By Monika Singh
Pacific media are facing one of their most challenging reporting environments in their history, marked by governance issues, political instability, geopolitical pressures and escalating climate threats, while simultaneously grappling with declining revenue streams and threats to their financial survival.
This is highlighted in the inaugural edition of the Pacific Media academic journal by co-editors Associate Professor and Head of the University of the South Pacific Journalism Programme, Dr Shailendra Singh, and co-founder of The Australia Today, Dr Amit Sarwal.
In their editorial, Singh and Sarwal say Pacific media systems—already vulnerable due to their small scale—continue to be hit by the collapse of traditional advertising models that once kept legacy media afloat. They point out that, although small and geographically isolated, regional media have not been spared the ravages of digital disruption, which continues to pose a threat to traditional advertising-based revenue models. This has been compounded by losses from the COVID-19 pandemic.
These issues, and more, resurfaced at the 2024 Pacific International Media Conference in Suva, Fiji. The conference, the first of its kind in 20 years, was hosted by the USP’s School of Pacific Arts, Communication and Education (Journalism), in partnership with the Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) and the United States Embassy in Suva.
Selected conference papers published in Pacific Media highlight how Pacific news reporting is becoming increasingly complex and contentious, even as newsrooms face unprecedented financial and editorial pressures.
A key question explored at the conference, and a recurring theme in the journal, is how Pacific media are responding to and reporting on overlapping challenges in the region, which have compounded long-standing struggles to achieve sustainable development.
In his paper, Frontline media faultlines: How critical journalism can survive against the odds, the journal’s production and managing editor, veteran journalist David Robie, warns that Pacific media face a “plethora of emerging and entrenched problems”—from collapsing business models to the rise of fake news, leadership failures and political corruption. Despite reporting on these issues for decades, little progress has been made even as new challenges emerge.
In The History of the Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) 1972–2023, Marsali Mackinnon and Kalafi Moala, while paying tribute to the region’s media pioneers, explore enduring questions about the state of Pacific media, especially in the context of digital disruption and revenue losses. They ask whether the industry has lost its vitality and whether journalists and media workers still uphold core values such as freedom of speech and impartial reporting. The article, based on their forthcoming book chronicling PINA’s 50-year history, examines economic, political, technological and cultural pressures, and whether principles established by postcolonial pioneers in the 1970s have been compromised.
Another paper, Women’s political empowerment in the Asia-Pacific region: The role of social media, by Associate Professor Baljeet Singh, Shailendra Singh, Nitika Nand and Shasnil Chand, examines how social media positively influences women’s political empowerment across 20 Asia-Pacific countries. Based on their findings, the authors recommend that regional governments and development partners prioritise improved connectivity and online access in deprived areas as a key strategy to empower women and strengthen political participation and leadership.
In his paper, Reporting the nuclear Pacific: Facing new geopolitical challenges, journalist and researcher Nic Maclellan revisits the Pacific’s nuclear testing legacy, highlighting the crucial role of journalists in preserving survivors’ stories. He argues that the nuclear threat in the Pacific is far from over and has re-emerged in new forms, requiring sustained media attention and critical reporting.
In his commentary, Behind the Mic: How Sashi Singh’s Talking Point Helped Shape Fiji’s Political Landscape, Sashimendra Singh reflects on the impact of his Sydney-based podcast in the lead-up to Fiji’s 2022 General Election. The former Fiji-based broadcaster interviewed key political figures, including Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka and the three Deputy Prime Ministers, while they were still in opposition. The podcast tackled issues Fiji’s suppressed national media were reluctant to address and went on to attract a large following, demonstrating the growing importance of diaspora media and new technologies in circumventing censorship imposed by national authorities.
In ‘The Coconut Wireless’: Ways that community news endures and spreads in a news desert, Krista Rados and Brett Oppegaard address ‘news deserts’ in the Pacific—areas where communities urgently need local information but lack trustworthy sources—highlighting the enduring strengths of social media in fostering journalism in remote, sparsely populated and underdeveloped communities.
Pacific Media, launched this year, succeeds the long-running Pacific Journalism Review, which was archived after nearly 30 years of publication.
This inaugural edition is a collaboration between USP, the Asia Pacific Media Network (APMN) and the Tuwhera Open Access Platform, aimed at documenting the rapid transformations shaping journalism in the region and how Pacific media can navigate an increasingly turbulent future.
Other key papers include:
- Weaponising the partisan WhatsApp group: The circulation of disinformation and artificial intelligence (AI) content in the 2024 Indonesian presidential election by Mochamad Achir Taher. The paper examines the spread of disinformation and partisan messages within a politically aligned WhatsApp group during Indonesia’s 2024 Presidential Election, finding that candidates used social media platforms to distribute biased and misleading content to influence voters.
- Blood on the Tracks: Countering symbolic violence—A case study in reciprocal investigative journalism practice by Bonita Mason. The paper examines a six-year investigation by Australian journalist and First Nations man Allan Clarke into the suspicious death of First Nations teenager Mark Haines, whose family never accepted police claims of suicide.
- Your weather: Digital weather producer WeatherWatch NZ and its Pacific coverage by Melissa Beattie. The paper situates WeatherWatch NZ within the broader digital journalism landscape and examines its Pacific-focused weekly forecasts in Melanesia and Polynesia.
Click the link to access the inaugural edition: https://ojs.aut.ac.nz/pacific-media-monographs/pmm/issue/view/2
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