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Cox Center/PINA
Workshop Berjaya Inn, Suva, the Fiji Islands, November 2-5, 1998 |
Monday, November 2
| 9 :00 a.m. | Opening Session. Ms. Nina Ratulele, PINA Administrator. |
| Opening Prayer. | |
| Welcome from Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) by Mr. William Parkinson, President. | |
| Official Opening by Mr. Apisalome Tudreu, Permanent Secretary for Information. | |
| Welcome from the James. M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research by Dr. Lee B. Becker, Director. | |
| 9:30 a.m. | Morning Tea (each day). |
| 10:00 a.m. | Introduction of trainers and participants. |
| 11:00 a.m. | State of the Indigenous-Language Press in Fiji and the Pacific Islands. Laisa Taga. Review of workshop schedule. Jim Richstad. |
| 12:30 p.m. | Luncheon. Speaker: Election 99: How this Election Is Different. Supervisor of Elections Walter Rigamoto. |
| 2 :00p.m. | Opening training session. Participants discussions on problems, opportunities, needs of indigenous-language press. Relation of language and culture. The heart and soul of the indigenous-language press in the Pacific Islands. Organize Groups. Exercise: Development of Mission and Goal Statements for newspapers, broadcast stations. |
| 3 : 30 p.m. | Afternoon Tea (each day). |
| 4 : 00 p.m. | How to handle sensitive stories, from participants. What are the sensitive stories, and how are they reported? How to find own voice, give the community a newspaper or broadcast voice. How do indigenous language journalists differ from western media and western-language media in handling sensitive community stories? Group exercise and presentations. Interviewing on sensitive stories. |
| 5 :30 p.m. | Session ends. |
Tuesday, November 3
| 9 :00 a.m. | Interviewing on sensitive stories. How to approach traditional sources, government. Identifying the sensitive aspects of stories, dealing with them. Interviewing Exercise. |
| 11:00 a.m. | Generating stories for indigenous-language media. News, news features, features. Doing stories on limited budgets, time, staff. Coaching reporters. Maestro approach. |
| 12:30 a.m. | Luncheon. Speaker: Election 99: Sensitivities in covering the election for a communal audience. Dan Bolea, founder of the Fiji Post (1987) and of the Suva Heights Advocate (1998). |
| 2 :00 p.m. | Introduction of major story area-Covering Election 99 by the indigenous-language media. Participants, working in small teams, will plan how to cover the story in their own media. Develop story plan-angles, sources, problems, consequences, causes, illustrations for story, time and resources needed, legal concerns. Election coverage ethics. Confidential sources. How to handle smears, half-truths. Who is the Candidate, and what does he or she represent? Timelines for coverage. Community feedback. |
| 4 :00 p.m. | Continue planning stories. Write plan for stories: what stories, who to interview, likely problems, time it takes, main points or theme of each story, visual support for stories, number of reporters, etc. Work within resources. |
Wednesday, November 4
| 9 :00 a.m. | Continued work on the major story plan. Conduct "virtual" interviews. Outline each story in the series, with visuals, actualities, interviews. Focus on distinctive aspects of how indigenous-language media would cover the election. Then, compare indigenous coverage with Western-language media coverage in Fiji. Participants will adapt the group plan for their own newspaper or broadcast station-from distinctive angle of indigenous press. |
| 11:00 a.m. | Coaching the story plans. How to help each other. What's the story? How are you approaching it? What outcomes do you expect? Problems? Sensitive points? In groups, presentations to workshop in afternoon session. |
| 12:30 p.m. | Luncheon. Speaker: Election 99: The vote, the media, and the law. Supervisor of Elections Walter Rigamoto. 2 p.m. Presentation and critique of own media stories. |
| 4 :00 p.m. | Suggestions & Planning Committees selection, meetings. |
Thursday, November 5
| 9 :00 a.m. | The importance of Language: Fijian, Hindi, and the indigenous-language news media. Dr. Paul Geraghty, linguist and head of the Fiji dictionary project, and Ashok Lingham, head of Hindi programming at Island Networks. |
| 11:00 a.m. | Participants write an assessment of workshop. Workshop is open for Resolutions for PINA, Cox Center, Pacific Community, UNESCO and other relevant groups, on importance and development of the indigenous-language media in the Pacific Islands. Planning Committee report: Discussion of ways to give more prominence to work of indigenous-language media, and ways to clarify and strengthen its roles in Pacific communities. |
| Noon. | Present and adopt report. |
| 12:30 p.m. | Buffet Luncheon. |
| Afternoon. | Open |
| 6 :00 p.m. | Certificate presentation. Closing Prayer. Closing comments and acknowledgments by Mr. William Parkinson, President, Pacific Islands News Association. Closing comments and acknowledgments by Dr. Lee B. Becker, Director, James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research. Trainers Laisa Taga and Dr. James Richstad call participants forward by name to receive certificate of program completion from Dr. Lee B. Becker. Comments by participants. Cox Center Reception. |
Workshop Staff
Ms. Laisa Taga, regional trainer, PINA Pacific Journalism Development Center, Suva, Fiji.
Dr. Jim Richstad, visiting professor, School of Communication Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Mr Peter Lomas, Training Director, PINA, Suva, Fiji.
Ms Nina Ratulele, PINA Secretariat, Suva, Fiji.
Dr. Lee B. Becker, Director, James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research, University of Georgia U.S.A.
Click here for the evaluation form used in the workshop.