School of Communication Studies - Te Kura Whakapāho

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The School of Communication Studies is committed to innovative, critical and creative research that advances knowledge, serves the community, and develops future communication experts and skilled media practitioners. There is a dynamic interaction between communication theory and media practice across digital media, creative industries, film and television production advertising, radio, public relations, and journalism. The School is involved in research and development in areas of:

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2018 JMAD New Zealand Media Ownership Report
(Auckland University of Technology, 2018-12-06) Myllylahti, M
Summary This eighth JMAD New Zealand media ownership report observes a considerable shift in New Zealand media ownership. In 2018, Australian Nine Entertainment took over Stuff’s parent company Fairfax Media. The report notes that the impact of this merger on the future ownership of Stuff and its New Zealand media holdings remain unknown. In 2018, New Zealand’s print newspaper market had already shrunk considerably after Stuff closed more than 35% of its print newspapers and announced additional cuts in community papers. During 2018, the New Zealand media market remained at least partly competitive. In September, the Court of Appeal rejected the NZME-Stuff merger, and the two companies continued their duopoly and dominance in print and online news. In November, MediaWorks announced that it had signed a conditional merger agreement with Australian outdoor advertising company QMS. If the deal goes through, QMS will have a substantial shareholding in MediaWorks. However, its current owner Oaktree Capital Management will maintain the majority shareholding in the merged entity. New Zealand media ownership: key trends and events • Australian Nine becoming the largest owner of Stuff • NZME & Stuff merger denied and abandoned • MediaWorks plans to merge with Australian QMS • Trust owned, non-profit media outlet Crux emerges
A Study on New Zealand Television: Professional Perspectives on Industry Sustainability
(AUTSA, GRS and Tuwhera Open Access, 2023-10-25) Daniels, Rachel
Fragmented by the plethora of internationalised television choices, audiences are now scattered across a multitude of programme options on a variety of global Subscription Video on Demand (SVoD) streaming platforms, broadcasters and television services. New Zealand audiences are predominantly choosing globalised services (Glasshouse Consulting, 2021). This research examines what the New Zealand television industry is doing to remain relevant and connected to its audiences. I seek to fill a gap in the current knowledge on the impact of international SVoD television services such as Netflix, Disney+, and Apple TV+ on the local industry as New Zealand domestic audiences appear to shift away from local services and storytelling. The research examines New Zealand television industry professional expert perspectives to identify and interpret the values, conflicts and challenges of protecting (while fostering the growth of) local culture through content, and the impact of public policy. Data has been collected via in-depth semi-structured interviews with industry experts. Open-ended questions have allowed for flexibility in the interview process, so that subjects can delve into their experiences, views and perspectives. The qualitative data has been analysed using thematic analysis, with patterns and themes that have emerged within the layers of data identified and discussed (Braun & Clarke, 2013; Braun et al., 2019). This presentation will address preliminary research findings which identify how the industry's need for economic sustainability has often compromised local productions and local cultural objectives, opening a debate on whether local stories are produced for local audiences or whether they should transcend national boundaries. The research reflects differing views on who should moderate and determine the cultural specificity of content, and where the sector should focus.
After the Storm Comes the Sun: A Rhetorical Analysis of Melbourne Storm's Advertising Campaigns After the 2010 Salary Cap Scandal
(Wiley, ) Nairn, A; Nelson, F; Johnson, R
One of the most common motifs surrounding sports, sports teams, and sports stars is “the scandal.” One typifying feature of mediated scandals is the ease with which they can be presented as, or massaged into, an unfolding narrative. Although some research has been conducted into the initial stages of these narratives, there is significantly less that focusses on the ways in which the “transgressor” can be rehabilitated in a separate but linked part of that overarching story. This article addresses that gap by analysing two television commercials that significantly assisted the Melbourne Storm rugby league franchise in encouraging and maintaining identification and, coterminously, overcoming disidentification with its membership. Furthermore, we contend that the Melbourne Storm purposively used rhetorical strategies to emphasise the socially desirable aspects of its identity to repair damage done to its organisational image. Using rhetorical analysis, the article explicates the various techniques through which this was accomplished.
Age and Environmental Citizenship: A Case Study of Media Coverage of the 2019 Local Body Elections in New Zealand
(MDPI, 2021-06-22) Rupar, V; Hope, W; Hammill, A
Environmental issues in the coverage of the elections are usually framed in relation to voters’ attitudes towards the specific problems, for instance, water quality or land use. The environment is not given standing in these discussions, rather, it is an instrument or resource for voters. In this article we investigate the relationship between news and politics by looking at media coverage of the 2019 local body elections in New Zealand. We follow a call to put place at the centre of journalism research and to investigate the emerging forms of environmental citizenship. We focus on a media market at each end of New Zealand’s two main islands and relate analysis of the coverage of local body elections coverage to related social groups engaged in environmental issues. The objective of our article is to consider the extent to which age plays a role in media representation of environmental issues in the context of local body elections.
