The independent media monitoring project Pacific Media Watch is making many changes to the way it operates with a new website hub and database service.
The email-based service that has run since PMW was set up at the University of Technology, Sydney, and University of Papua New Guinea in late 1996 to lobby in support of the “Tongan three” languishing in jail is about to be phased out.
It will be replaced by the web-based RSS feed.
Investigative journalist Peter Cronau and then UPNG journalism coordinator David Robie founded the PMW service to campaign for Taimi 'o Tonga publisher Kalafi Moala and two others who had been unconstitutionally imprisoned for “contempt of Parliament”.
It was established out of the UTS journalism school as a free cooperative service to support media and journalism education resources in the region.
The service has a strong focus on media industry, social justice, human rights, grassroots development communication and media freedom issues.
"The changes are all positive and designed to make our resources more user-friendly for regional journalism schools and media researchers," says Associate Professor David Robie, director of the Pacific Media Centre, which now hosts PMW.
Thirteen years ago apc.au was created to continue the work of the pre-internet pioneer, Pegasus Networks, providing specialised hosting and online consultancy services to community groups and NGOs including PMW.
For all this time, apc.au – a member of the Association for Progressive Communications that Pegasus had been a co-founder of – took over the original PMW website and hosted it and the email service at no charge.
Now the apc.au family is closing down as the principals, Andrew Garton and Grant McHerron, move on to other ventures.
Pacific Media Watch listers who would like to keep receiving the PMW alerts and stories will now need to log in to the website hub and subscribe to the new RSS news feed: www.pmc.aut.ac.nz/feeds/pmw_article/rss.xml
The website hub is now hosted by the Pacific Media Centre at AUT University and there is also a PMW database on DSpace at AUT which includes audio and video content (while this carries most of the dispatches on the original PMW website, it is no longer updated). For searches earlier than July 2010, go to: http://tinyurl.com/45f3a9z
"We at Pacific Media Watch and the Pacific Media Centre would like to thank Andrew, Grant and the apc.au family for their tremendous support over many years and wish them well for the future," says Dr Robie.
"We would also like to thank the Pacific Development and Conservation Trust for a grant last year that has enabled the series of communication changes to take place for us."
PMW and PMC services include:
Main PMC website, incorporating PMW, special articles, media research, archives, publications and other resources: www.pmc.aut.ac.nz
PMC feed: www.pmc.aut.ac.nz/rss.xml
PMW website: www.pacmediawatch.aut.ac.nz
PMW feed: www.pmc.aut.ac.nz/feeds/pmw_article/rss.xml
PMW database on DSpace (prior to mid-2010): http://tinyurl.com/45f3a9z
Pacific Scoop (joint PMC venture with Scoop Media): - www.pacific.scoop.co.nz
Pacific Journalism Review: www.pjreview.info
PMC on YouTube: www.youtube.com/pacmedcentre
To follow PMW and PMC on Facebook, Twitter, go to the home page: www.pmc.aut.ac.nz
Pacific Media Watch
