Pasifika media scholarship winners set their goals

By Josephine Latu: Pacific Media Centre

Two new Pasifika scholarship students have joined the Bachelor of Communication Studies degree programme at AUT University this year - and hope to inspire young people in their communities to follow their lead.

Jordan Puati, 20, and Krissy Rangi, 18, have been awarded AUT/Pacific Islands Media Association (PIMA) Pasifika communication scholarships.

PIMA chair and Māori Television investigative journalist Iulia Leilua presented the prizes at the School of Communications Studies awards on March 31 – a special ceremony to celebrate student achievements and acknowledge supporters.

“The AUT/PIMA award is to support a new generation of Pacific people in their studies and to show them a career in the media is achievable. People are creative, but they need support,” said Leilua.

The AUT sponsorship covers tuition costs for both Rangi and Puati until they graduate, subject to annual reviews of progress.

“Pasifika students have the potential to tell our stories in an authentic way, and they also have the potential to show that they can have a mainstream perspective as well, rather than just being pigeonholed for Pacific Islands material,” she added.

Natural performer
Jordan Puati was born in London, raised in Wellington, before moving to the Cook Islands for his high school education.

A natural performer, Puati has travelled around the region performing Cook Islands music and dance, and is looking towards a career in TV presenting or advertising.

If he succeeds, Puati plans to use his profile to encourage youth in Pacific Island communities in New Zealand as well as the Cook Islands.

“It’s a big deal. For Cook Islanders, if they see someone else doing it, then it’s not so hard to do it themselves. It would feel good to give something back and to make things easier for other Pacific Islanders,” he said.

Although he is the only Pacific Islander in one of his classes, Puati sees it as a chance to give a Pasifika point of view.

“You don’t have to see your Pacific Island identity as a barrier. It’s a positive thing.”

Creative streak
Krissy Rangi is Samoan-Maori and has shown a strong creative streak since her years at Selwyn College in Mission Bay.

“I started being interested in photography, but now I’m interested in moving images. It’s fascinating,” she said.

For Rangi, media is relevant to young generations because of its creative potential, although it “needs to be suitable for the younger audiences because they are growing up too fast".

While she is also outnumbered in her classes as a Pacific Islander, Rangi urges Pasifika students not to be “put off”.

“Just do it,” she said. “I’m loving it. The programme is everything I wanted to do”

Former recipients of the award have gone on to successful careers in the industry, including Leilani Moimoisea (Radio New Zealand), Kitekei’aho Tu’akalau (Pacific Media Network), Christine Gounder (Radio NZ), John Pulu (TNews/TVNZ) and Taberannang Korauba (Pacific Community News).

Among other scholarships presented was the inaugural Kiwi Asian Journalism Scholarship sponsored by the Asia New Zealand Foundation, which has been awarded to nurse Corazon Miller, a fluent Tagalog speaker.

The foundation also supports the AUT/China Daily Journalism Scholarships, organised by the Pacific Media Centre. Michelle Ong and Lucy Mullinger have won the three-month internships in Beijing this year.

Winner of this year's inaugural Indian Newslink Postgraduate Journalism Scholarship is Imogen Crispe and Alisha Lewis has won the TVNZ Diversity Journalism Scholarship. PMC director Dr David Robie presented the Asia NZ Foundation scholarships on behalf of media adviser Charles Mabbett and the Indian Newslink award for editor Venkat Rahman.

News chief Cliff Joiner presented the TVNZ scholarship.

Pictures: Top: PIMA's deputy chair Chris Lakatani (fom left), Jordan Puati, PIMA chair Iulia Leilua and Krissy Rangi. Middle: Iulia Leilua; senior lecturer Rosemary Brewer presents the top year one BCS award to Kimberlee Downs, winner of last year's TVNZ diversity award; PMC's Dr David Robie with the China Daily scholarship winners Lucy Mullinger and Michelle Ong. Below: Scholarship winners Krissy Rangi, Corazon Miller, Lucy Mullnger, Michelle Ong and Imogen Crispe. Photos: Josephine Latu and Del Abcede



For more information on the AUT-PIMA and other diversity opportunities, visit the AUT School of Communications Studies scholarships webpage.

Awards and scholarships photo gallery

Budding AUT Māori, Pasifika filmmakers now have sights on media industry

By Violet Cho: Pacific Media Centre

Winners at AUT University’s inaugural Flavorz09 film festival for student video makers on Friday night say they are now inspired to break into the industry.

Sophie Johnson, who won the year three prize of $350 for her 12 minute documentary, The Makings of a Kaitiaki, was delighted with her success.

“I worked quite closely with a group of eight people and I know how hard each of them worked. I feel really honoured to receive this tonight,” she said.

“It was so amazingly rewarding. Then to be able to see your images up on the big screen like this, and see people’s reactions, it is so rewarding.”

The film was a short biopic about kuia Nganeko Minhinnick, a kaitiaki of the Manukau.

Hosting the public showing of 11 Māori, Pasifika and diversity short films for AUT’s Pacific Media Centre, presenter John Utanga, a producer of TVNZ’s Tagata Pasifika programme, was impressed with the quality.

Utanga, who is also chair of the PMC, pledged to consider some of the programmes for possible broadcast.

His message to communication studies students was to strive for quality work and to have a good attitude.

‘Affectionate look’
The second-year prize of $150 went to Karleen Bidois, Ashleigh McEnaney and Natasha Munton for their four minute documentary Ka Tuituia, described as an “affectionate look at Isabella Sharrock, her whanau and her Karakeke taonga”.

Bidois said she hoped to work with Māori Television when she graduated.

“I feel emotional, excited and very surprised by the outcome. But I also know that I worked really hard to produce such a film from the bottom of my heart.”

She had not realised her passion for media before coming to AUT.

“Now I am hungry for it and I want to do it for the rest of my life.”

Organiser Dr David Robie, director of the Pacific Media Centre, said the festival was an “inspirational showcase” for quality programmes being made by students on Māori and Pasifika themes.

