IAFOR > The Asian Conference on Media, Communication & Film (MediAsia) > MediAsia2019

MediAsia2019

Conference Theme: "Reclaiming the Future"

October 25-27, 2019 | Toshi Center Hotel, Tokyo, Japan

We live in a period characterised by rises in regionalism, nationalism and authoritarianism; a time of great global uncertainty and anxiety, as well as inequality and iniquity which both reflects and drives political divide, and undermines international systems of cooperation. Clashes of identities, beliefs and ideologies are evident in academia, media and the arts, contributing to a feeling that humanity is spiralling out of control; that our relationships with each other, as well as with the earth and environment, have never been worse.

Yet, as humans, we are not conditioned by fear alone, but instead by a remarkable ingenuity, and a capacity for hope, self-reflection, activism and action. This agency to improve our own lives, and those of others, is the theme of this international conference, inviting us to consider the ways in which we contextualise and process the past, reimagining ourselves, our relationships, and our environments; driving positive change and reclaiming the future as a time we look towards with hope, and even optimism.

This conference is organised by IAFOR in association with the IAFOR Research Centre at the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) in Osaka University, Japan.

Download MediAsia2019 Conference Programme

Back to Top

MediAsia2019 Photo Report

Above left: Dr Nasya Bahfen of La Trobe University (Australia) delivers her Keynote Presentation, “Australia and Asia: Media and Identity in a Time of Change”, in which she discusses issues such as gender and race in media, drawing on her years of experience as a journalist and scholar. Dr Bahfen also served on the Organising Committee for the conference. Above right: Ms Erina Ito, a renowned journalist at Asahi Shimbun (Japan), delivers her Keynote Presentation, titled “Gender Equality in the Japanese Film Industry”. In addition to discussing issues in the film industry, Ms Ito offered numerous examples of the overt exploitation of feminine sexuality in Japanese culture, noting that gender equality was not just an issue in the workplace, but in society at large.

Above, clockwise from top left: Dr Arianne Rourke, from the University of New South Wales (Australia), offered a Featured Presentation titled “Media, Communication and Film as a Catalyst for Change: How Animations in Teaching International Students (TIS) Project Become Public Pedagogy”, showing how international students in Australia are benefitting from animations incorporated into teaching strategies. Mr Timothy Pollock, from Osaka Kyoiku University & Hagoromo University of International Studies (Japan), played a major role in bringing together the conference as a member of the Organising Committee, and is seen here moderating the panel discussion “Observation vs. Immersion: Trends in Contemporary Visual Anthropology”. The engaged crowd listens intently to the stellar line-up of plenary speakers. International Academic Advisory Board member Professor Monty P. Satiadarma, of Tarumanagara University (Indonesia), presents the IAFOR Scholarship to Donnalyn De Chavez, of De La Salle University (Philippines) who won the award for her work titled “The Self on Instagram: A Study on How People With Different Hair Colors Use Instagram for Online Self-presentation”.

Above: Panellists Dr Michael R. Ogden (left) of Zayed University (UAE), and Dr Kwame M. Phillips (right) of John Cabot University (Italy), provide comments on filmmaking during their panel, “Observation vs. Immersion: Trends in Contemporary Visual Anthropology”.

Above, clockwise from top left: Dr Virgil Hawkins, from Osaka University (Japan) engages the audience with a discussion of the media’s coverage of climate change in his Featured Presentation, “Climate Coverage: Getting More and Getting it Done Right”. Dr Hawkins also served on the Organising Committee for the conference. One of our amazing volunteers who, along with others from various universities in the Tokyo area, commented that the experience was both rewarding and fun, and IAFOR is grateful for all their hard work. An enthusiastic and notably international crowd takes time to pose for a photo as they make MediAsia2019 a great place to share new ideas, future research, and differing perspectives within a supportive and collaborative environment.

Back to Top

Speakers

  • Nasya Bahfen
    Nasya Bahfen
    La Trobe University, Australia
  • Virgil Hawkins
    Virgil Hawkins
    Osaka University, Japan
  • Roger Horn
    Roger Horn
    Filmmaker, Germany
  • Erina Ito
    Erina Ito
    Asahi Shimbun, Japan
  • Michael R. Ogden
    Michael R. Ogden
    Zayed University, Dubai
  • Kwame M. Phillips
    Kwame M. Phillips
    John Cabot University, Italy
  • Timothy W. Pollock
    Timothy W. Pollock
    Osaka Kyoiku University & Hagoromo University of International Studies, Japan
  • Arianne Rourke
    Arianne Rourke
    The University of New South Wales, Australia
  • Gary E. Swanson
    Gary E. Swanson
    University of Northern Colorado, USA (fmr.)

