Courtesy of Pacific Media Centre
Pacific media research and monitoring will gain a significant boost with the creation of a new Creative Industries Research Institute at AUT University.
The institute features five major research initiatives, including the establishment of a Pacific Media Centre, which has several projects under way.
The centre publishes the long-established Pacific Journalism Review developed by the School of Communication Studies and has several plans such as co-publishing two books on media and development in the Asia-Pacific region.
Two editions of the journal are being published this year, one focusing on digital media trends in New Zealand and the Pacific and another in partnership with the University of the South Pacific's journalism school.
"Compared with Australia and other countries, independent media research is comparatively underdone in New Zealand," says centre head Associate Professor David Robie.
"The centre will be aiming to create a research niche in the Asia-Pacific region with a special interest in New Zealand and indigenous media in a globalised context."
Dr Robie, a journalist for many years in the Pacific before becoming a media educator, said a network of media researchers and postgraduate Pasifika students would be encouraged to contribute to the centre's work.
He has conducted recent media workshops and research in the Pacific such as a freedom of information seminar in Vanuatu.
The next edition of PJR carries major research on the coup culture and the media in Fiji from regional contributors - significant in the light of alleged human rights violations by the post-coup regime and a growing climate of self-censorship.
Among the centre's projects is a proposal to establish a "future proofed' digital depository of a 10-year archive of media freedom reports in partnership with the university's library.
Pacific Media Centre:
www.pmc.aut.ac.nz
Pacific Journalism
Review
www.pjreview.info
ENDS