One film, Beyond the Ropes, also featured women’s wrestler Sangita Patel, a New Zealand-born Indian known in the business as “Alita Capri”.

Tongan music
Strong applause also greeted the documentary The Modern Afo of Tonga, directed by John Pulu, which features Tonga Kru and Three Houses Down and examines temporary Tongan music styles.

Pulu’s programme is being broadcast on the Pacific Viewpoint television show.

The festival was supported by television staff, including acting curriculum leader James Nicholson and Jim Marbrook, and Tui O’Sullivan, equity coordinator in AUT’s Faculty of Design and Creative Technologies, who also gave a mihi.

O’Sullivan said she was delighted with the festival.

“It would be great if it could be an annual event because the calibre of the work is really impressive.”

Pictured: Top: Kuia Nganeko Minhinnick in a still from Sophie Johnson's The Makings of a Kaitiaki; presenter John Utanga, of Tagata Pasifika; and television lecturer Jim Marbrook with students. More pictures on Pacific Scoop.

Violet Cho is a postgraduate journalism student from Burma in AUT’s School of Communication Studies.

Bullets and mines give Violet's job an edge

By Brenda Cottingham

The first thing Burmese journalist Violet Cho noticed about New Zealand’s news media was its different news priorities – like a burglary story on page one of the NZ Herald.

The kind of journalism she does involves avoiding being shot or having her limbs blown off by land mines.

“I couldn’t believe that a burglary would be so important that it warranted being on page one,” she told Whitireia Journalism School students during a visit to Wellington this month.

She is surprised at the New Zealand media’s lack of international coverage and focus on local issues.

Violet has emerged from the unlikely roots of a Thai refugee camp, and is in New Zealand taking her journalism education a step further.

She fled Myanmar/Burma (she uses both names) with her family to Thailand when she was seven, and says growing up in a refugee camp was not easy.

A lot of young people were depressed in the camps, which indirectly spawned journalism and led to her career.

She was taught basic journalism by a South African woman, and with the help of the camp’s community leader, was able to covertly set up a radio transmitter within her camp, which raised spirits.

Telling the stories
Since taking up journalism, she has aimed to tell the stories of the people, but says getting even a simple story could prove dangerous and difficult because of the Burmese military presence.

In 2005, she risked her life reaching a remote Burmese village.

“The Burmese conflict policy is to shoot on sight,” says Violet.

The people of the village were teaching children to use whatever materials they had, which included a large stone-face used as a blackboard.

Violet, an indigenous Karen, holds a Burmese passport, and says Burma is a corrupt country where those in power do not share the wealth, and drugs and trafficking are just a few of the problems.

After she completes her journalism studies at Auckland University of Technology, she hopes to visit her family, who now live in America, before returning to work in Thailand.

Her dream is to see a free Myanmar and to work there.

Violet - who is hosted in New Zealand on the AUT University's Pacific Media Centre inaugural Asian Journalism Fellowship supported by the Asia: NZ Foundation - would like NZ journalists to visit Myanmar to write about the lives of the people and their hardships.

Picture: Violet Cho at Whitireia. Photo: Brenda Cottingham

Brenda Cottingham is a student journalist at Whitireia Journalism School in Wellington. This story was published originally on Newswire.

Karen journalist in critical voice for change
In exile - Bryan Crump on Radio NZ National's Nights (Nov 2)

Broadcasters, writers face up to NZ demographic media challenges

By Jessica Harkins: Pacific Media Centre

Challenge noun: a task or request requiring special effort.

If ever there was a word used to describe the task facing our broadcasters in the coming decade, it would be this, if last week’s ethnic diversity broadcasting forum is anything to go by.

New Zealand on Air and the Office of Ethnic Affairs hosted the forum to ask: How will the changing demography of New Zealand be served and represented in the broadcasting media?

It brought together producers, writers and broadcasters from across the country to discuss the changing face of New Zealand, and what that change might mean for their industry.

According to many of those present, special effort was most definitely required to address the evolving demographic landscape.

British High Commissioner George Fergusson says there are some “fascinating challenges” in New Zealand. He quipped, “It’s not like Britain anymore.”

He said that Britain faces some of the same challenges faced in New Zealand, but that both countries “ended up at the same square quite differently,” referring to the varying diasporas within each nation.

Fergusson emphasised the need to serve the diasporas at least as much as the mainstream.

Open media
As well as the British High Commissioner, the forum was addressed by the BBC World Service’s Murray Holgate, who was quick to say that he wouldn’t be reminiscent of Brits past, who also came to New Zealand and “talked a lot.”

“I’m not going down the route of saying what you should do,” he said

“What we have is a really advanced and open media environment that brings us a lot of challenges,” he said, bringing up the “c” word again.

He spoke of the competitive nature of broadcasting throughout the world.

“We used to be the window to the world to our audiences in this area [South Asia], which we no longer are, because the local broadcasters are bringing the world to their audiences now too.”

He made it clear that the issue was not just putting different coloured faces on the telly, or different accents on the wireless, but included addressing the “hideously white” nature of the BBC’s newsrooms.

“There are many levels at which discrimination operates. It’s part of human nature to emphasise differences rather than things in common.”

To try to alleviate this, the BBC has implemented a policy in recruiting that says if there is a candidate who is of an ethnic minority, it must be proven why that person cannot have the job.

Policy success
He says this policy has been a success so far.

“As a consequence, certainly at the lower levels of the BBC, there is a far better spread of minorities. At the management levels the BBC is still rather hideously white, it has yet to travel up the organisation.

“At World Service on the other hand, many, many of the top jobs are from the target audience. It has allowed us to be more successful, in a world which is changing very rapidly and which could leave the BBC very isolated, it has allowed us to compete. Rather than seeing different ethnicity as a cost, it is actually seen as revenue for us, something that has value,” he added.

Holgate says one of the many advantages of having diversity in the staff at the BBC World Service is in having your target audience in the building. He believes a lot of time has been saved in having people in the know within the organisation.