An Examination of Factors Influencing Journalism Educators’ Perceptions on the Role and Future of News Reporting
(Intellect, 2024-06-01) Hollings, James; Wake, Alexandra; Peter, Raja; Martin, Fiona R; Rupar, Verica
This article explores how educational qualifications, age, gender and regional context affect journalism educators’ perceptions of journalism’s normative roles and the future needs of journalism students. It draws on Australian and New Zealand/Aotearoan responses to the 2021 World Journalism Education Council (WJEC) Survey Journalistic Roles, Values and Qualifications in the 21st Century: How Journalism Educators Across the Globe View the Future of a Profession in Transition. It shows that holding a Ph.D. diminishes support for traditional observer and disseminator roles and predicts support for the mobilizer role. Age also predicts role perception; it diminishes support for the disseminator and mobilizer roles for both the current position of journalists and journalists in the next ten years. These age and education effects are independent of each other. The findings point to the need for more detailed research on the effects of further education on journalism teachers’ professional conceptions and teaching strategy.
An independent student press: three case studies from Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Aotearoa/New Zealand
(Auckland University of Technology; University of Wollongong, 2006) Robie, D
In spite of a relatively small but vibrant news media base, two South Pacific countries have been regional leaders in convergent publishing with both newspapers and online media as educational outcomes for student journalists. Universities in Fiji and Papua New Guinea have pioneered with various versions of an entrepreneurial and socially activist student press for three decades, including titles such as Uni Tavur (founded in 1975), Wansolwara (1996) and Liklik Diwai (1998). All three papers have strongly identified with a national development role. In 2003, Aotearoa/New Zealand’s AUT University began publishing Te Waha Nui as a regular professional course publishing venture. It quickly established a niche with indigenous and diversity affairs coverage as an important strength. Using a problem-based learning (PBL) context, this article compares and contrasts the pedagogical challenges faced in all three countries in Oceania and outlines a media educational case for independent journalism school publishing.
’Asi – The Presence of the Unseen
(School of Art and Design, AUT, 2022-01-27) Faumuina, Cecelia
This paper considers an indigenous, methodological framework developed for my doctoral thesis, ‘Asi: The Presence of the Unseen. Defined as ‘Ngatu’ the framework employs the heliaki (metaphor) of women’s collective crafting of indigenous fabric, to structure an artistic research project. Ngatu is cloth made from the bark of the paper mulberry tree. Used for floor mats, bedding, clothing and room dividers it is also often given as a gift at weddings, funerals and formal presentations. Ngatu is considered one of Oceania’s distinctive art forms and processes. Within the study, the position of the researcher is both a creator of artistic work and a reflector on the experience and practices of other collaborators. The Ngatu framework enables a practice-led inquiry that is underpinned by indigenous principles: uouongataha (the pursuit of harmony), mālie/māfana (warmth and beauty) and anga fakatōkilalo (being open to learning). Guided by these values, the methodology employs five distinct phases: TŌ (gestation) TĀ (harvesting knowledge) NGAOHI / TUTU (preparing and expanding ideas) HOKO/KOKA’ANGA (harmonious composition), and FOAKI (presentation). The Ngatu methodology may be seen in the light of a significant discussion in 2019, where a gathering of Oceanic scholars considered a proliferation of Indigenous models of inquiry that had been developed by Pacific researchers outside of conventional Western research paradigms. Although much of the discussion focused on research emanating from Health and the Social Sciences, the use of heliaki to describe methodological approaches to artistic inquiry also has a discernible history in doctoral theses in Aotearoa/New Zealand (Pouwhare, 2020; Toluta’u, 2015; Tupou, 2018; Vea, 2015). The Ngatu methodological framework was applied to the question, “What occurs when young Oceanic people work together artistically in a group, drawing on values from their cultural heritage to create meaningful faiva (artistic performances)?” In posing this question, the thesis sought to understand how, ‘asi (the spirit of the unseen), might operate as an empowering agency for endeavour and belonging. As such, the study proposed that ‘asi which is conventionally identified at the peak of artistic performance, might be also discernible before and after such an event, and resource the energy of artistic practice as a whole. The Ngatu methodology was applied to two bodies of work. The first was a co-created project called Lila. This was developed by a team of secondary school students who produced a contemporary faiva for presentation in 2019. This case study was used in conjunction with interviews from contemporary Oceanic youth leaders, reflecting on the nature and agency of ‘asi, as it appears in their artistic workshops with young people. The second work was a performance called FAIVA | FAI VĀ. This was the researcher’s artistic response to the witnessed nature of ‘asi. The performance integrated spoken word poetry, sound, illustration and video design.
