Challenges Faced by Media Covering the Asia-Pacific: An Interview with David Robie

Challenges Faced by Media Covering the Asia-Pacific”, a Featured Interview of acclaimed journalist David Robie, has been announced for The 13th Asian Conference on Media, Communication & Film (MediAsia2022), which will be held alongside The 3rd Kyoto Conference on Arts, Media & Culture (KAMC2022), October 17–20, 2022.

To participate in MediAsia/KAMC2022 as an audience member, please register for the conference.

This plenary will also be available for IAFOR Members to view online. To find out more, please visit the IAFOR Membership page.



Abstract

Challenges Faced by Media Covering the Asia-Pacific: An Interview with David Robie

New Zealand journalist and academic David Robie has covered the Asia-Pacific region for international media for more than two decades. An advocate for media freedom in the Pacific region, he is the author of several books on South Pacific media and politics, including an account of the French bombing of the Greenpeace ship the Rainbow Warrior - which took place while he was on board. In 1994 he founded the journal Pacific Journalism Review examining media issues and communication in the South Pacific, Asia-Pacific, Australia and New Zealand. In this interview conducted by Mediasia organising committee member Dr Nasya Bahfen, Professor Robie discusses a surge of disinformation and the challenges it posed for journalists in the region as they covered the COVID-19 pandemic alongside a parallel 'infodemic' of fake news and hoaxes. He also explores the global climate emergency and the disproportionate impact it is having on the Asia-Pacific.


Speaker Biography

David Robie
Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand

David RobieDavid Robie is the editor and publisher of Asia Pacific Report and founding director of the Pacific Media Centre at Auckland University of Technology (where he recently retired as Professor of Communication and Pacific Journalism), and a journalist of more than 40 years covering the Asia-Pacific region. He has reported on post-colonial coups, indigenous struggles for independence, environmental issues, and international development. He is the author of several books on South Pacific media and politics including Eyes of Fire: The Last Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior, The Pacific Journalist: A Practical Guide, and Don't Spoil My Beautiful Face: Media, Mayhem and Human Rights in the Pacific.


Nasya Bahfen
La Trobe University, Australia

Nasya BahfenNasya is a former journalist whose research looks at the intersections of new media, sport and diversity. She runs the Masters in Journalism at La Trobe University where she is a researcher with the Centre for Sport and Social Impact. Nasya teaches journalism and sports journalism and is also the postgraduate research coordinator for media (looking after Masters by Research and PhD students in journalism and communications).

Her previous academic work includes how race is framed in Australian journalism through sport, interview choice among young journalism students covering diversity, the incorporation of social media in journalism education, and internet use by southeast Asian and Australian Muslim youth. Her recent co-authored book (on the back of an Australian Research Council grant) explores building resilience among Jewish, Muslim, and other culturally diverse groups targeted in cyber racism, while another recent project compared social media use among Muslim students in Melbourne and New York city where she was a visiting scholar with NYU’s Center for Religion and Media.

She has a PhD in the sociology of the media and worked as a reporter and producer for fifteen years at Australian public broadcasters SBS and ABC. Her writing and commentary on sport and diversity has been published in places such as Melbourne’s Age and New Daily newspapers, the Jakarta Globe, the Straits Times, and the Brunei Times. She’s also produced hour long radio documentaries for ABC Radio National and ABC Grandstand Digital.



Posted by IAFOR