He explains by using China as an example. He says that many of the FM radio frequencies are used as travel stations, where the traffic situation is updated, sometimes 24/7.

“Radio has taken on a whole different meaning in Beijing than say, in London. Again, if you haven’t got the people there, you’re not going to know this. You can sit there pumping out your shortwave until you’re blue in the face, and nobody’s listening to you,” he says in his polished blue-blooded accent.

When it comes to the World Service, Holgate believes one of the most important things to think about is language.

“We broadcast to linguistic groups,” he said, “we tend to leave the ethnic group out of it.

“We are broadcasting in a language because that language is about communication,” he added.

Culture preservation
Jim Blackman, chief executive of Triangle and Stratos, says: “As New Zealand changes its face, there is a need to focus more keenly on the preservation of culture, and the preservation of language.”

But he also had some choice words for the forum attendees, and perhaps its organisers.

He relates his thoughts when first asked to partake in the forum.

“I thought; how come cultural diversity has become the new black? After all we’ve been doing it for the past ten years. Not only in Auckland, but also over the past 18 months, nationwide, on Triangle Stratos.”

Blackman says: “The problem with ethnic broadcasting is that it’s not commercial, it’s not mainstream enough for the mainstream people because there ain’t no money in it sunshine.”

Jim added that the challenge facing all small channels over the next few years is the switch to digital broadcasting, which has a huge cost attached to it.

Radio, a medium that doesn’t have the same costs as television is arguably faring the best of the two, due to the reduced cost in setting up a station.

Dozens of niches
Terri Byrne from Planet FM says: “The market, or audience as I prefer to think of it, has splintered into dozens of niches.”

She says this split has benefited radio in New Zealand, by giving rise to some of the highest per capita numbers of radio stations in the world.

“Auckland with 50 stations has more than New York or London,” she says.

Planet FM is an access radio station, which broadcasts in more than 50 languages, all made by people of those language and ethnic groups.

“Minority is mainstream, and in 2020 will be more so,” said Byrne.

She quotes Bob Geldof: “The future belongs to those who make their own media.”

“New Zealand is fabulously diverse, and when what was once mainstream media catches up with that it will hand over the tools, relax the editorial control, embrace the new aesthetic and discover the riches already being expressed in a thousand ways,” she added.

She says Planet FM’s philosophy is about giving cultural groups a channel for expression, what she sees as the true definition of what public broadcasting is. As Leslie Rule (US academic and commentator) puts it: “It’s now more about broadcasting the public”.

Byrne’s hopes for the future are clear.

“It will not be about “them” becoming like “us”, and hopefully by 2020 it will not even be about “them” explaining themselves to “us”. Hopefully it will be about all of us discovering who we are as a nation.”

New settlers
Julia Parnell, producer of TVNZ programme Minority Voices, a show that focuses on new settlers to New Zealand, talked about some of the motivation behind the show. What did they want to find out from the people they featured?

“We asked them; “What do you want to say both to your own communities and to wider New Zealand?” “What do you think people need to know about you and your experiences settling here?”

She added: “The fact is, these people already know what they need to assimilate. They know exactly what wider NZ needs to know about them. They know how to live in NZ, they just need to be heard.

“Once we understand the needs and dreams of new New Zealanders, the “other” will become the “familiar” in New Zealand broadcasting. And from there true diversity will come.”

Keynote speaker Shaun Brown of SBS Australia opened his comments to attendees with a compliment.

“In my opinion, New Zealand is, in at least some respects, ahead of Australia in confronting and debating the issue of diversity in programme making.”

His comments were met with surprise by some people in the audience, who recall his past views of ethnic diversity in the media while news executive at Television NZ, which were somewhat different from those he expressed last week.

Browning era
Bharat Jamnadas of Asia Downunder remarked that we had witnessed “the browning of Shaun Brown!”

“Perhaps he realises the meaning of his surname now,” he laughed.

Brown’s history in New Zealand broadcasting aside, what he said on Thursday was acknowledged positively.

“Seeing indigenous faces on our screens and experiencing indigenous stories should be an incidental part of our television consumption – not something that is token or categorised as ‘special event’ television, or something that is the exclusive domain of public broadcasting,” he said.

Brown also pointed out the importance of SBS as a public service in the Australian media landscape.

“Prior to SBS, diversity or foreignness was presented as unpronounceable, unpalatable or incomprehensible in the Australian media landscape. Some would argue that the broader Australian media has done little to correct this imbalance.

He said that diversity in the newsroom was also an issue.

Behind the scenes
“I can acknowledge that behind the scenes we are open to criticism for not having enough cultural diversity in our management and programming teams.

Brown is not a fan of quotas, saying they can produce “artificial results” or give the impression that staff appointed in this manner “have not got there on their own merits.”

“However,” he adds, “people in leadership positions both in New Zealand and Australia can and must do more to foster talent in the independent production sector and to entice talented people from indigenous and multicultural backgrounds into the broadcasting sector in a range of roles.

“Diversity in our industry must become just as important and front of mind as diversity on our screens.”

Tapu Misa, New Zealand Herald columnist and chair of one panel of speakers, remarked: “There is a danger of talking too much among ourselves” in terms of narrow broadcasting that isn’t aimed at a mainstream audience.

Arguably, her comments can be transferred to the people who attended and listened to each other talk of the virtues of ethnic diversity in the broadcasting industry.

In a demographic that’s constantly changing, this is no easy feat. But the challenge has been laid.

Jessica Harkins is a postgraduate Bachelor of Communication Studies (Honours) student on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course at AUT University. Pictures of Tapu Misa and NZ On Air's Anna Cottrell (top) and SBZ's Shaun Brown are by Del Abcede (PMC).

BBC World Service
Cafe Pacific on the 'browning of NZ media'
Minority Voices
SBS Australia
Tapu Misa's New Zealand Herald articles

Planet FM - from minority broadcasting to mainstream

By Terri Byrne

In 1987, the Auckland Ethnic Council founded a radio station that would:
- allow non-English communities to hear their languages, their news, music and literature that
- would represent their culture, values and beliefs, and
- would allow them to have a public presence in a land they had lived in for decades if not generations.