Asia Pacific Report: A New Zealand nonprofit journalism model for campus-based social justice media
(Center for Southeast Asian Social Studies (CESASS), Universitas Gadjah Mada, 2018-07-25) Robie, D
For nine years, the Pacific Media Centre research and publication unit at Auckland University of Technology has published journalism with an ‘activist’ edge to its style of reportage raising issues of social justice in New Zealand’s regional backyard. It has achieved this through partnerships with progressive sections of news media and a non-profit model of critical and challenging assignments for postgraduate students in the context of coups, civil war, climate change, human rights, sustainable development and neo-colonialism. An earlier Pacific Scoop venture (2009-2015) has morphed into an innovative venture for the digital era, Asia Pacific Report (APR) (http://asiapacificreport.nz/), launched in January 2016. Amid the current global climate of controversy over ‘fake news’ and a ‘war on truth’ and declining credibility among some mainstream media, the APR project has demonstrated on many occasions the value of independent niche media questioning and challenging mainstream agendas. In this article, a series of case studies examines how the collective experience of citizen journalism, digital engagement and an innovative public empowerment journalism course can develop a unique online publication. The article traverses some of the region’s thorny political and social issues—including the controversial police shootings of students in Papua New Guinea in June 2016.
'Atenisi: Six Terms of Reference for an Athens of the Pacific
(Argos Aotearoa, 2014-03-15) Janman, P
No abstract.
Awakening Takes Place Within: A Practice-Led Research Through Texture and Embodiment
(Universidade Anhembi Morumbi, ) Ardern, Sophie; Mortensen Steagall, Marcos
This article explores contextual research and creative design methodologies to understand the relationship between the researcher’s embodied approach and the produced artefact. The question of: ‘How might I honestly depict my own embodied textural world to awaken others?’ frames the project in a way which allows the designer/researcher to produce work organically and honestly. Encompassing different navigational directions and frameworks of information allows personal understanding to pervade through. The ideas of place, nostalgia, storytelling and texture are explored throughout the physical artefacts of a textural archival book ‘Awaken’ and a series of posters. The methodology of a heuristic-led enquiry activated by embodiment enabled the translation into something more significant than an abstract thought. Exploring the contextual knowledge of texture and its multi-sensory ability, nostalgia and embodiment, frames the project in the broader context allowing for a critical work commentary.
Bearing Witness 2016: A Fiji Climate Change Journalism Case Study
(Pacific Media Centre, School of Communication Studies, Auckland University of Technology, 2017-07-21) Robie, D
In February 2016, the Fiji Islands were devastated by Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston, the strongest recorded tropical storm in the Southern Hemisphere. The category 5 storm with wind gusts reaching 300 kilometres an hour, left 44 people dead, 45,000 people displaced, 350,000 indirectly affected, and $650 million worth of damage (Climate Council, 2016). In March 2017, the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) launched a new 10-year Strategic Plan 2017-2026, which regards climate change as a ‘deeply troubling issue for the environmental, economic, and social viability of Pacific island countries and territories’. In November, Fiji will co-host the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP23) climate change conference in Bonn, Germany. Against this background, the Pacific Media Centre despatched two neophyte journalists to Fiji for a two-week field trip in April 2016 on a ‘bearing witness’ journalism experiential assignment to work in collaboration with the Pacific Centre for the Environment and Sustainable Development (PaCE-SD) and the Regional Journalism Programme at the University of the South Pacific. This paper is a case study assessing this climate change journalism project and arguing for the initiative to be funded for a multiple-year period in future and to cover additional Pacific countries, especially those so-called ‘frontline’ climate change states.
Bearing Witness 2017: Year 2 of a Pacific climate change storytelling project
(Auckland University of Technology, School of Communication Studies, Pacific Media Centre, 2018-07-17) Robie, D
In 2016, the Pacific Media Centre responded to the devastation and tragedy wrought in Fiji by Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston by initiating the Bearing Witness journalism project and dispatching two postgraduate students to Viti Levu to document and report on the impact of climate change (Robie & Chand, 2017). This was followed up in 2017 in a second phase of what was hoped would become a five-year mission and expanded in future years to include other parts of the Asia-Pacific region. This project is timely, given the new 10-year Strategic Plan 2017-2026 launched by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) in March and the co-hosting by Fiji of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP23) climate change conference in Bonn, Germany, during November. The students dispatched in 2017 on the ‘bearing witness’ journalism experiential assignment to work in collaboration with the Pacific Centre for the Environment and Sustainable Development (PaCE-SD) and the Regional Journalism Programme at the University of the South Pacific included a report about the relocation of a remote inland village of Tukuraki. They won the 2017 media and trauma prize of the Asia-Pacific Dart Centre, an agency affiliated with the Columbia School of Journalism. This article is a case study assessing the progress with this second year of the journalism project and exploring the strategic initiatives under way for more nuanced and constructive Asia-Pacific media storytelling in response to climate chang
Bearing witness in 40 years of Greenpeace chronicles
(Pacific Media Centre, Auckland University of Technology, 2012-05) Robie, D
Robie, David (2012). Bearing witness in 40 years of Greenpeace chronicles [Review]. Pacific Journalism Review, 18(1): 232-237. Reviews of: Rainbow Warrior Mon Amour: Trente ans de photos aux côtés de Greenpeace, by Pierre Gleizes. Paris: Glenart, 2011, 379 pp. ISBN 978-2723484558; Warriors of the Rainbow: A chronicle of the Greenpeace movement from 1971 to 1979, by Robert Hunter [40th anniversary edition]. Perth: Greenpeace and Freemantle Press, 2011, 451pp. ISBN 978-1921888809.
