Thursday, August 28, 2008

draft contacts

DRAFT CONTACTS

For more information about this draft working model for PMW:

jason brown
editor
avaiki news agency
http://avaiki.nius.googlepages.com

+649 9167058 office direct
+649 9167552 facsimile
+64 2102484560 mobile

Project JPK
http://jpkupdate.blogspot.com
100 victoria street west
tangata pasifika
TVNZ
auckland
aotearoa | new zealand

For more information about the database editor position, contact:

David Robie
Associate Professor
Director
Pacific Media Centre

Phone: +64 9 921 9999 ext 7834
Fax: +64 4 801 2693
Email: david.robie@aut.ac.nz
Website: www.pmc.aut.ac.nz
Office: Pacific Media Centre, ground floor, AUT Tower

Postal Address:

AUT University
Private Bag 92006
Wellesley St
Auckland
New Zealand

. . .

about this draft

. . .

DRAFT OVERVIEW

This draft working model was set up last night to demonstrate a new interface between differing PMW and PMC access points. Custom search engines developed here draw together disparate interfaces of the PMC, PMW, and PJR into one easily searchable, virtual 'database.'

An interface like this one also provides avenue for linking feedback and commentary directly with PMW outputs, rather than having to cross over to a completely different website.

Just as important, an interface like this one links in automatically with search engines for blogs, which now appear automatically with news searches. So, for example, a search in Google for Pacific Media Watch pulls in web, news, and blogs.

TECH FASHION

Fashions come, fashions go: remember when a .com address was all the rage? Then .net, then in more recent years, country suffix like .co.nz became popular as a way of marking out content from the .com swill.

So it is with blogging. There remains considerable confusion over blog technology and what it should be used for. First and foremost, blogs are a delivery tool, not an editorial stance. Plenty of blogs run as normal webpages, either auto-forwarded from a normal web address, or plugged into the back of a normal website. APCEDI is a notable regional proponent of this latter approach. Their blog-powered alerts page looks substantially the same as the rest of the site.

In other words, for the best web sites, there is no attempt to separate the blog part of online publishing from the 'normal' website parts, because they recognise that blogging is content neutral - just like an earlier technology, email.

OTHER BENEFITS

Building a blog-powered shop window for Pacific Media Watch gives not just tech fashion 'cred' but, as indicated above, provide easy feeds for aggregators like Google News to pick up and republish to the world.

RSS feeds can also be picked up in a variety of other beneficial ways, including by mobile phone.

Finally, a blogsite such as this one adds an arrow to the quiver of upload options for updating, including automatically, via email auto-publishing.

LINKS

AFAP Asia-Pacific Disaster Alerts
Fashions in information technology (google links)

. . .

correspondence

. . .

CORRESPONDENCE

in this letter:

  • due process
  • behind the scenes
  • conflict of interest
  • further conflicts
  • impact on pmw–pmc relations with agency
  • opportunity
  • options
  • future development
  • background
  • precedence
  • impressions
  • conclusions


David Robie
Director
Pacific Media Centre
AUT


thursday 28 august 2008


re: application for database editor, pacific media watch, pacific media centre


kia orana david,


further to our discussions this afternoon, I wish to put on record some of my concerns surrounding the application, and, also some hopefully constructive suggestions of ways forward.

In doing so, I am also hopeful that all parties find these suggestions give comfort and confidence as to proper due process being followed.

Let me begin with exactly that.

DUE PROCESS

Giving comfort and confidence to involved parties, is, I suggest, an integral part of due process. For that reason, I wish to apologise for the other afternoon and a number of assumptions I had made about accessing PMC / PMW resources.

I based my decision to establish a Pacific Media Watch group under the pmedia researcher indentity in the context of a continuation of infrequent but long running contributions to PMW. As a correspondent on mostly Cook Islands and French Polynesia media issues, I saw great potential for web2 integration and leapt in with my usual alacrity, without enough consideration for organisational due process. In setting up the PMW group under the AUT pmedia identity, and, including other Pacific media identities within AUT, I had only my own professional fixations with transparency and accountability.

It was by no means an attempt at a clumsy cyber-squat !

BEHIND THE SCENES

I had never accessed the pmedia researcher profile prior to Monday afternoon, confused as I was by a wide variety of login and other interface options for AUT staff and students.

The pmedia login only emerged that day because Allen from IT was helping me recover my account. I searched my gmail where I had copied details of my aut account, and it picked up an early email from you giving me the pmedia login on a confidential basis.

As discussed in previous correspondence and discussion, I have been in New Zealand for two years now, seeking formal medical treatment for chronic and sometimes severe depression. Behind the scenes, I began slowly reengaging with journalism through volunteer activities like helping set up Pacific Islands Journalism Online and the Pacific Freedom Forum.

IMPACT ON PMW–PMC RELATIONS WITH AGENCY

My medical condition led me to deferring my studies till next year.