Today that station is 22 years old and the most diverse medium in the country. Planet FM has full schedules, broadcasting in 50 languages, all made by the language groups concerned. It is multicultural and cross-cultural. Radio represents 42 percent of the media day. It is portable, intimate, comparatively inexpensive to make and always free-to-air.

Sadly though, this public broadcasting service is not adequately funded. The major constraint on its content is the need for the programme makers to pay to air their material.

One of our hopes for 2020 or much sooner is that those with the least ability to pay are no longer the only ones who have to pay for media that’s relevant to them.

Currently the station is obliged to choose those who pay, rather than those with the best ideas or the most needed content.

However, they are often the same thing and the programmes are vigorously supported by their contributing communities, with research revealing figures between 60 and 80 percent of targeted communities listening to their shows.

Around today’s forum I hear a lot of references to “mainstream” media, which I believe is an increasingly dinosaur concept.

Already SKY brings 80+ channel options to 50 percent of NZ households, there are another seven free-to-air and two digital-only TV channels and a range of regional channels. A number of our broadcasters have satellite dishes to pull in own-language television.

There are 212 radio stations in NZ and Auckland, with 50+ radio stations has more than New York or London. The commercial stations run an array of brands over about 140 stations. The national public broadcaster is on frequencies throughout the country including for a select minority on Concert FM. There are 11 community access stations nationwide, as well as student radio stations and countless LPFM stations.

About 60 percent of NZ homes are web-connected, more than half are broadband connected. The online population of this country is equivalent to 85 percent of the population.

So the market – or the audience as I prefer to think of us – has splintered into dozens of niches.

Minority is Mainstream and in 2020 will be more so.

To quote Bob Geldof, a man who has led the way in many areas of media:

“The future belongs to those who build their own media.”

We’re delighted that Planet FM is ahead of the curve on all this.

• We recognise the hundreds of niche broadcasters and their listeners …
• We facilitate the making of their own media
• We do not exercise editorial control, ensuring freedom of cultural and social expression…
• We support local.
• And we ensure their productions are archived for on-demand, online listening 5 minutes after broadcast – along with a range of other multi-lingual information services for settlers.

It is our belief that in 2020 we’ll all be shopping for our media on multiple platforms and the content will often be of our own devising rather than from a schedule devised for advertisers
addressing matters deemed relevant by programmers with a narrow cultural focus.

Already music radio is an iPod, but informational, entertaining and community-enabling content is flourishing.

Already NZ is fabulously diverse and when what was once mainstream media catches up with that, it will:

• hand over the tools,
• Relax the editorial controls,
• Embrace the new aesthetic
• And discover the riches already being expressed in a thousand ways.

It will not be about “them” becoming like “us” or hopefully by 2020, it will not even be about “them” explaining themselves to “us”. Hopefully it will be about all of us discovering who we are becoming as a nation.

And we should not imagine that only non-English audiences are interested in so called “ethnic” content. Māori Television attracts between 50 and 70 percent non-Māoriviewers.

In discussing the aging of PBS’s demographic with Gareth Watkin, Leslie Rule at KQED in San Francisco says:

“It’s about changing the idea of what public broadcasting is. It’s now more about “broadcasting the public."

This will require funding policies that are about where we are headed, rather than where we’ve been. Policies that promote equity of access to services.

Government agencies with responsibilities to non-English populations will take a leaf from the efforts of our Pacific people and make it mandatory for information campaigns to be extended - so if cervical screening is best understood in Farsi or Russian it is aired that way, that Tamil and Arabic communities are alerted to social policies, that education projects are broadcast in Tagalog and Amharic.

In 1975, SBS Radio came into being as a three-month experimental service to explain Australia’s new healthcare system. Now, independent audience surveys of Australia’s largest language groups show that for the majority, SBS Radio is their primary source of information about government and community services.

The Australian government spends in excess of $20 million of Vote Broadcasting on non-English radio and more again in information campaigns.

The least we can do is add existing multilingual broadcasters to government agency advertising budgets.

Terri Byrne is broadcast manager of Planet FM, run by Access Community Radio Inc. It was an address delivered at the NZ On Air seminar on diversity - "Screen and Heard: NZ Broadcast Audiences in 2020" in Auckland on 4 June 2009.

Pacific Beat producer calls on ethnic groups to 'break into' mainstream

Thakur Ranjit Singh: Pacific Media Centre

Ethnic communities need to break into the mainstream media by telling inclusive stories and giving the message that Pacific people are part of New Zealand, says a leading television producer.

Stan Wolfgramm, producer of Pacific Beat Street, says his own German, Tongan and Cook Islands heritage prepared him for a balancing act of operating in a commercial as well as a cultural environment.

He was speaking in a panel of television journalists and producers speaking about “finding the ethnic voice” at the diversity broadcasting forum in Auckland today hosted by NZ On Air in association with the Office of Ethnic Affairs.

Julia Parnell, producer of Minority Voices, said she sought to create programmes that provided opportunities to recent migrants, minorities giving their version of experiences in adjusting and settling in a new country.

She said her programmes allowed people to say what they wanted to say and to help them assimilate.

Her programmes were meant to be a springboard to promote cross-cultural understanding, assimilation and true diversity.

Bharat Jamnadas, senior reporter of Asia Downunder, said his programmes produced a magazine style, topical, relevant and entertaining - primarily targeted at the Asian communities but also to anybody wishing to get information on diverse people of New Zealand.

He said his programmes showed positive people stories with general interest.

'Freak stories'
They could easily be taken on board mainstream television programmes, but the networks tended to show “freak stories that may not be necessarily reflective of the Asian community”.

He said programmes needed to be more integrated, as ordinary stories about ordinary people should be part of the mainstream media and showed at prime time.

Jamnadas called for more diversity to be included in the mainstream media programmes.

Rachel Jean, head of drama in TV3, had ventured on making a drama series but ended up making a story on diversity depicting South Auckland, based at Otara Market, entitled, The Market.

