wrap-ups each day, we focus stories on Pacific health, climate, social justice, economic, educational, media and political fallout stories as a result of the pandemic.

“At first, we did some Pacific wrap-ups every day, but as other media started doing this, such as RNZ Pacific and Barbara Dreaver’s [TVNZ] Pacific Update – which have far better resources and people at their disposal – we decided to focus on particular stories, either breaking ones that haven’t yet made a mark in New Zealand, or giving a more in-depth background angle.

“Some examples are how we covered the first Covid-19 case in Papua New Guinea (the infected person turned out to be Australian) and the “shoot to kill” order call by a PNG governor on the Indonesian border, which highlighted growing security and border tensions over the virus,” he says.

‘Post-pandemic world’
“It’s all fairly scary really. We also need to reflect on what a post-pandemic world might be shaped like – hopefully a break from the neoliberal economics of our time, so that we can develop a more just and humane world that is capable of constructively engaging with climate change and future health hazards.”

Meanwhile, at Massey University Dr James Hollings, senior lecturer and journalism programme leader, says they have been well prepared.

“Massey was quite well prepared for the lockdown, as Australasia’s leading online or distance learning provider, we already had a lot of online learning – all our courses have an online equivalent for distance students. We had also anticipated the lockdown and set up things for our internal students,” he says.

“Massey University suspended teaching for four weeks. However, before then we had already set up a virtual newsroom for our postgrad students, using Slack as the main communications platform, with Zoom meetings for teaching classes,” Dr Hollings says.

“We are keeping on teaching using these, and they seem to be working. Our students are still required to meet their story quotas and are doing stories and getting them published on Stuff and elsewhere.

“Their spirits were down when they thought the lockdown would stop teaching and waste their year, but were hugely boosted once they realised we could make this virtual newsroom work.

“In fact, this is a really exciting opportunity to be reporting on – a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Zoom tutorials
“For our undergraduate students, we have kept tutorials going by Zoom, and kept up online communication. Zoom attendance is poor, but that may be because they think teaching is suspended,” he says.

However, no such luck with first world problems in Fiji or the Philippines.

“Classes will be taught remotely while the nation-wide restrictions are in place. Internet connection in Fiji is not that fast, and quite expensive relative to the national income, especially for the students,” says Dr Shailendra Singh, journalism co-ordinator at the University of the South Pacific.

The school publishes the award-winning newspaper Wansolwara, that is distributed as a liftout in one of Fiji’s two daily newspapers, and the digital version Wansolwara News.

“We’re trying to work with the few students who are willing and able to volunteer, to provide some coverage, but it’s quite challenging because of cost and other logistical issues.

“In line with the restrictions in Fiji, and in order to safeguard students, we are not imposing on them.

“We are reluctant to expose them to any risks – safety equipment like masks, gloves, hand-sanitisers are both scarce and expensive in Fiji.

“Our coverage is focused on breaking news in Fiji and the region, telephone or email interviews, and media conferences/releases by government departments and other bodies. Given the circumstances, we have to put safety first, improvise, and curtail coverage,” he says.

Lockdown suspension
In the Philippines, Dr Danilo Arao, associate professor at the Department of Journalism, College of Mass Communication, University of the Philippines (UP) says: “Online classes are suspended during the lockdown here in the Philippines. In fact, all academic activities are suspended.”

“In other schools, where online classes (e-learning methods) are ongoing, students keep in touch mainly through the internet, so it can be challenging for those who don’t have access to it.

“Unlike New Zealand, the Philippines has a relatively low internet penetration rate of only a little more than 50 percent.

“Our net connection is one of the slowest in the world, and quite expensive too in relation to our low minimum wage,” he says.

“There is, however, some flexibility when it comes to deadlines and there are also cases where requirements are adjusted to ensure, for example, that students won’t have to go out of their houses to do data gathering and interviews.

The platforms vary depending on the university. Moodle is quite common as a “virtual classroom” of sorts.

Consultations and group meetings are done through popular platforms like Google Hangouts and Skype. Zoom is fast catching up as a go-to platform for webinars, and class meetings.

Social media uses
“Social media like Facebook and Twitter are, on the other hand, used for announcements, particularly FB Messenger app to create group chats (GCs).

“It’s safe to say that we are very stressed given the uncertainty. What compounds our worries is the inefficiency of our government in handling the crisis.”

He spoke out against the government of the President.

“While New Zealand is lucky to have a Jacinda Ardern, we are practically cursed for having Rodrigo Duterte,” says Arao, who was a keynote speaker at the recent Safeguarding Press Freedom conference in Manila.

“Filipino humour is at its best right now as we try to cope with the stress. But the widespread militancy is evident as hashtags like #OustDuterte and #ICantStandthePresident becoming trending topics, not just here but also worldwide.

“Every now and then, we call out not just Duterte but some government officials and Duterte supporters for their sense of privilege or outright incompetence, or both.”

Back at AUT and Canterbury, journalism schools have been gearing up for online teaching when the second semester resumes.

‘Similar work’
“Once we’re up and running, the journalism students will be doing similar work to what they would have but in different contexts,” says AUT’s head of department – journalism Dr Greg Treadwell. The department publishes Te Waha Nui.

“They’ll be busy in news reporting papers, writing stories generated by at-distance interviewing techniques.],” says Dr Treadwell, who is also president of the Journalism Education Association of New Zealand (JEANZ).

“We’re all having to learn new ways of doing journalism. But we’ll have all the usual courses in law and ethics, public-affairs reporting, visual journalism, investigative journalism and so on.

“Even the photojournalism class will be active, documenting their bubbles and the ways its members are coping with the Covid-19 crisis. We’ll still be able to teach the techniques of newsgathering and news production, but perhaps we’ll need to help students develop those storytelling techniques in original and different ways.

“For example, our Newsday, in which students would normally work in our AUT newsroom, will now take place in cyberspace, as so many newsrooms around the world are having to do. So, in fact it’s still helping students grasp the issues they will face in the industry.

“We’ll definitely be looking for stories on Covid-19 that sit within the kaupapa.”
And Dr Tara Ross, senior lecturer in journalism at Canterbury University, confirms they also be going to online courses.

Cyclone Harold hammering
The last word falls to Ben Bohane, a celebrated Australian photojournalist, author and TV producer who has covered Asia and the Pacific islands and done short course training in the region for the past 30 years.

At the time of contacting him, the inaugural $10,000 Sean Dorney Grant winner for Pacific Journalism in 2019 was hunkered down in Vanuatu as Cyclone Harold was hammering the Islands.

“One thing I have long admired about David’s [Robie] approach has been to marry both theory and practice, by having students run Wansolwara newspaper and Pacific Media Watch and other initiatives.

“Students need theory but also practice (practical/technical skills). Given the situation with Covid-19 and isolation, you may need a mix of online mentoring, assignments (e.g. make a diary at home, make a little film or podcast) and think about how they can contribute to information flow from their own home communities,” he says.

“I always press upon the idea of reading and self-educating to students. Just getting them inspired with the lives and work of the great correspondents is one way to get them motivated and thinking about stories they can do.

“They could also be researching stories about historical pandemics that have affected the Pacific such as smallpox in Samoa and many other places.”

A myriad of ways for journalism schools to be inspired and to keep future journalists interested and motivated in the time of Covid-19.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz