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These speakers will be featured at the 2024 Pacific International Media Conference.
photo: supply
Five renowned, internationally award-winning journalists and journalism scholars will join regional media peers at the 2024 Pacific International Media Conference in Suva this week.
They include a three-time Emmy Award-winning American television news producer, a prolific and award-winning Hong Kong journalism scholar and author, a recent Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, a 2017 Pulitzer Prize finalist, and a leading investigative journalist from New Zealand.
Professors Emily Drew, Cherian George and David Robie will join Professors Irene Liu and Indira Stewart in speaking on a wide range of topics relating to Pacific media and development from an international perspective.
Among the many dynamic local speakers was a vibrant Fijian and Pacific gender equality advocate, Nalini Singh, Executive Director of the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement.
The conference was organized and hosted by the University of the South Pacific in collaboration with the Pacific Islands Press Association and the Asia Pacific Media Network.
The forum will be held at the Holiday Inn Suva from July 4 to 6, with the theme of “Addressing Challenges, Shaping the Future of Pacific Media Research and Practice”.
The conference will feature more than 50 speakers from 11 countries including Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Singapore and Tonga.
Thursday’s opening ceremony will feature Fiji’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade, Cooperatives, SMEs and Communications, Manoa Kamikamica, as guest of honour. Papua New Guinea’s Minister of Information and Communications Technology, Timothy Masiu, will also be in attendance and will serve as guest of honour at the first day’s conference dinner.
Professor Drew, the winner of three Emmy Awards and seven nominations, currently teaches as a fellow at his alma mater, Davidson College in North Carolina, and serves as the James K. Patton Visiting Professor of English.
She will speak on “Investigative Journalism in the Age of Newsroom Burnout: Causes, Symptoms and Strategies.”
Professor George, who is regarded as a thought leader in media studies and is known for his groundbreaking research on censorship and press freedom, is originally from Singapore and now lives in Hong Kong. His lecture was titled “Cracks in the Mirror: When Media Representations Exacerbate Social Divides”.
Dr Roby, former coordinator of the University of the South Pacific’s Department of Journalism, will deliver a keynote address titled “Frontline Media Fault Lines: How Critical Journalism Survives in Adversity”, while Professor Liu will moderate a roundtable discussion titled “Media Sustainability in the Pacific: The Role of Government, Industry and Funders”.
She focuses on funding initiatives that support Pacific media. This session will provide an opportunity for media representatives and stakeholders to explore potential support and collaboration.
TVNZ’s award-winning journalist Stuart, known for her fearless reporting and in-depth investigations, will moderate a Talanoa session titled “Experts on Deadline: Enriching news coverage of complex Pacific topics – climate change, natural disasters, health crises, food security – through science.”
Stuart has been shortlisted twice for the Voyager Media Awards and once for the New Zealand Broadcast Awards.
Conference Theme
Shailendra Singh, Associate Professor of Pacific Journalism and conference convener, stressed that addressing Pacific media issues was important given global changes affecting the industry, hence the invitation of international and Pacific speakers.
Dr Singh, head of the journalism programme at the University of the South Pacific, said: “Pacific media have not escaped the impact of global trends such as digital disruption and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, not to mention recent geopolitical developments.”
“The advertising-based revenue model for journalism has been upended, raising significant concerns about the financial sustainability of media organisations. Editorial viability depends on financial stability, which poses a potential risk to the future of journalism.
“These are some of the issues that this conference aims to address through discussion and research to find workable solutions. This is not just about journalism, it is about democracy and freedom of expression as a whole,” he added.
The conference will also celebrate the 30th anniversary of Pacific Journalism Review and launch the book Waves of Change: Media, Peace and Development in the Pacific, edited by Dr Singh, Fiji’s Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Professor Biman Prasad and Dr Amit Sarwar.
In addition to the conference, a parallel cultural event, the “Connecting the Diaspora: Pacific Prana” exhibition, was held at the USP Oceania Arts Centre on the Laucala campus from July 3 to August 28.
The conference was supported by the U.S. embassies in Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Tonga and Tuvalu and the Paris-based International Public Media Foundation, with other support from the Pacific Aid Media Initiative, the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement, the New Zealand Science and Media Centre and Women Leaders of the Pacific Community (SPC).
– Used with permission Wansowara.
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