She said drama was helpful in changing ethnic perceptions of people.

She criticised lack of funding and the programme being slotted late at night.

Her other drama, Ride with the Devil, involved a core Chinese cast and she said “true representation happens through drama”.

However, Jamnadas was critical of the programme, saying "it was too much of a stereotype with a Chinese boy racer as the lead role".

The panel argued that diversity ought to be incorporated in drama series and TV programmes.

NZ on Air was praised for organising such forums to air the views that would contribute to promoting change in funding policies to introduce more diversity in broadcast media.

Thakur Ranjit Singh is a postgraduate communication studies student attached to the Pacific Media Centre. Photo of Stan Wolfgramm and Bharat Jamnadas by Del Abcede.

Asia Downunder
Minority Voices
NZ On Air
Pacific Beat Street
Ride With The Devil
The Market

NZ media faces growing challenge over 'ageing, more ethnic' population

By Josephine Latu: Pacific Media Watch

The New Zealand media is expected to tackle some major changes over their audience base within the next 20 years due to a population transformation, says a leading demographer.

The director of the Population Studies Centre at Waikato University, Professor Richard Bedford, says the New Zealand population as a whole is not only growing older, it is evolving quickly in terms of ethnic diversity.

In fact, by the year 2021, current statistical projections show that the Asian population will have increased by more than 70 percent, the Pacific Islander population by 44 percent, and the Māori population by about 24 percent since 2006.

New Zealanders of European or “other” ethnic backgrounds (including from African and South American and other nations) are altogether predicted to increase by just below 6 percent in the same timeframe.

The number of people aged over 35 is also set to swell for all ethnic groups. Figures showed that between 2006 and 2021, those aged 35 and over will increase by 22 percent, compared to only about 5 percent for those under 35.

Professor Bedford presented his seminar as part of today’s forum on ethnic diversity in broadcasting, hosted by NZ On Air in association with the Office of Ethnic Affairs.

Titled “Screen and Heard, New Zealand Broadcast Audiences in 2020”, the event brought together decision-makers and leaders from various broadcasting backgrounds – including regional, mainstream and indigenous media - to discuss how the country’s changing demography will be served and represented on TV and radio.

Speakers included Minister of Ethnic Affairs Pansy Wong; managing director of Australia’s Special Broadcasting Service Shaun Brown; ethnic and English network manager from the BBC World Service, Murray Holgate; and Triangle TV chief executive Jim Blackman.

Professor Bedford added that despite the increase in ethnic diversity, “the reality of New Zealand’s population dynamics is that… the great majority is going to be older Pākehā descent people.”

At the same time, trends varied greatly by area and ethnic group. For instance, Dunedin and Hamilton had a disproportionately large population in their late teens and early 20s, reflecting the effect of universities.

Pacific Islander and Māori populations were also predicted to have a much younger population in 2021 than other groups.

'Finding the balance'
“The challenge [for media] is finding the balance in meeting the needs of these different communities,” he said.

Associate director of programming for TV3 Andrew Szusterman commented on the changing trends in demography, saying that as broadcasters, the media industry had to appeal to the broadest audience and reflect popular demand.

“We try to represent the populace – it’s about being with them at the same stage,” he told Pacific Media Watch.

According to Szusterman, TV3’s target demographic was mainly 18-49 year olds, and popular shows such as Outrageous Fortune, Target and Moneyman appealed to such a broad age group.

However, the commercial focus of the mainstream trade also meant that some ethnically based shows such as bro’Town and A Thousand Apologies would not have succeeded even five years ago because there was too little demand.

This had since changed.

“[Commercialism] is not a criticism, but an actuality of mainstream media,” added Szusterman.

'Coffee-colour' mix
Meanwhile, regional broadcaster Triangle Stratos chief executive Jim Blackman saw the profit-driven element as a threat to diversity.

“As long as you have a commercial imperative, you’ll never see true representation – just lip service,” he said.

He called for more multicultural representation on a mix of programmes to reflect New Zealand’s “coffee colour”.

The latest edition of Pacific Journalism Review with the cover theme “Diversity, identity and the media”, published by the Pacific Media Centre, was also launched at the conference.

NZ Human Rights Commission principle adviser on race relations Samuela Sefuiva launched the edition, complimenting AUT for its contribution to diversity affairs.

Josephine Latu is contributing editor of the PMC's Pacific Media Watch. Bro'Town graphic from NZ On Air. Picture of Sam Sefuiva by Del Abcede.

NZ on Air
NZ Population Studies Centre
Office of Ethnic Affairs

New Pacific journalism course to boost media opportunities

By Violet Cho: Pacific Media Centre

A new Pacific-focused journalism course is scheduled for opening next year to address a shortage of Pasifika journalists in the media industry and to help provide more cutting-edge reporting in the region.

With the core expectation of increasing the numbers of trained working journalists from Pacific Island communities, AUT University and the Pacific Islands Media Association have initiated the one-year Graduate Diploma in Pacific Journalism to encourage more young islanders to join the media.

A Television New Zealand digital channel presenter and author, Sandra Kailahi, says it is urgent to increase the number of trained Pacific journalists and to generate more interest in Pacific media.

“We hope this course will address the serious shortage of trained Pasifika journalists in New Zealand and to also support the education of regional Pacific journalists,” says Kailahi, a former vice-chair of PIMA.

“Another objective is to encourage palagi [non-Pasifika] students and journalists to extend their cross-cultural understanding and reporting skills,” she added.

Aaron Taouma, who recently stepped down as acting chair of PIMA, says the number of Pacific Islands people in the media generally is small - and within journalism is even smaller.

The number of trained journalists in proportion to the population is below other major demographic groups.

“Providing training in journalism therefore provides greater skills for those who wish to enter the industry and also stimulates the industry in terms of providing an avenue for training in the first place,” says Taouma.

Pasifika perspective
According to PIMA, “Pacific journalism” means journalism from the perspective of indigenous Pacific Islanders, involving stories about their affairs and issues.

This comprises several distinct ethnic populations, including Cook Island Māori, Fijian, Kiribati, Niuean, Samoan, Tahitian, Tokelauan, Tongan and Tuvaluan.

Involved in the initial stages of developing the course, Taouma says “the programme is providing an avenue for students from various ethnic groups to gain training in journalism.”

Dr David Robie, associate professor in communication studies and director of the Pacific Media Centre at AUT, who steered the new programme through the government approval process, says this type of niche course is an innovation in New Zealand.

“This new course targets Pasifika students and we hope that it will contribute to a growing number of Pacific journalists joining the media industry,” he says.

The programme will start in March 2010 and is designed for mature students, people who do not necessarily have formal qualifications but have experience in the media industry, and those who have done a degree in another field but want to get started in journalism.

It is also open to journalists from the South Pacific region.

Embedded papers
As part of the programme, students will take core journalism courses within AUT’s Bachelor of Communication Studies, as well as new papers such as Māori and Pasifika media industry and reporting the South Pacific region.

“It is a journalism course embedded in our broad journalism programme so people will get all the core journalism that everybody else gets. But they will get more than other students because they have special value-added Pacific papers,” says Dr Robie.

“The programme will also be taught by Pasifika journalists.”

Isabella Rasch, Pasifika student support adviser at AUT University, believes the journalism programme will allow a growth of indigenous voices to be acknowledged within the media industry.

“It’s important that Pasifika journalists are not being seen as a minority or as the ‘other’,” she says.

She also suggests that the curriculum make good use of Polynesian and Māori ways of knowing, storytelling, oral dynamics, and traditional speaking as a main part of the learning.

New Zealand used to have a Pacific-focused journalism course in the past but it closed in the early 1990s due to lack of funding.

Some Pasifika journalists say this has left a gap in the industry in terms of turning out a high number of Pacific journalists.

Filling a gap
Many of the leading Pasifika journalists working in the industry today in New Zealand were the products from this journalism training. They include prominent journalists such as Tapu Misa, Barbara Dreaver, Niva Retimanu, Joe Lose, Sandra Kailahi, Lito Vilisoni and John Utanga.

The programme also aims to fill a gap in New Zealand mainstream media, which critics say has been failing to sufficiently represent and reflect Māori and Pasifika voices.

“I think it would help mainstream media to break down some of the stereotypes that they portray and have about Pacific people in everyday stories,” says Kailahi.

“We can also get to tell the story the way we want to and with our own people.

“There is an increasing call for journalism education and training to help Pasifika journalists tell our stories and provide our side of the debate. This course will allow that to happen.

“Plus it will be great to see more brown faces on TV in mainstream media and in newspaper bylines,” she says.

Journalism is not high on the agenda as a career choice for many Pacific parents and some have a limited awareness of the profession - such as simply thinking it is about being on TV.

Aaron Taouma says Pasifika journalists have an indepth knowledge of their own communities in which they report and they have experienced many problems such as trials and triumphs these communities face.

“More Pacific Island journalists means there is a greater understanding and therefore greater prospects for balance and solutions to social problems within society as a whole,” he says.

Violet Cho is the 2009 Asian Journalism Fellow attached to the Pacific Media Centre. She is on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course. Pictured: Sandra Kailahi (top) and Dr David Robie.

Course information about the Graduate Diploma in Pacific Journalism

PJR targets Fiji censorship, cross-cultural reporting

Pacific Media Centre

Censorship and the assault on human rights and freedom of expression in Fiji are featured in the latest edition of Pacific Journalism Review.

The AUT Pacific Media Centre-based publication, New Zealand's only peer-reviewed international media research journal, publishes this week a special article by an "insider" on the military regime's political and social "reforms".

The 246-page edition, themed around "Diversity, identity and the media" issues, analyses the junta that dealt an unprecedented "mortal blow" to press freedom in the South Pacific's most crucial country for regional cooperation.

The insider article, "Fragments from a Fiji coup diary", concludes that the New Zealand government needs to have "secret contacts" with the Suva regime to help investigate corruption and to help restore the country on the road towards democracy.

In other commentaries, Dr Murray Masterton analyses "culture clash" problems facing foreign correspondents and warns against "arrogance" by Western journalists when reporting the region. Television New Zealand's Sandra Kailahi examines the Pasifika media and Scoop co-editor Selwyn Manning looks at strategic directions in Asia-Pacific geopolitical reporting.

Malcolm Evans contributes a frothy profile of global political cartooning.

Research articles include demographics and independent cross-cultural reporting, media diversity and a NZ Human Rights Commission seminar, the "Asian Angst" controversy and xenophobia over Chinese migration, a Lake Taupo air space media case study, the Clydesdale report deconstructed and New Zealand women's magazines and gossip.

Bill Rosenberg provides the second of two annual New Zealand media ownership and trends surveys compiled for PJR.

"This edition provides some challenging and fresh insights into diversity reporting in New Zealand, from Fiji to Asian stereotypes," says managing editor Associate Professor David Robie.

"But it also celebrates some important achievements."

A strong reviews section includes books about the dark side of the pro-independence movement and media in Tonga, terrorism and e-policies in the Asia-Pacific region, conflict reporting, the making of a US president, editing and design in New Zealand and an extraordinary dissident Burmese political cartoonist.

* Annual subscriptions to Pacific Journalism Review (two editions a year): www.pjreview.info/subscriptions.html

Korean publisher tells of community challenges

By Steve Chae: Pacific Media Centre

A Korean community newspaper publisher says his readers are not yet ready to talk about their issues and problems openly in the media.

Newstoon is one of the many free weekly Korean community newspapers that can be picked up in Korean shops around Auckland.

Publisher Bong il Kim says participation of the Korean community and university students in the discussion about issues they have raised has been disappointing.

“As a newsmaker, this is frustrating,” he says.

Eric Song, last year’s president of Auckland University Korean Student Association (AKSA), says “there is a distinct cultural difference between Koreans who grew up most of their lives here - also called 1.5 generation Korean-Kiwis (or Kowis) - and second generation Koreans who have lost much of their Korean identity.”

“They inhabit a different world of news and value news differently,” he says.

“As a student association, it is a challenge to represent all these different groups, but we are trying.”

Korean community newspapers are all in the Korean language and this can be hard for those who have grown up here surrounded by English-based media.

'Old-fashioned'
“You can call me old-fashioned, but I still believe in seeing Korean in print to be important to our community - young or old,” says Kim.

He says: “We would like younger Koreans to communicate with the older folks more to create a family-like community.”

“However, this is not the case at the moment. There have been efforts to bridge generational differences through newspapers online and offline.”

“Participation of younger Korean students in the community media has been rather unremarkable,” he says.

Online editor of AKSA Sion Hwang says: “Our university webzine, Cladia, should represent all voices but we need more participation from students.”

The president of Korean Society of New Zealand, Shi Chung Yoo, understands why these issues are not discussed openly in the media.

“It is because Koreans are not forthcoming with news. We still tend to keep it to ourselves,” he says.

The president of Kowiana Association, Tina Hwang, thinks the Korean newspapers are targeting their parents’ generation which gives them information about what 1.5 generation Koreans are doing, but says “it lacks an informative approach to a local story”.

“If an issue was raised involving Korean person’s crime, the legal system in New Zealand should be explained to give a more plausible story,” she adds.

Kim says his newspaper aims to learn about New Zealand in its mainstream system.

Majority power
He says: “Korean media here was borne out of our need to learn about New Zealand government systems. We consider an exchange with Pākehā to be still the most important.”

This follows the power of majority in shaping the media.

He says Korean community needs to be more embedded into the New Zealand society.

“The strength of the community would grow and we would claim our rights with a stronger voice,” he says.

This is echoed by Korea Post journalist Kang Jin Lee, who says there is no authorisation for ethnic community media reporters to report on news independently.

Korea Post is a Korean community magazine and is published monthly.

As its sole reporter, she says: “We are very limited in what we can report. First, we don’t have authorisation like other media bodies to gain access to Parliament and such. Second, we don’t have resources to fund such reporting.”

Kim says: “The business has been in downturn for the past five years.”

Since September 2002, immigration from Korea has been almost blocked.

But he says it was not until 2004 when businesses providing for international students were hit the hardest.

Advertising from these Korean businesses was the sole source of revenue for the newspaper’s operation.

He says there are still 13 Korean media outlets in New Zealand, including newspapers, magazines and radio. They cover similar local New Zealand stories.

Identity crisis
He says Korean community newspapers are produced by the first generations like him.

They have spent most of their lives in Korea and have come to New Zealand with their families.
The generation of his children are part of the 1.5 Kowis.

Hwang says the issue of identity crisis for her and others like herself was what formed the Kowiana Association.

Formed in 2007, it held its first Kimchi & Marmite conference last July.

She says the aim of the organisation is to give confidence to Kowi students who have grown up in New Zealand for most of their lives.

Asked whether she wanted these issues to be brought up in Korean community media, she says "to broaden the issue will take time".

President Yoo says: “It’s hard to resolve those issues and conflicts for the Korean community at the moment and I believe the Korean media is reluctant to tackle those issues yet.”

“The association is about encouraging young Koreans to be more self-confident about who they are and what they do and we are here to give support.”

That is why the theme of this year’s conference is based on inviting guest speakers who have paved a way for fellow Koreans outside of traditional jobs such as doctors and lawyers.
It is scheduled for July 11.

“It’s about using the opportunity living in New Zealand provides and using it fully,” she says.

“It’s also about bridging the gap between different multicultural groups but also within Koreans and between different generations.”

Pictured: Bong il Kim holding copies of Newstoon, one of many Korean weekly newspapers published in Auckland. Photo: Steve Chae. Steve Chae is a Graduate Diploma in Journalism student on the AUT Asia-Pacific Journalism course.

Reporter for the ‘voiceless’ wins diversity award

By Violet Cho: Pacific Media Centre

With a passion to raise the voice of the “voiceless”, Fiji-born reporter Dominika White has won the Māori Television Prize and Pacific Media Centre Storyboard Award for diversity journalism for a series of articles in Spasifik magazine.

At the annual AUT University communication studies awards last night, White, who graduated as a Bachelor of Communication Studies in February, told of her strong motivation and interest in doing diversity stories.

“There are many stories out there which are newsworthy and do not get reported because they are a niche,” she said.

Not simply defining “diversity” as a term representing tangata whenua, Pacific islanders, Asians and other groups, she believes the word includes people with disabilities, elderly and those who are not necessarily in the news.

She says mainstream media needs to cover more diverse people in the society and raise their voices.

And she intends to pay attention and report about these voiceless people, which mainstream media don’t always cover.

Peter Rees, editor of Spasifik, praised White as a deserving winner of the diversity journalism awards.

“She has a good grasp of issues important in the region - and domestically - particularly indigenous issues that are making an impact in our Māori and Pacific communities which make up our core readership,” he said.

“With this understanding as her foundation, she was able to produce several thought-provoking and informative feature stories for our magazine.”

Top stories
First working as an intern student and then as part-time reporter, White spent her time working closely with the editorial team of Spasifik website and magazine, a weekly glossy magazine that has focused on the achievements of Pacific people as well as local and regional issues.

Some of the news stories she did last year included the New Zealand election which was reported from a Pacific perspective and a profile of a renowned Fijian women’s rights campaigner, Virisila Buadromo, winner of International Woman of Courage Award in 2008.

She also reported on the 10th Festival of Pacific Arts in American Samoa and interviewed some business tycoons such as Rick Fala.

Representing a sponsor of the diversity journalism award, Sonya Haggie, Māori Television’s general manager of sales, marketing and communications, said her channel supported and promoted acceptance of and respect for ethnic and cultural diversity.

“New Zealand is home to peoples from many different cultures and backgrounds, and each of us has a unique contribution to building the nationhood of our country,” she said.

