Suchergebnisse

Preface; Introduction: A Pandemic Stress Test; 1. A Digital Dark Age for Newspapers; 2. The Staying Power of the Press; 3. Press Freedom and Proliferation; 4. The National Press: From Propaganda to Profit; 5. The Provincial Press: The Problem of Free; 6. What if Newspapers Aren't Dying?

Abstract
Authoritarian governments have increasingly hired US-based public relations companies to improve their image in the twenty-first century. These services were pioneered by Hill+Knowlton and Burson-Marsteller in the 1950s and the 1960s, but recently Washington-based Qorvis Communications has emerged as a popular choice. From its initial client base at the millennium of mostly oil-rich Middle Eastern dictatorships, Qorvis has branched out, including to the South Pacific. It was hired in 2011 by the military dictatorship in Fiji in advance of a constitutional review and elections there in 2014. Following a 2006 coup by military commander Voreqe 'Frank' Bainimarama, the regime suppressed domestic media with the threat of fines and prison terms contained in a repressive 2010 Media Decree. Blogs thus emerged as an underground press, and under Qorvis a pair of pro-regime blogs began to attack regime critics in an attempt to silence them. This case study examines their discourse involving three parties. Bruce Hill of the Radio Australia programme Pacific Beat came under regular criticism for his reporting on the regime by Fijiborn Australian blogger Graham Davis and retired New Zealand professor Crosbie Walsh. Constitutional Commission chair Yash Ghai was discredited in a smear campaign on these blogs and in the pro-regime Fiji Sun newspaper after delivering a draft constitution that would have restored human rights and reduced the role of the military. The author, who was then head of journalism at the University of the South Pacific, was forced to resign at the end of 2012 following similar attacks after he criticized the regime.

Background: The Canadian government allocated $595 million in subsidies over five years to news media in 2019, but the bailout was based on questionable data. Financial losses were exaggerated; a think tank report was criticized for using data selectively; data from a university research project differed sharply from annual industry counts; and job loss figures were disputed. Analysis: Hard data can diverge markedly from soft data accepted in pursuit of policy outcomes. Conclusions and implications: A second campaign underway on behalf of entertainment industries could yield a bailout several times larger than the first. Closer scrutiny should be exercised of media narratives and offered data. An independent media research centre should collect and verify data for policy purposes.Contexte : En 2019, le gouvernement canadien a octroyé aux médias d'information 595 millions de dollars en subventions étalées sur cinq ans, un montant évalué à partir de données douteuses. En effet, on a surestimé les pertes financières dans le milieu; le rapport influent d'un groupe de réflexion se fondait sur des données sélectionnées pour les besoins de la cause; les données provenant d'un projet de recherche universitaire différaient beaucoup de celles fournies annuellement par l'industrie; et on a exagéré les pertes d'emploi. Analyse : Les données dures peuvent différer énormément des données molles acceptées dans le but d'atteindre certains objectifs politiques. Conclusion et implications : Une seconde campagne menée pour aider les industries du divertissement pourrait bénéficier de subventions encore plus généreuses que les premières. Avant de procéder, il serait judicieux d'examiner de près les narratifs des médias et les données proposées. À cet égard, on devrait créer un centre indépendant pour la recherche sur les médias qui pourrait lui même recueillir et vérifier les données utilisées pour formuler des politiques.