Back to Top

Programme

  • Climate Coverage: Getting More and Getting it Done Right
    Climate Coverage: Getting More and Getting it Done Right
    Featured Presentation: Virgil Hawkins
  • Media, Communication and Film as a Catalyst for Change: How Animations in Teaching International Students (TIS) Project Become Public Pedagogy
    Media, Communication and Film as a Catalyst for Change: How Animations in Teaching International Students (TIS) Project Become Public Pedagogy
    Featured Presentation: Arianne Rourke
  • Gender Equality in the Japanese Film Industry
    Gender Equality in the Japanese Film Industry
    Keynote Presentation: Erina Ito
  • Australia and Asia: Media and Identity in a Time of Change
    Australia and Asia: Media and Identity in a Time of Change
    Keynote Presentation: Nasya Bahfen
  • Observation vs. Immersion: Trends in Contemporary Visual Anthropology
    Observation vs. Immersion: Trends in Contemporary Visual Anthropology
    Panel Presentation: Timothy W. Pollock, Roger Horn
  • Deepfake
    Deepfake
    Roundtable/Panel Presentation: Gary E. Swanson

Back to Top

Organising Committee

The Conference Programme Committee is composed of distinguished academics who are experts in their fields. Conference Programme Committee members may also be members of IAFOR's International Academic Board. The Organising Committee is responsible for nominating and vetting Keynote and Featured Speakers; developing the conference programme, including special workshops, panels, targeted sessions, and so forth; event outreach and promotion; recommending and attracting future Conference Programme Committee members; working with IAFOR to select PhD students and early career academics for IAFOR-funded grants and scholarships; and overseeing the reviewing of abstracts submitted to the conference.

  • Nasya Bahfen
    Nasya Bahfen
    La Trobe University, Australia
  • Joseph Haldane
    Joseph Haldane
    The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan
  • Bradley J. Hamm
    Bradley J. Hamm
    Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University, USA
  • Virgil Hawkins
    Virgil Hawkins
    Osaka University, Japan
  • Timothy W. Pollock
    Timothy W. Pollock
    Osaka Kyoiku University & Hagoromo University of International Studies, Japan
  • Paul Spicer
    Paul Spicer
    Hiroshima Jougakuin University, Japan
  • Gary E. Swanson
    Gary E. Swanson
    University of Northern Colorado, USA (fmr.)

Back to Top

MediAsia2019 Review Committee

  • Dr Maria Guajardo, Soka University, Japan
  • Dr Virgil Hawkins, Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), Osaka University, Japan
  • Dr Alexander Klemm, Webster University of Thailand, Thailand
  • Dr Chin-Pang Lei, University of Macau, Macau
  • Mr Timothy W. Pollock, Hagoromo University of International Studies, Japan
  • Dr Rachna Sharma, Lady Shri Ram College for Women, University of Delhi, India
  • Dr Mario Slugan, Ghent University, Belgium
  • Dr Paul Spicer, Hiroshima Jougakuin University, Japan
  • Professor Gary E. Swanson, University of Northern Colorado, United States
  • Dr Suranti Trisnawati, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia

Back to Top

Nasya Bahfen
La Trobe University, Australia

Biography

Nasya 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.

Nasya’s former students number in the hundreds and work in newsrooms and media roles across Australia and the world. She is regularly interviewed by Australian and international broadcasters on issues of diversity in the media, and diversity in sport. When she isn’t working on a book on sport and social inclusion, or acting as an AFL multicultural ambassador, Nasya plays indoor soccer and learns KPop dance routines.

Featured Interview (2022) | Challenges Faced by Media Covering the Asia-Pacific: A Conversation with David Robie
Presentation (2019) | Australia and Asia: Media and Identity in a Time of Change
Virgil Hawkins
Osaka University, Japan

Biography

Dr Virgil Hawkins holds a PhD in International Public Policy from the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), Osaka University, where he currently serves as associate professor. He is also a research associate with the University of the Free State, South Africa.

Before joining OSIPP, Virgil Hawkins was an assistant professor at the Global Collaboration Center, Osaka University (2007-2010), and has also served with the Association of Medical Doctors of Asia (AMDA) in Cambodia (technical advisor, 2002-2004), and in Zambia (country director, 2004-2007).

Virgil Hawkins is also a co-founder of the Southern African Centre for Collaboration on Peace and Security (SACCPS). His prime research interest is in the media coverage of conflict (and the lack thereof), most notably in Africa. His most recent book is Communication and Peace: Mapping an Emerging Field, edited with Julia Hoffmann (Routledge, 2015).