“Diversity provides dynamic, interesting and inspiring perspectives, and having the freedom to be proud of who we are, where we come from and our own traditional beliefs enriches our country.”

White would like to work as a journalist in New Zealand. However, she also wants to help out her community in Fiji, which is currently ruled by a military-backed regime, and the Pacific region.
In his interview with the Pacific Media Center, Peter Rees, also encouraged Pacific journalists to be more engaged with diversity reporting.

“As Pacific journalists, their ability to draw on their own cultural background gives them a more innate understanding of diversity issues.”

“Foreign journalists not familiar with local Pacific customs are often accused of ‘parachute’ journalism. This highlights the importance of getting more Pacific people into journalism.

Better understanding
“It will help people living outside of the Pacific have a better understanding of what is going on in that part of the world.”

PMC director David Robie, who donated the East Sepik storyboard for the centre’s award three years ago, said it was really encouraging to see what an impact the winners were making on diversity reporting.

He recalled that the first winner, Qiane Corfield in 2006, had gone on to work for Mana magazine and was now deputy editor of Spasifik. Moana Tapaleao, who won in 2007, became a reporter on the New Zealand Herald and was “developing really well”.

In other diversity awards and scholarships last night, Pacific Islands Media Association (PIMA) deputy chair Chris Lakatani presented scholarship certificates to John Pulu (undergraduate) and Thakur Ranjit Singh (postgraduate) and Television New Zealand corporate affairs manager Peter Parussini presented a diversity journalism scholarship to Kimberlee Downs.

Asia New Zealand Foundation media adviser Charles Mabbett also presented international internship scholarships to Kristina Koveshnikova and Guanting Liu (China Daily.com, Beijing), Claire Rourke (Jakarta Post) and Keira Stephenson (Philippine Daily Star).

He spoke warmly of the four-year partnership with AUT over Asia-Pacific journalism.
A total of 34 prizes were presented to current and former students at the communication studies awards.

Katie Llanos-Small, currently in London, won the inaugural postgraduate Asia-Pacific Journalism prize for an "outstanding" assignment portfolio. Her father, John, collected the award on her behalf.

Pictures: Top: Winner Dominika White with the Storyboard Award, Māori Television's Krishan Marinas (left), Laura Quigley and PMC director Dr David Robie; centre: PIMA's Chris Lakatani (left) and John Pulu; Asia New Zealand Foundation's Charles Mabbett with China Daily's Wang Nan (left) and Violet Cho, of Burma; above: The PMC "mob". Photos: Alan Koon. More pictures.

Reporter Violet Cho, from Burma, was herself a scholarship recipient. She won the inaugural Asian Journalism Fellowship at AUT funded by the Asia New Zealand Foundation and is attached to the PMC.

Māori Television
Asia New Zealand Foundation
PIMA
Spasifik Magazine
AUT communication studies awards night - photo gallery

Indian Newslink funds new j-scholarship

By Andrea Malcolm: AUT

AUT University and community newspaper Indian Newslink have launched a journalism scholarship in a bid to boost the standard and practice of the profession.

Indian Newslink will pay the tuition fee, student services fee and student association fee for one student admitted every year into one of the university’s one-year postgraduate programmes, including the Postgraduate Diploma in Communication Studies (Journalism) and the Bachelor of Communication Studies (Hons).

The programme, open to all New Zealand citizens and permanent residents, is aimed at creating a new generation of quality journalists and boosting professional standards of journalism in New Zealand.

Indian Newslink publisher Ravin Lal says the newspaper is a community newspaper entering its 10th year of publication and he wants to “give something back to the community”.

He says because of the Indian community’s strong interest in education, the topic has always been a focus of the newspaper.

AUT University vice-chancellor Derek McCormack says the university is thrilled to have a partnership with Indian Newslink.

“I think it’s a really strong initiative to support us with this scholarship and hope that the rest of the news media will take note and follow their lead.”

The first scholarship will be awarded this year for the 2010 intake. The provisional application deadline is September 30, 2009.

Pictured: Vice-Chancellor Derek McCormack (left) and Indian Newslink publisher Ravin Lal sign the scholarship agreement.

Faculty of Design and Creative Technologies scholarships
School of Communication Studies journalism scholarships
Indian Newslink

New publication to boost NZ media diversity

By Thakur Ranjit Singh: Pacific Media Centre

A new Indian weekly publication will hit the New Zealand market next month. Known as the Indian Weekender, it will be a paper for largely Indian readers spread around Auckland and Hamilton initially. It will be spread to other areas later.

This paper attempts to fill the vacuum of positive community news that New Zealand does not hear about. There are so many unsung heroes and heroines in Indian
communities doing commendable work, but never get into papers as positive news.

The Indian Weekender will be the first real community-based Indian newspaper.

The launch is planned during the Waitakere Holi Mela at Trusts Stadium Grounds, Central Park Drive, Henderson on March 22.

* Ranjit Singh (pictured at last year's Pacific Islands Media Association conference) is a key reporter with this new publishing venture. As a community worker volunteer, he is keen to hear from organisations about their "unpublished stories". He is also a masters student with AUT University, attached to the Pacific Media Centre. Photo: PMC.

Training in diversity reporting

(Emailed 20 June 2007)
I found Ali Bell’s coverage of Arlene Morgan perceptive and thoughtful – until I got to the quote from me and the query about what I meant.
Ali Bell is surely being disingenuous. My meaning (I thought) was clear enough – train journalists in diversity reporting as they enter the occupation and make change from the bottom-up (as well as approaching the problem of patchy diversity reporting from the top-down).
I devote a lot of my time at the Journalists Training Organisation (JTO) working at these issues. Comments like Bell’s are understandable, I guess, since to her I probably represent the big bad media. Of course, I see myself as a facilitator working for positive change. Hopefully, any changes the JTO can make will eventually convince cynics like Ms Bell that not everyone is blind to the iniquities of what is happening.
Jim Tucker
Executive Director
NZ Journalists Training Organisation
Wellington
Ali Bell – BroadsWord: Seeking the ‘other’ voices of the nation