Becoming Iconic
(Annenberg School, University of Southern California, 2018-11-12) King, B
Contemporary popular journalism and cultural commentary are marked by the widespread proliferation of the term “iconic” in a way that departs from its traditional, sacred meaning, albeit carrying the aura of the former into a new context of representation. The semiotic processes underpinning this usage are explored to expose the shifting relationship between sign forms and the construction of cultural value under advanced capitalism. Linking Peircean semiotics to Marxian sociological categories, a new “formation of celebrities” (the Iconae) is identified that melds market success with the concept of the intrinsic qualities of persons and things— though in celebrity discourse things are the properties of persons. The immediate rhetorical function of the term “iconic” is to promote celebrities as the victors of a tournament for popular approval. In this process, the concept of the popular becomes subjected to the formation of a hierarchy as the ostensible expression of “natural” talent. Keywords: Frankfurt School, iconic power, commodification, reification and personification, physiognomy, physiocratic inequality and hierarchy
Behind the Fiji censorship: a comparative media regulatory case study as a prelude to the Easter putsch
(Auckland University of Technology, 2009-10-01) Robie, D
On 10 April 2009, a military backed regime wrested total control of the Fiji Islands in what was arguably a fifth coup and imposed martial law. The then President, Ratu Josefa Iloilo, abrogated the 1997 Constitution and dismissed the judiciary in response to a Court of Appeal ruling-by a bench of three Australian judges-that the interim government of Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama established after the fourth coup in December 2006 was illegal. Bainimarama was reinstated, emergency regulations-including state censorship-were decreed and elections were deferred until 2014. Earlier, in the first five months of 2008, two expatriate publishers of the leading daily newspapers, the Murdoch-owned Fiji Times and the local Fiji Sun, were deported amid an international furore. In January 2009, a second Fiji Times publisher was expelled. Other journalists have been detained, threatened and harassed. Ironically, the military imposed censorship in the Easter putsch followed two reviews of Fiji's self-regulatory mechanisms in an attempt to strengthen the media landscape. One controversial report has since been used by the military regime as a justification for a plan to consolidate all existing media laws under a single 'Media Promulgation' law. During a parallel time frame, the New Zealand Press Council also conducted an independent review. With reference to the media accountability systems (M*A*S) model developed by the late Claude-Jean Bertrand, this article analyses the public right to know discourse in Fiji in the context of an authoritarian regime.
Being ‘Afrikaans’: a contested identity
(All Academic, Inc., 2015-05-22) Theunissen, PS
Afrikaner Nationalism under the National Party was the vehicle for maintaining Afrikaner identity for most of the 20th century. To achieve this, a set of master symbols was developed. This qualitative pilot study investigates to what extent— if any—these master symbols are currently renegotiated. A discourse analysis was undertaken on discussions around Afrikaner identity, attempting to answer how participants might construct their identities in public. Four key themes were identified: 1) the Afrikaner as a homogenous group, 2) Afrikaans as a requirement, 3) ‘whiteness’ of the Afrikaner, and 4) shared a heritage and history. In particular, Afrikaner homogeneity was strongly disputed as well as ‘whiteness’ as a requirement. This could potentially pave the way for those of colour to identify themselves as Afrikaners. However, it is postulated that the moderate Afrikaner has fallen silent in the presence of a strong out-group presence.
Book Review: campaigning with passion for an ‘arsenal for democracy’
(School of Communication Studies, Auckland University of Technology, 2005) Robie, D
No abstract.
Book Review: Martin Hirst (2019) Navigating Social Journalism: A Handbook for Media Literacy and Citizen Journalism. London: Routledge
(International Association for Media and Communication Research, 2019)
No abstract.
Book Review: ‘Embedded’ with the invaded Iraqi people
(School of Communication Studies, Auckland University of Technology, 2005) Robie, D
No abstract.
Born To Die: Lana Del Rey, Beauty Queen or Gothic Princess?
(M/C Journal, Queensland University of Technology, ) Usmar, P
No abstract.

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