Featured Presentation (2019) | Climate Coverage: Getting More and Getting it Done Right

Previous MediAsia Presentations

Featured Presentation (2017) | Introduction of Osaka University’s Global News View Database
Roger Horn
Filmmaker, Germany

Biography

Roger Horn is an award-winning filmmaker who utilises Super 8mm, digital, found home movies, and YouTube videos in his ethnographic and experimental video works. Roger holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Cape Town where his written thesis, Memories, material culture, and methodology: Employing multiple filmic formats, forms, and informal archives in anthropological research among Zimbabwean migrant women was accompanied by several films. Additionally, he has lectured in visual anthropology, documentary production, film studies, and cinematography drawing upon his 20+ years of production experience and research across multiple disciplines for inspiration.

Influenced by theory and methodology from visual anthropology, documentary, and experimental film traditions, his experimental and unconventional ethnographic films have screened at multiple high profile film festivals including the 65th Oberhausen International Short Film Festival and multiple screenings at the Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival. In additional to his concentration on migration, Roger has spent over a decade researching and filming among transgender vineyard workers in the wine lands outside of Cape Town, South Africa culminating is multiple films. The first of these films, The Sisterhood (2010), was short-listed for the Basil Wright Prize at the 13th Royal Anthropological Institute International Festival of Ethnographic Film in 2013 and was nominated and awarded at several additional film festivals worldwide.

Roger recently relocated from South Africa to Germany where he continues to research and document African migration.

Featured Panel Presentation (2019) | Observation vs. Immersion: Trends in Contemporary Visual Anthropology
Erina Ito
Asahi Shimbun, Japan

Biography

Erina Ito is a veteran journalist with over two decades of experience writing for the Asahi Shimbun, the second-highest circulating newspaper in Japan. She has reported on the Academy Awards, as well as film festivals in Japan, Busan, Venice, Frankfurt, Cannes and Berlin. Ms Ito, as part of the paper’s Culture and Life News Departments, has been a pioneer in reporting on issues of gender equality in the Japanese film industry, and has more recently reported on gender issues in Japanese politics and business for the Asahi Shimbun’s News Department. She has also written for Elle Japan on solutions proposed for problems experienced by women in the Japanese workplace, which were identified in the wake of the #MeToo movement.

Recognised for her groundbreaking work on gender equality by the Japanese media, Ms Ito has interviewed women in the arts all over the world on their efforts to achieve gender equality in the fields of arts and entertainment. Her work is notable for the depth and range of its research and the unique international angle she brings to her writing on the state of gender equity in Japan, and her background in photography has enabled her to illustrate her work with her own photos and to produce multimedia content for the Asahi Shimbun website. After her recent transfer to the Asahi News Department, Ms Ito has brought her experience, knowledge and research from two decades of reporting on gender issues in the Japanese film and entertainment industries to her reporting on Japanese politics and business, including the recent rise of female legislators.

Keynote Presentation (2019) | Gender Equality in the Japanese Film Industry
Michael R. Ogden
Zayed University, Dubai

Biography

Michael R. Ogden has over three decades of combined experience as a teacher–scholar and media storyteller. A former Peace Corps Volunteer (Fiji, 1982-1984), Dr Ogden’s academic research and consulting experience has focused on electronic media, the impact of technology, and policies governing culture and the creative industry – especially in the Pacific Islands. He has published many journal articles and book chapters focused on sociopolitical issues in cultural policy as well as the impact of ICTs on society and indigenous communities (as both actor & agency). Dr Ogden has previously been affiliated with the University of the South Pacific (Fiji), the East-West Center (Hawaii), the National Institute for Multimedia Education (Japan), the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Thames Valley University’s College of Music and Media (London), and Central Washington University (USA) where he holds Emeritus Professor status as the founding Director of the interdisciplinary Film & Video Studies program. Presently, Dr Ogden is Professor of Media Production & Storytelling and former Assistant Dean in the College of Communication and Media Sciences at Zayed University in Dubai, UAE.

Dr Ogden’s creative focus is on independent documentary, narrative film, and interactive/immersive media. He is a member of the U.S. Television Academy and the International Cinematographers Guild. His professional experience in broadcast television and the entertainment film industry includes work as a camera operator, director of photography, creative editor, director (single & multi-camera), production manager, and scriptwriter. His most recent project is a feature-length documentary focused on Irish-India migration and identity entitled, An Gorta Mór: Passage to India (2019) which has already collected many award laurels at numerous film festivals.

Dr Ogden’s academic focus is the history and future of the documentary as well as the impact of media technology on the evolution of storytelling. Ever cognizant of the issues surrounding representation of “The Other,” Dr Ogden’s storytelling approach is a function of his being an academic and a storyteller of mixed-ancestry, living and working between cultures.

Ogden’s latest co-authored book is entitled, Single Camera Video Production (6th Ed.), published by Focal Press/Routledge (2014). He is also the author of a comprehensive chapter on the history, present, and future of cinema technology published in Communication Technology Update and Fundamentals (16th Ed., Routledge, 2018). Finally, he has a forthcoming article entitled "Interactive/Transmedia Documentary: Convergence Culture Meets Actuality Storytelling" in a special edition of the open-source, multi-lingual journal INTERIN, entitled Visualities and Intermedialities (Dossie, N.25, V.1, 2020).

Kwame M. Phillips
John Cabot University, Italy

Biography

Kwame M. Phillips is assistant professor in the Department of Communications and Media Studies, John Cabot University, Italy, specialising in visual and sensory media production, ethnographic documentary, visual anthropology and audio culture. Phillips’s work centres on multidisciplinary engagement and focuses on resilience, race, and social justice. He received his PhD in Anthropology and Film and Media Studies from Emory University in 2014 and is a former Filmmakers Without Borders fellow.

His 2016 film, Welcome to Pa Pae is a short ethnographic documentary focusing on the life-world of a Karen hill tribe community in Northern Thailand. Uniting both participatory and observational documentary modes, the film offers an intimate view into the daily lives of one of Thailand’s most remote populations.

He is co-author (with Dr. Shana Redmond) of the chapter “‘The People Who Keep on Going’: A Radical Listening Party” in The Futures of Black Radicalism. He is also co-creator (with Dr. Debra Vidali) of the multi-sensorial sound art work, “Kabusha Radio Remix: Your Questions Answered by Pioneering Zambian Talk Show Host David Yumba (1923–1990).”

His recent articles include “Collisions of Memory, Voice, Sound, and Physicality though a Multi-sensorial Radio Remix Installation” with Dr. Debra Vidali for the Seismograf journal and “Reverberations and Dislocations of the Archive: Aspirations, Inhabitance, and Remixed Installation,” with Dr. Debra Vidali, submitted to Visual Anthropology Review for the special issue “Bodies of Archives/Archival Bodies.”

Timothy W. Pollock
Osaka Kyoiku University & Hagoromo University of International Studies, Japan

Biography

Timothy W. Pollock currently lectures on film and visual culture at Osaka Kyoiku University and at Hagoromo University of International Studies, Japan. He received his BA in Religious Studies from the College of William & Mary, USA, and an MA in Applied Linguistics from Monash University, Australia. He has presented papers in fields as diverse as film, semiotic theory, ethics and education, all of which were structured around the central theme of the power of multi-modal, dramatic visual narratives.

His film research is focused on the development of standards and practices in classical Japanese cinema in general, and on the later films of Ozu Yasujiro in particular, while his work in the field of semiotics has focused on the applicability of social semiotic theory to the analysis of Japanese cinema and Japanese visual culture in general.

In ethics and moral philosophy he has analyzed how ethical dilemmas are presented in contemporary Hollywood cinema, and how the presentation of these dilemmas within a dramatic, visual narrative influences our reading of them. He is currently investigating how the very modes and frameworks through which ethical dilemmas are communicated can subtly influence the deliberative process of the target audience.

A long-time resident of Japan, he also worked as an assistant editor on the second edition of the Genius Japanese-English Dictionary.

Featured Panel Presentation (2019) | Observation vs. Immersion: Trends in Contemporary Visual Anthropology

Previous Presentations

Featured Panel Presentation (2018) | The State of Film Studies in Japan
Arianne Rourke
The University of New South Wales, Australia

Biography

Dr Arianne Rourke is an Associate Professor at The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Faculty of Art & Design, she is a Deputy Director and Fellow of the UNSW Scientia Education Academy (SEA). Arianne is also Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) and has had her research published in over 90 National and International publications and contributes her expertise on the editorial boards of six International education journals. Her research is in higher education pedagogy, specifically focusing on investigating methods for improving the use of visuals in instructional design to assist in promoting the long-term retention of learning. Recently she co-curated with Dr Vaughan Rees, an 8 book series titled: Transformative Pedagogy in the Visual Domain, published by Common Ground Research Networks, that received the 2018 Publisher’s Award of Excellence.

Featured Presentation (2019) | "Media, Communication and Film as a Catalyst for Change: How Animations in Teaching International Students (TIS) Project Become Public Pedagogy" (co-authored with Kim Snepvangers)

Gary E. Swanson
University of Northern Colorado, USA (fmr.)

Biography

Gary E. Swanson is the former Mildred S. Hansen Endowed Chair and Distinguished Journalist-in-Residence at the University of Northern Colorado, USA. From 2005-2007 Professor Swanson was a Fulbright scholar to China and lectured at Tsinghua University and the Communication University of China. In summer 2008 he was Commentator for China Central Television International (CCTV-9) and their live coverage of the Beijing Olympic Games. Swanson repeated his assignment covering the London Olympics for CCTV-4 in the summer of 2012. Previously, he was professor and director of television for nine years at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University where he taught mostly graduate broadcast students. He has been an educator for 26 years; 20 years spent teaching at the university level. Swanson is an internationally recognized and highly acclaimed documentary producer, director, editor, photojournalist, consultant and educator. He has given keynote speeches, presented workshopsretd and lectured at embassies, conferences, festivals, and universities throughout China, South Africa, India, Papua New Guinea, Japan, The Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Singapore, Greece, Germany, Jordan, Spain, Portugal, Peru, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Swanson has compiled a distinguished professional broadcast career spanning 13 years: From 1978 to 1991, Swanson worked for the National Broadcasting Company where he was honored with national EMMYs for producing and editing: The Silent Shame, a prime-time investigative documentary; Military Medicine, a two-part investigative series on NBC News; and Hotel Crime, an investigative news magazine piece. Swanson was an editor for "breaking news and features" for NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, the Today Show, Sunrise, Sunday Today, NBC Overnight, A Closer Look, Monitor, and other prime time news magazines. Swanson covered "breaking news" in 26 states and Canada for the network including trips and campaigns of presidents Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and Bill Clinton. Swanson was the Fulbright distinguished lecturer and consultant in television news to the government of Portugal in 1989. In 1992, he covered the XXV Olympics in Barcelona, Spain for NBC News as field producer and cameraman. Swanson has earned more than 75 awards for broadcast excellence and photojournalism including three national EMMYs, the duPont Columbia Award, two CINE 'Golden Eagles,' 16 TELLYs, the Monte Carlo International Award, the Hamburg International Media Festival's Globe Award, the Videographer Award, The Communicator Award, the Ohio State Award, the CINDY Award, the 2011 Communitas Outstanding Professor and Educator award, the 2013 Professor of the Year award, and many others. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana with a Bachelor's degree in Education in 1974, and a Master's degree in Journalism in 1993.

Professor Gary E. Swanson is a member of IAFOR’s Academic Governing Board. He is Chair of the Media & Film section of the International Academic Advisory Board.

Roundtable/Panel Presentation (2019) | Deepfake

Previous MediAsia Presentations

Keynote Presentation (2017) | Fake News and the Attack on America’s Freedom of the Press
Climate Coverage: Getting More and Getting it Done Right
Featured Presentation: Virgil Hawkins

From late 2018, a series of UN reports and academic studies detailing the crisis facing our climate and natural environment have added weight to our knowledge about where we are and where we are likely headed. The projections are alarming and serve to demonstrate convincingly that it is indeed a crisis that is in progress, and that major changes are required in terms of how we live and function to prevent catastrophic consequences to life on Earth. This state of affairs brings major challenges to how the news media presents this kind of information. With a tendency to focus on the here and now, and to follow the lead of the policymakers and corporations at home, the news media is not well placed to adequately cover this slow burning crisis of global proportions. As a result, coverage of climate change has tended to be wholly inadequate as a tool to help the public understand and respond to it. This presentation explores and assesses the news media’s coverage of the climate crisis, with a particular focus on the Japanese media, and will also examine a new international initiative to improve how the media covers this vital issue – Covering Climate Now.

Read presenter biographies.

Media, Communication and Film as a Catalyst for Change: How Animations in Teaching International Students (TIS) Project Become Public Pedagogy
Featured Presentation: Arianne Rourke

In the Australian Higher Education (HE) context moral panics about dropping standards or the undue influence of foreign countries can make any discussion of International education fraught and highly contentious. Most institutional responses to the challenges of global education end up reinforcing highly suspect models of deficit educational ‘dependence’. To counter deficit discourse, film and animation feature strongly in the Teaching International Students (TIS) project. Academics work with digital media students as ‘students as Partners’ in Professional Experience Projects (PEP) to create storyboards and animations. Students’ receive academic credit, experience real-world Australian business contexts and anticipate their future creative careers by working alongside mentors, business and organisations. This ‘Ecology of Practice’ (Snepvangers & Rourke, 2017), situates shifts in student learning by documenting transfer of media and communication skills to a wider audience. Students move from an individual media practice to a public facing pedagogy by producing ‘visual learning artefacts’. Their creative and adaptive agency is valued, alongside communicative capacities that appreciate diverse cultural perspective. Underpinned by Kruger’s iceberg theoretical model (1996; 2013), students’ narrative animations explore contested themes ‘below the waterline’. Design of ‘counter-dependent’ film and media artefacts act as ‘catalysts for conversation’ in teaching environments to empower learning with International students. By prioritising visual media ecologies, TIS counters regionalism utilising synergistic community-based approaches to develop ‘independent’ educator case-based knowledge to enhance student professional learning. In this ‘interdependent’ emergent ecosystem, students and educators work iteratively developing reciprocal relationships to make shifts in practice visible, whilst simultaneously documenting educator career development.

