Taking a break from words in blogging

from w.
Time to take a break from using words. Maybe just post innocuous pictures.

Reading between the lines

from w
A song from Fiddler on the Roof is buzzing in my head since I did some sketches a couple of days ago of rooftops and chimneys near where we live. It's a crazy kind of song and here is the chorus:
If I were a rich man,
Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum.
All day long I'd biddy biddy bum.
If I were a wealthy man.
I wouldn't have to work hard.
Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum.
If I were a biddy biddy rich,
Yidle-diddle-didle-didle man.
Then it got me thinking 'If I were an editor........' so here are a few thoughts about reading between the lines of Fiji news media and some of the blogs.

The newspapers certainly have calmed down in the last few weeks with bland stories, handouts from the powerbrokers, dreams and visions for the future without much substance, cold stories instead of hot, lots of spin in a positive light for the ministries and departments, so what is the truth 'between the lines'? The reader has to make up their own 'truth' from the downright spinning, facts, biases, prejudices, hints and lies.

Firstly the blogs. Some do provide breaking news that is not allowed into the Fiji newspapers and websites and thank you for that. Some blogs show a compassionate view. However a few posts are not insightful but are inciteful - occasionally promoting violence - which to me is just not on. Also it is really distasteful when people are attacked in such as way as to hurt families. A wife has not much to do with her husband's antics. Children are not to be blamed for parents doing this or that. There is nastiness in some posts. I love cartoons but at the present we can't make too many jokes unfortunately. One blog writer - from New Zealand I think - tries to balance the political news, but then there is a bias emerging as you read between the lines - rationalizing the decisions made. Other writers - some of the overseas journos - come out strongly, but really, they are not on the ground in Suva, where ordinary people say, nothing much is happening, or at least we don't know about it.

As for the Fiji newspapers - I like the journalist from babasiga land as she, and Serafina who used to do this, does tell all kinds of stories about what is happening in Macuata. Vina'a va'alevu Theresa. But we, on the internet, get the short version of stories and not enough pictures. Where are the pictures of the new Navuso bridge? That was an event of interest to many people. I did think it was funny when the Fiji Times had blank spaces - after the censors started overlooking the journos screens, but such humour was not appreciated. The space as silence was news in itself

One thing I have noticed though - in the spins given to the media as handouts - is the influence of China in Fiji. Should we be making a comparision between the Greek myth of the wooden horse? Gifts are not always pure-hearted. There is a catch. Reciprocity in some way is expected. A vote at the United Nations? An averted eye to fishing? An influx of foreigners into Fiji? Hmmmm.

And here's my five bob's worth on censorship. I do not like it but the power of the press means that policians want some commentaries curtailed. Robie wrote in a paper a few years ago: 'Politicians frequently speak out on how the media ought to be “responsible”, i.e. either self-censor to the benefit of the government of the day, or propagandise on its behalf. Normal independent reporting and questioning by the media is often seen by some politicians as tantamount to subversion. Thus politicians are often tempted to impose gagging or licensing laws.' So that is the situation at present. Do the censors actually read every story presented? Are they qualified to be 'editors'?

Be alert. Be alarmed. As someone in Australia once said. Don't believe everything you read in print or on the screen.

Fiji Post article - re Who let the blogs out

from w
There's an interesting article in today's Fiji Post about a researcher on Fiji blogs since the Dec 5 coup. The title is misleading however - it doesn't mean the military write the blogs - it means they triggered the huge response in good and bad blog posts, mostly anonymous.

Military responsible for political blogs15-Oct-2007 10:28 AM

A SENIOR local journalist believes the military is partly responsible for the number of political blogs that mushroomed after the December 5, 2006 coup.Sophie Foster, a former deputy editor of The Fiji Times, said blogs flourished because of the restrictions the military placed on dissenting opinions in the mainstream media and across the nation in general.

The University of the South Pacific postgraduate student in Pacific Media Studies said that while some blog content was racist, defamatory, provocative and irresponsible, the argument for a free responsible press was also strengthened as an option worth maintaining in any society.

Her article, entitled, “Who let the blogs out? Media and free speech in post-coup Fiji”, is published in the latest Pacific Journalism Review. The edition has been produced jointly by the USP journalism programme and Auckland University of Technology Pacific Media Centre.

Foster said blogs came into their own in a climate where sources of information were running dry, mainstream media were under fire and the military was not averse to “repatriotising” outspoken critics. She said: “Blogs presented a platform through which anti-takeover views could be aired publicly, anonymously and without restriction. In effect, by cracking down on media and freedom of expression, the military had unleashed the blogs - and its subsequent public relations nightmare was worse than anything that could have been delivered under a fully functioning free press.”

This article uses materials which were gathered using qualitative research methods to. The research was aimed at gauging changes in the local media environment as a result of the country’s fourth coup.

The report, based on interviews with media executives and a survey of working journalists, assesses the impact of military repression of dissenting views in the press, the subsequent rise in anonymous political blogs and the type of content delivered.

Foster’s research found newsroom managers were very aware the media environment was not a free one and staff needed extra protection.

Among crucial measures taken during the period were attempts to reduce the unpredictability of the military’s response to criticism.

Editors from all six organisations said they received phone calls from soldiers over any anti-military stories they published. However the Fiji newsroom survey she conducted earlier found most of these had ceased by May 3.

While the blogs were initially welcomed, Fiji Sun publisher, Russell Hunter, said blogs and journalism did not have common ideals.

“The basic ideals of journalism are accuracy and credibility. You achieve that by being accountable to your readership. Blogs are not accountable to their readership because nobody knows who they are,” said Hunter.

Fiji Media Council chairman Daryl Tarte, acknowledged blogs were a growing phenomenon the mainstream Fiji media would eventually have to deal with but refused to give anonymous blogs any credibility:

“Blogs that are properly signed and sourced probably have got a place in journalism,” he said.

Foster concluded the rise of blogs showed the press was not the only champion of freedom of expression in the digital age.

When contacted yesterday military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Mosese Tikoitoga refused to comment saying Sunday was his day-off