AUCKLAND (Pacific Media Centre / Pacific Media Watch): Pacific Scoop exposes New Zealand to Pacific issues and gives a fresh voice to people in the region on a wide range of topics including health, human rights, media and social justice, say journalists and media commentators.
This regional independent news website provides a strong platform for Pacific issues to be heard and debated. Mainstream media no longer report widely on Pacific issues so it plays a vital role, say the media analysts.
Pacific Scoop and its founding partner, Wellington-based Scoop Media Limited, last month announced a new $5000 internship to fund a postgraduate student journalist to report and edit for the service.
“Journalism is in crisis in the Pacific region and this is reaching a new level of intensity,” says Scoop Media general manager and editor, Alastair Thompson, who has been involved with the project since the website was launched in 2009.
It was a joint venture between AUT University’s Pacific Media Centre and the independent Scoop Media news portal.
This is believed to be the first media industry-journalism school partnership of its kind in New Zealand and the first internship winner has been named as Auckland-based Norwegian radio journalist Daniel Drageset.
‘Abysmal reportage’
“There is an abysmal reportage of Pacific issues in mainstream media in New Zealand,” says Dr David Robie, professor of journalism and communication studies at AUT University, who is editor and co-founder of Pacific Scoop.
“In the late 1970s into the 1980s, main media services put effort into the Pacific region. However, resources have declined.”
He said the PMC and founding co-editor Selwyn Manning recognised a niche non-profit market for postgraduate students on the new Asia-Pacific Journalism specialist course.
It also publishes work from independent journalists, academics and other students filing from around the region.
“Mainstream media in New Zealand and Australia don’t give enough thought to the Pacific,” says a former University of the South Pacific journalism head Shailendra Singh, currently completing his doctorate at a Brisbane university.
“They are often getting their leads and linking stories from Pacific Scoop. In essence, Pacific Scoop is helping the Pacific get wider coverage, critical to the region.”
Barbara Dreaver, Pacific correspondent for Television New Zealand (TVNZ), says while her station will cover breaking news in the Pacific region, there is little funding or time to cover many in-depth stories from such a large and diverse area.
“Pacific Scoop is very good at reporting opinion with in-depth analysis. It adds much more than the bare facts – it adds context and background,” she says.
West Papua Media Alerts editor Nick Chesterfield says Pacific Scoop is committed to looking at parts of the Pacific not traditionally reported on and covers stories with integrity, particularly in Melanesia.
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Asia-Pacific Journalism