(co-authored with Kim Snepvangers)

Read presenter biographies.

Gender Equality in the Japanese Film Industry
Keynote Presentation: Erina Ito

The #MeToo movement had a global impact, helping highlight issues of gender inequality in various spheres of public and private life, and this impact also extended to Japan. There are many parallels between the Japanese film industry and Japanese politics when it comes to gender inequality. In Japan, only 10.1% of the House of Representatives is female despite the fact that the population is over 51% female, and there is currently only one female cabinet member.

Over the last twenty years in the Japanese film industry, only 3% of the films produced by the top four major Japanese film companies (Toho, Toei, Shochiku, and Kadokawa) were made by female directors, despite the fact that research conducted for this study revealed that the percentage of female students studying film at major universities and vocational schools has remained steady at about 40% over the same time period.

While the candidate gender equality law was passed in Japan last May in an effort to get political parties to equalise the number of male and female candidates in national and regional parliamentary elections, no such concerted efforts have been made to improve the situation in the film industry. This article reveals the multi-tiered approach to resolving the gender equity problem in the US film industry (from the selection of film festival committee members and film company executives, to wage equality and employment opportunities for actors and staff) and hypotheses how some of these ideas may be applied in Japan, in the entertainment industry and in politics.

Read presenter biographies.

Australia and Asia: Media and Identity in a Time of Change
Keynote Presentation: Nasya Bahfen

The increasing pace, intensity and scale of migration, urbanisation and globalisation is one of the biggest challenges faced by the societies of two neighbouring continents (Australia and Asia). Across both continents, economies will be substantially reconfigured, with jobs in a range of industries lost to automation and an increase in the movement of people as the effects of climate change are felt. Against the backdrop of these changes, the media – despite widespread technological disruptions to its operations – continues to be a crucial disseminator of narratives of national identity. In this paper, I look at Australia’s changing media discourse about identity. Historically a monocultural British outpost, Australia is now a cultural melting pot predicted to have a population of 37.6 million people by 2050, with Melbourne and Sydney each accommodating 8 million. The country has undergone key shifts in its foreign policy outlook with the first following World War Two when Canberra’s allegiance to Britain turned into a strategic alliance with the United States. As a new superpower emerges in China, Australia has been forced – kicking and screaming – to confront the geopolitical reality of its location and its changing populace, and pivot towards Asia. How will the Australian media reflect the country’s role within and connection to Asia, as they continue to develop and change over time?

Read presenter biographies.

Observation vs. Immersion: Trends in Contemporary Visual Anthropology
Panel Presentation: Timothy W. Pollock, Roger Horn

A seismic shift has occurred in the area of visual anthropology. The naïve realism encoded in long takes shot proscenium-style has given way to a more impressionistic approach that aims at creating a more immersive experience for the viewer. A seminal moment in this movement is often credited to the 2012 release of the film Leviathan by Lucien Castaing‐Taylor and Véréna Paravel, but the groundwork for this shift was being laid well before.

This new approach, championed by, among others, Harvard’s Sensory Ethnography Lab, can be seen as following in the theoretical footsteps of neo formalism, and therefore faces some of the same theoretical challenges. Do the techniques utilised by this new wave of visual anthropologists actually affect the audience in the ways the filmmakers claim? Could these reactions be culturally bound? And what does this approach mean for anthropology as a discipline, and how it defines itself?

New and exciting developments and paradigm shifts in a discipline often lead to a reevaluation of the discipline itself, and this panel will draw together experts in the field to discuss this exciting new direction in visual anthropology and what it means for the future of the discipline.

Deepfake
Roundtable/Panel Presentation: Gary E. Swanson

For more than a century, audio and video have functioned as a bedrock of truth in our society. Not only have sound and images recorded our history, they have also informed and shaped our perception of reality. But some people question the facts around events that unquestionably happened, like the Holocaust, the moon landing and 9/11, despite video proof.

Enter “Deepfake.” The term refers to artificial intelligence techniques used to combine and superimpose multiple images or videos onto source material. The process can be used to make it look as if people did or said things they did not.

Experts recently told CNN that “Deepfake” technology is not yet sophisticated enough to fake large-scale historical events or conflicts, but they worry that the doubt sown by a single convincing “Deepfake” could alter our trust in news and information forever. If “Deepfakes” make people believe they can’t trust video, the problems of misinformation and conspiracy theories could get worse. And while “fake news” is often a politically loaded term for junk news, “Deepfake” strikes at everyone equally, regardless of their place on the political spectrum.

