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The PNG media
challenge
By NANCY SULLIVAN
Media, Information and Development in
Papua New Guinea, edited by Evangelia Papoutsaki and Dick Rooney
(2006), is a much-awaited contribution to what is a meagre library
of scholarship on media in Melanesia.
David Robie at UPNG laid the foundations of the field in 1995,
with Nius Bilong Pasifik, then with Mekim Nius in 2004; but the
focus of these volumes has been pan-Pacific and until now there
just didn't exist a collection of essays on PNG media alone.
The editors are both formerly of Divine Word University, and they
collaborated with other members of the Department of Communication
Arts (Alphonse Aime, Michael McManus, Kevin Pamba, and Joe Weber),
along with four then-current students (Lawrencia Pirpir, Joshua
Kais, Aaron English and Andrew Alphonse), and other media
specialists (Peter John Aitsi and Lee R. Duffield), to produce an
excellent overview of the key issues in PNG media today.
Eleven chapters cover everything from media content to free speech
and government controls. But one of the best features of the
volume is the way the editors have laid out these essays to build
and reveal links in an argument for greater media education, more
indigenous content, and more community radio stations.
Rooney and Papoutsaki open with an Introduction on the media
'landscape,' including its role in shaping national identity, and
its current strengths and weaknesses, which is followed by an
Aaron English content analysis of the two national newspapers.
English concludes that neither paper covers enough development
news, and yet that this does not seem to be influenced by the
papers' respective ownerships.
Following this, Michael McManus and Papoutsaki discuss the topic
of journalism education in PNG, and how the mandate for DWU's
Department of Communication Arts has changed, and what still needs
to be accomplished.
They tell us that professional journalism standards need to be
raised, and while trying to accomplish this with 'international
standard' curriculum, schools have lost sight of the
communications needs of most PNG communities.
Working from questionnaire responses, they also conclude that
DWU's Department needs to offer more practical skills. The book
itself represents one response to that call, as it brings together
findings from various research projects conducted after the
initial survey and the call for practical skills.
Lawrencia Pirpir was a DWU journalism student when she authored
her chapter on the role of journalists in PNG. Drawing from
multiple surveys conducted with different target groups, Pirpir
concludes that PNG journalists lack training and professionalism,
but the government also lacks commitment to guarantee press
freedom.
This is an exceptional piece of undergraduate research, working
within time constraints, and some of the comments she cites from
the questionnaires are illuminating in themselves.
One journalist, for example, tells her that professional news
reporting in PNG reflects 'western democratic' values more closely
than it does Melanesian ones.
Dick Rooney writes about media ownership and its implications for
democracy, which is critical for small island states. Very little
market competition, and even less government support, inevitably
gives privately owned news media, for one, a disproportionate
authority. Ultimately, Rooney makes a good case for more
non-commercial community radio. Lee R. Duffield follows with a
chapter on media and government relations, and he corroborates
Rooney's points but also adds that the news organs in PNG are
pressed to serving too many needs.
The issue of government and market constraints to democracy recurs
in many chapters, and what makes a difference here is how
qualitative research is employed to get beyond making empty
recommendations. When there are no simple solutions, it is clear
that each case must be examined in its own rights. The point made
by the journalist (above) that absolute democracy is
un-Melanesian, can be used for and against advocating greater
media controls, and scholars need to ask what constitutes good
governance for the most multicultural Melanesian state.
Greater media accountability is one solution, and Alphonse Aime
calls on the media to be more reflective and accountable about
their influence on the public. He says media in developing
countries has a dual responsibility to educate as well as inform,
and to be aware that what they do not choose to report upon
becomes as much a part of the general public's worldview as what
they do.
Joe Weber, another former Communications HOD at DWU, follows
Aime's piece with a discussion on freedom of expression in PNG. He
writes that the media was inexcusably muzzled during the
Bougainville crisis, in what was really a test case for the
strength or weakness of the country's constitutional guarantees of
free speech. Most dangerous, he notes, is the self-censorship of
journalists during times of crisis or doubt. Without strong
professional standards for journalists it becomes that much easier
for government and private entities to regulate free speech.
Joshua L. Kais' chapter on national identity and the media is of
particular interest to anthropology. Kais was also a student when
he wrote this, and his analysis rests on some very good
qualitative research, if also a limited literature review.
His respondents generally confirm the anthropological truism that
Melanesian identities are 'nested' from family to clan to
province, and so forth, and that the commitment to a national
pan-ethnic identity remains very loose.
The insignia of country - flag, bird, currency and so forth - are
good markers, but they indicate a very poorly defined
'citizenship.'
It is a reflection of how unglobalized educational institutions
and academic subjects still are, however, that Kais's article has
not been informed by more of the anthropology of nationalism in
PNG (although he does cite Robert Foster's important 1997 volume).
The conclusion is that media have a responsibility to cultivate
nationalism as part of the solutions to ethnic division and low
civic morale. How they shall define it is yet to be seen, because
most respondents to Kais's survey complained that EMTV, for one,
has yet to generate indigenous formats or values. Respondents also
claim to access media mainly for entertainment and news, but the
majority also said these programs do not reflect indigenous
cultural values. Kais's data agrees with English's argument that
radio is the most effective in disseminating information, but it
is silent on what seems to be a major loophole: 'entertainment' is
not clearly defined, so the kinds of programming the majority of
respondents enjoy might be anything from McLeod's Daughters to
Chin H Meen music videos.
The publication concludes with a case study of community radio in
the Southern Highlands province. Here Andrew Alphonse talks about
the listening habits of Southern Highlanders receiving Radio SHP,
Karai National Radio, CDI FM, PNG FM and Radio Australia.
Survey respondents report that Radio SHP is not satisfying all the
listeners' news and information needs, even though it has the
widest footprint in the province. People are anxious for more and
better information on provincial affairs, and law and order
issues, and they particularly lack information on conflict
resolution and peacemaking. Alphonse concludes that community
radio with feedback or call-in possibilities would be the most
appropriate alternative.
Interestingly, then, we see that all these chapters have been
selected and edited to serve a clear argument for community media,
airing grassroots concerns and voices, and giving time to critical
local topics.
Respondents throughout these studies suggest that more voices and
more time need to be dedicated to community-level issues, in what
seems to be a working definition of Melanesian democracy.
Some kind of compromise between indigenous protocols and western
free speech must be established in each case, but it does seem
that voices on the airways are and can be the most effective
medium of nation-building in PNG.
If these papers share one implicit conclusion it would be that the
more persistent identities of blood and tongue are a strong
foundation for community media participation, and from these a
national identity will be built - from ground up, rather than
satellite down.
For copies of the book contact Aiva Ore at DWU on 852 2937, or
email aore@dwu.ac.pg
 
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