22 November 2008
Small guns play big role at PIMA talks
1 September 2006
By Dianna Vezich: Te Waha Nui Online
Involving smaller Pacific media organisations is the aim of this year’s Pacific Islands media conference.
Pacific Island Media Association chairman John Utanga says there is a large number of small Pacific Island media organisations in operation, especially in Auckland.
“We all know about Tagata Pasifika and Niu FM, but there are a lot of community-based Pacific media that don’t really get a look,” says Utanga.
The conference, now in its fifth year, will be held at AUT University on September 22-23.
Utanga says PIMA wants to pay respect to the “pioneer types” of Pacific media such as the Samoana newspaper in South Auckland and Radio Samoa.
“We’re taking a bit more of a backward look and bringing everyone up to scratch,” he says.
This is ironic since this year’s conference theme is Pasifika Media: Our Future.
The theme was chosen as new, web-based, digital media will be widely discussed at the conference.
Utanga says Pacific Island people in the media need to learn to make the most of the internet, because it’s cheaper to operate and reaches a broader audience.
The conference will feature an array of guest speakers from Journalism Training Organisation executive director Jim Tucker to Kalafi Moala, owner of Lali Media Group.
Moala will fly from his home in San Francisco to speak at the conference about his newspaper, Taimi ‘O Tonga, which has previously been banned in Tonga.
His newspaper is now distributed in Tonga, New Zealand, Australia, and North America — the latter region having the fastest growing readership.
Associate Minister of Pacific Island Affairs Luamanuvao Winnie Laban will open the conference.