Following volunteer work on PIJO and PFF, I have only now begun to feel not just comfortable but confident, at being able to continue making more positive contributions, especially towards web2 integration with academic resources.

An impact on friendly relations between my agency and PMW might be a chilling effect on free speech, given the need for some measure of diplomacy on the part of any university, AUT no doubt included.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Discussions have thus far raised concerns from both sides regards conflicts of interest.

For example, I have had concerns about continued independence of my online entity, avaiki news agency, and my ability to be as forthright in online opinions as may or may not be appropriate given academic linkages on a contract basis, or to continue contributing to online groups like Pacific Islands Journalism Online and Pacific Freedom Forum.

Although there have been favourable discussion on options for building an editorial firewall between existing and potential roles, the fact remains that they remain obstacles that may not exist with other applicants.

FURTHER CONFLICTS

As well as editorial roles on Pacific Freedom Forum and Pacific Islands Journalism Online, I am an interim secretary at Pacific Islands Media Association.

In reality, I am fortunate that I do not have to take minutes, this grinding duty being ably and enthusiastically carried out by a communications graduate, leaving me to more time for web2 housekeeping, and suggesting strategic stuff.

I am also involved with continuing efforts to revive journalists and media associations in Avaiki, Cook Islands.

OPPORTUNITY

I see opportunities for approaching this whole thing from a completely different but still productive direction.

Rather than my seeking appointment as database editor, it may be better for this agency to continue an informal partnership with PMW.

This informal partnership seeks no more than extending existing relationships – a journalistic practitioner sharing what they know with Pacific Media Watch.

OPTIONS

Moving forward, I see these cross-cutting options:

  • Withdraw my application in favour of Pacific Islands or other applicants.

  • Continue contributions to PMW on an informal basis.

  • Extend contributions to include inputs on web2.

Professionally, I see these options as addressing issues of conflict-of-interest by, mostly, removing them.

FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

On the other hand, there is close agreement between my current activities towards capacity or ‘capability’ building across the region and strategic goals for PMC:

PMC goals include:

  • undertaking and stimulating research into contemporary Maori, Pacific and ethnic media and culture production

  • raising research capability in the area of media production

  • presenting and publishing the findings of media research

  • winning funding from government and industry partners that support research into media production

  • developing collaborations and relationships with other centres of research excellence in media and cultural production

  • developing editorial and publications capability, including Pacific Journalism Review www.pjreview.info

Ahead of 2015 targets under the OECD Paris Agreement, New Zealand and Australia have to triple spending on aid, and were last year urged by OECD peer review to focus more on Pacific Islands. I see strategic opportunity for Aotearoa-based island media to ‘partner’ with island-based media, helping rebuild a badly neglected, indeed, much abused sector.

BACKGROUND

Ethics including approaches to conflicts of interest are often a contentious and controversial area.

Conflicts over ethics led to the so-called ‘media wars’ in the Cook Islands, years of often bitter dispute between the Pitt Media Group and everyone else. At the time, independent journalists suffered unending personal attacks. In the end, discussing it one day, Lisa (Lahari, nee Williams) and I resolved to just “aim higher” - as did other journalists like Florence Syme-Buchanan

So, it is with pleasure I recently discovered the Pitt Media Group has signed up to a code of ethics, and, of course, there is the recent passage of the Freedom of Information Bill through the Parliament of the Cook Islands, driven by an official at the office of the deputy prime minister, one Mrs Syme-Buchanan.

PRECEDENCE

As well as aiming higher, I see a withdrawal of application for database editor at PMW as a continuity of career precedence. As an early example, in 1985, I was a reporter at then state-owned Cook Islands News. My employers were keen to farm me out for some training as stories were already attracting official displeasure, including threats of dismissal by ministerial discretion.

It was thus that my boss at the time, Arthur Taripo, introduced me as next on the list for training opportunities, in this case an inaugural scholarship for the now legendary Pacific Islands Journalism Course at Manukau Polytechnic. Walking into the office of the general manager at the former state-owned and only media outlet Cook Islands Broadcasting and Newspaper Corporation, I saw a fresh face, looking immediately disappointed. Brown is a fairly common family in the Cook Islands, as elsewhere, but my green eyes and blond hair gave the game away.

Sefita Haouli was coordinator for the nascent PIJC programme, tasked on that day with acting upon a decision to select the Cook Islands as recipient for the first ever scholarship to the PIJC. To his great credit, Haouli kindly explained to my face potential problems if the first Pacific Islander scholarship went to a papa’a – easy to imagine! This transparency gave me context and confidence to gladly accede priority status in favour of an ‘indigenous’ nominee. Long story short, I missed out on training for what I still regard as entirely ethical and reasonable reasons, going on to be sacked the next year for a story I wrote about an annual budget speech.

