Pacific Journalism Review 19(2)

The latest edition of Pacific Journalism Review (v19-2) is out with the special theme of Celebrity and Scandal. Edited by Professor Barry King, Dr Rosser Johnson and Dr Allison Oosterman, the journal focuses on the dynamics of fame in a small country and the interface between the global and the local.

In his introduction to the theme, Dr King examines some of the fundamental concepts for the study of celebrity culture and scandal and relates these to the New Zealand context.

Following articles consider the complexities of star identity within the parameters of New Zealand popular culture, using actress Rena Owen as a case study, the celebrity career of Suzanne Paul and the process of celebrity feature production using the cover lines of the New Zealand Women’s Weekly.

Two further articles look offshore, in particular to Norway where the media constructed and developed a scandal storyline around the mass murderer Anders Breivik, and to Asia, where the role of scandal as a device for building dramatic tension and excitement was examined in the light of Asian cinema.

This issue’s Frontline article by Professor Chris Nash reviews the recent debate about the performance and impact of the Excellence for Research in Australia (ERA) evaluations in 2010 and 2012 on the field of journalism research.

Unrelated to the theme of celebrity and scandal are articles on the media reporting of suicide, research into mobile phone telephony in Papua New Guinea, an examination of the Queensland state electoral division of Ashgrove in 2011 and a consideration of New Zealand’s performance in the 2010 round of the Global Media Monitoring Project where gender inequality remains a defining characteristic of daily news content.

The inaugural UNESCO NZ World Press Freedom Day address by Professor Mark Pearson completes the general articles.

Next year, Pacific Journalism Review marks two decades of publishing.

Full text articles of this edition