One thing is for sure: The use (or misuse) of this technology will change news and information as we know it. It can challenge the way we receive and process new information and will become one of the hottest, most controversial terms around in 2020 and beyond.

Read presenter biographies.

Nasya Bahfen
La Trobe University, Australia

Biography

Nasya 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.

Nasya’s former students number in the hundreds and work in newsrooms and media roles across Australia and the world. She is regularly interviewed by Australian and international broadcasters on issues of diversity in the media, and diversity in sport. When she isn’t working on a book on sport and social inclusion, or acting as an AFL multicultural ambassador, Nasya plays indoor soccer and learns KPop dance routines.

Featured Interview (2022) | Challenges Faced by Media Covering the Asia-Pacific: A Conversation with David Robie
Presentation (2019) | Australia and Asia: Media and Identity in a Time of Change
Joseph Haldane
The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan

Biography

Joseph Haldane is the Chairman and CEO of IAFOR. He is responsible for devising strategy, setting policies, forging institutional partnerships, implementing projects, and overseeing the organisation’s business and academic operations, including research, publications and events.

Dr Haldane holds a PhD from the University of London in 19th-century French Studies, and has had full-time faculty positions at the University of Paris XII Paris-Est Créteil (France), Sciences Po Paris (France), and Nagoya University of Commerce and Business (Japan), as well as visiting positions at the French Press Institute in the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas (France), The School of Journalism at Sciences Po Paris (France), and the School of Journalism at Moscow State University (Russia).

Dr Haldane’s current research concentrates on post-war and contemporary politics and international affairs, and since 2015 he has been a Guest Professor at The Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) at Osaka University, where he teaches on the postgraduate Global Governance Course, and Co-Director of the OSIPP-IAFOR Research Centre, an interdisciplinary think tank situated within Osaka University.

He is also a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Philology at the University of Belgrade, a Member of the International Advisory Council of the Department of Educational Foundations at the College of Education of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and a Member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network for Global Governance.

From 2012 to 2014, Dr Haldane served as Treasurer of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (Chubu Region) and he is currently a Trustee of the HOPE International Development Agency (Japan). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society in 2012, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2015.

A black belt in judo, he is married with two children, and lives in Japan.

Bradley J. Hamm
Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University, USA

Biography

Bradley J. Hamm is a full professor at the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University, USA, serving as the dean from 2012 to 2018, where he oversaw Medill's programs in Chicago, Washington, DC, and San Francisco in addition to its home campus in Evanston. Previously, he was Dean of the Indiana University School of Journalism in Bloomington and Indianapolis, USA.

Hamm's PhD is in mass communication research from the University of North Carolina, USA. He received a master’s degree in journalism from the University of South Carolina, USA, and an undergraduate degree from Catawba College in North Carolina, USA.

He also served as the interim dean and associate dean of the School of Communications at Elon University in North Carolina, USA. Hamm has taught in study abroad programs in Japan, China and the United Kingdom and started his career as a newspaper reporter. His teaching and research interests are in journalism history and media theory, particularly agenda setting theory.

He served as a trustee for the Poynter Institute and is a judge for the Scripps Howard National Journalism Awards. He serves as an independent, non-executive member of the Board of Directors for Next Digital media company of Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Virgil Hawkins
Osaka University, Japan

Biography

Dr Virgil Hawkins holds a PhD in International Public Policy from the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), Osaka University, where he currently serves as associate professor. He is also a research associate with the University of the Free State, South Africa.

Before joining OSIPP, Virgil Hawkins was an assistant professor at the Global Collaboration Center, Osaka University (2007-2010), and has also served with the Association of Medical Doctors of Asia (AMDA) in Cambodia (technical advisor, 2002-2004), and in Zambia (country director, 2004-2007).

Virgil Hawkins is also a co-founder of the Southern African Centre for Collaboration on Peace and Security (SACCPS). His prime research interest is in the media coverage of conflict (and the lack thereof), most notably in Africa. His most recent book is Communication and Peace: Mapping an Emerging Field, edited with Julia Hoffmann (Routledge, 2015).

Featured Presentation (2019) | Climate Coverage: Getting More and Getting it Done Right

Previous MediAsia Presentations

Featured Presentation (2017) | Introduction of Osaka University’s Global News View Database
Timothy W. Pollock
Osaka Kyoiku University & Hagoromo University of International Studies, Japan

Biography

Timothy W. Pollock currently lectures on film and visual culture at Osaka Kyoiku University and at Hagoromo University of International Studies, Japan. He received his BA in Religious Studies from the College of William & Mary, USA, and an MA in Applied Linguistics from Monash University, Australia. He has presented papers in fields as diverse as film, semiotic theory, ethics and education, all of which were structured around the central theme of the power of multi-modal, dramatic visual narratives.