IMPRESSIONS

Just writing this letter raises interesting questions and ideas that I had not before considered to any depth.

For example, where did CIBNC reporters get their feisty sense of freedom from? In a state media monopoly, during a firmly post-colonial time, there was ample freedom of whisper but never speech, much less press.

Where did the CIBNC ethos, somewhat anarchic, draw its wellspring from? That ethos forms founding stones for many media careers, people like Lahari-Williams and Syme-Buchanan, and other well-known names like , Barbara Dreaver, John Utanga, Moana Moeka’a, Bobby Turua, or, even, Wilkie Rassmussen.

CONCLUSIONS

Personally, I feel it would be a pity if the first paid work on PMW was to go to a palagi like myself, even one with extensive islands life and work experience.

I leave it in your hands and that of the interview panel to decide what is best for the immediate future of PMW.

My instincts tell me, however, that an on-the-record disclosure will help PMC make the right decision, for the right reasons.


meitaki maata,


jason


. . .


jason brown
editor
avaiki news agency
http://avaiki.nius.googlepages.com

+649 9167058 office direct
+649 9167552 facsimile
+64 2102484560 mobile

Project JPK
http://jpkupdate.blogspot.com
100 victoria street west
tangata pasifika
TVNZ
auckland
aotearoa | new zealand

. . .

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

about pacific media watch












ABOUT PMW

About Pacific Media Watch

Pacific Media Watch is an Asia-Pacific media digital repository now collected and published by staff and postgraduate students at AUT University’s Pacific Media Centre and contributing journalists.

Launched in Sydney in October 1996, Pacific Media Watch was the Pacific's first regional media website. It has links with the Journalism Programme at the University of the South Pacific, Journalism Studies at the University of PNG (UPNG) and the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism (ACIJ).

Independent and watchful, Pacific Media Watch was founded as an independent, non-profit non-government network by journalists Peter Cronau (based then at the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism, University of Technology, Sydney) and David Robie (based then at Journalism Studies at the University of Papua New Guinea).

After being initially established at the ACIJ, the archive was hosted by the Association of Progressive Communications (APC) in Sydney and the original website can be visited here.

Its genesis was the jailing of two Taimi ‘o Tonga journalists, Kalafi Moala and Filokalafi 'Akau'ola, and a 'whistleblowing' pro-democracy member of Parliament in Tonga, ‘Akilisi Pohiva, for alleged contempt in September 1996. They were later freed by the Supreme Court in Tonga which ruled their imprisonment was unconstitutional.

PMW played an important role in the campaign to free the three men, including organising a petition of more than 100 media signatures from the region.

Late in 2007, Taberannang Korauba, of Kiribati, joined the Pacific Media Centre to prepare PMW files for the new database.

FOUNDING OBJECTIVES

Pacific Media Watch's objectives are to:

• Press for the urgent removal of barriers to press freedom and freedom of expression.
• Protect and support journalists unjustly jailed, assaulted or harassed while performing their
professional duty.
• Encourage debate on media ethics, and press for improved professional standards.
• Monitor regional media ownership and other issues affecting freedom of information.
• Provide a digital information database.
• Support the overwhelming desire of Pacific peoples for a free and independent media.

7 April 2008

LINK

about PMW (PDF)

pmw home draft

. . .
This search engine links news from the Pacific Media Centre, Pacific Media Watch collections and their combined home as the first group on the new AUT Dspace research database.

The same search engine can be found on other pages, on the sidebar, at right.

These pages are not official PMC pages, and have been prepared in context of an application for the position of database editor at the Pacific Media Watch.

MORE

unofficial working draft of ideas for PMW interface


LINKS

New PMW link
Old PMW links
Pacific Media Centre
Pacific Media Centre feedback

. . .

unofficial working draft of ideas for PMW interface

. . .

DRAFT IDEAS

These are not official Pacific Media Watch pages, but a working draft of ideas for a new interface to Pacific Media Watch at the new Pacific Media Centre.

Under AUT's Communications Information Research Institute, the Pacific Media Centre was set up as a training and research resource for New Zealand journalists wanting to further their familiarity with reporting local Pacific Islands communities, and, for Pacific Islands journalists seeking international standard qualifications.

Pacific Media Watch has benefited from more than a decade of volunteer contributions, notably from PMC director, associate professor David Robie, ABC Four Corners researcher Peter Cronau, and occasional correspondents.

PMW

Now hosted at PMC, PMW currently has different access points, and no provision for leaving comments directly under stories. This working draft interface collates output from PMC and PMW in a single place.

This working draft is for viewing by AUT/PMC/PMW and not for public release without approval, and forms part of an application for the part-time position of database editor at PMW.

If an application is not successful, this agency will continue to offer contributions on a volunteer basis, including on web2 interfaces like this one.

LINKS

New PMW link
Old PMW links
Pacific Media Centre
Pacific Media Centre feedback

. . .