His film research is focused on the development of standards and practices in classical Japanese cinema in general, and on the later films of Ozu Yasujiro in particular, while his work in the field of semiotics has focused on the applicability of social semiotic theory to the analysis of Japanese cinema and Japanese visual culture in general.

In ethics and moral philosophy he has analyzed how ethical dilemmas are presented in contemporary Hollywood cinema, and how the presentation of these dilemmas within a dramatic, visual narrative influences our reading of them. He is currently investigating how the very modes and frameworks through which ethical dilemmas are communicated can subtly influence the deliberative process of the target audience.

A long-time resident of Japan, he also worked as an assistant editor on the second edition of the Genius Japanese-English Dictionary.

Featured Panel Presentation (2019) | Observation vs. Immersion: Trends in Contemporary Visual Anthropology

Previous Presentations

Featured Panel Presentation (2018) | The State of Film Studies in Japan
Paul Spicer
Hiroshima Jougakuin University, Japan

Biography

Dr Paul Spicer is currently an Associate Professor at Hiroshima Jougakuin University in the beautiful city of Hiroshima. He was previously employed by the University of Portsmouth as a lecturer within the School of Creative Arts, Film and Media, where he co-ordinated the courses Japanese Cinema and Culture, and East Asian Cinema. In 2001 he decided to return to education, and began a degree programme at Portsmouth. He successfully graduated in 2005 with a BSc (1st Class Hons) in Entertainment Technology. In 2007 he began work on his doctoral thesis entitled ‘The Films of Kenji Mizoguchi: Authorship and Vernacular Style’. He completed his thesis in August 2011, and successfully sat his Viva Voce at the University of Portsmouth the same year. Dr Spicer’s research lies primarily in the area of film and cultural studies, and his current work focuses upon the relationship between film and Japanese socio/political issues between 1965 and 1975.

Gary E. Swanson
University of Northern Colorado, USA (fmr.)

Biography

Gary E. Swanson is the former Mildred S. Hansen Endowed Chair and Distinguished Journalist-in-Residence at the University of Northern Colorado, USA. From 2005-2007 Professor Swanson was a Fulbright scholar to China and lectured at Tsinghua University and the Communication University of China. In summer 2008 he was Commentator for China Central Television International (CCTV-9) and their live coverage of the Beijing Olympic Games. Swanson repeated his assignment covering the London Olympics for CCTV-4 in the summer of 2012. Previously, he was professor and director of television for nine years at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University where he taught mostly graduate broadcast students. He has been an educator for 26 years; 20 years spent teaching at the university level. Swanson is an internationally recognized and highly acclaimed documentary producer, director, editor, photojournalist, consultant and educator. He has given keynote speeches, presented workshopsretd and lectured at embassies, conferences, festivals, and universities throughout China, South Africa, India, Papua New Guinea, Japan, The Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Singapore, Greece, Germany, Jordan, Spain, Portugal, Peru, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Swanson has compiled a distinguished professional broadcast career spanning 13 years: From 1978 to 1991, Swanson worked for the National Broadcasting Company where he was honored with national EMMYs for producing and editing: The Silent Shame, a prime-time investigative documentary; Military Medicine, a two-part investigative series on NBC News; and Hotel Crime, an investigative news magazine piece. Swanson was an editor for "breaking news and features" for NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, the Today Show, Sunrise, Sunday Today, NBC Overnight, A Closer Look, Monitor, and other prime time news magazines. Swanson covered "breaking news" in 26 states and Canada for the network including trips and campaigns of presidents Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and Bill Clinton. Swanson was the Fulbright distinguished lecturer and consultant in television news to the government of Portugal in 1989. In 1992, he covered the XXV Olympics in Barcelona, Spain for NBC News as field producer and cameraman. Swanson has earned more than 75 awards for broadcast excellence and photojournalism including three national EMMYs, the duPont Columbia Award, two CINE 'Golden Eagles,' 16 TELLYs, the Monte Carlo International Award, the Hamburg International Media Festival's Globe Award, the Videographer Award, The Communicator Award, the Ohio State Award, the CINDY Award, the 2011 Communitas Outstanding Professor and Educator award, the 2013 Professor of the Year award, and many others. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana with a Bachelor's degree in Education in 1974, and a Master's degree in Journalism in 1993.

Professor Gary E. Swanson is a member of IAFOR’s Academic Governing Board. He is Chair of the Media & Film section of the International Academic Advisory Board.

Roundtable/Panel Presentation (2019) | Deepfake

Previous MediAsia Presentations

Keynote Presentation (2017) | Fake News and the Attack on America’s Freedom of the Press