Massey University Wellington Hosts JEANZ Annual Conference On December 11–12

Media freedom in Aotearoa New Zealand, the normalisation of far-right policies, and the state of journalism teaching in high schools and beyond are among the topics to be covered in this year’s Journalism Education Association of New Zealand (JEANZ) annual conference at Massey University Wellington on December 11–12.

The conference theme, “Media Freedom in Changing Political and Industry Landscapes,” looks at the tensions, opportunities, and threats facing journalists in New Zealand today.

Dr James Hollings, Associate Professor at Massey University’s School of Humanities, Media and Creative Communication in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, helped organise the conference. He said, "Journalists have expressed concern about threats to media freedom following the Tom Philips case, and a recent ruling by the Media Council.

“It's important we have a space to debate what media freedom should look like in New Zealand. This is a chance to hear some of the country's most respected journalistic and legal minds do that.”

Thursday’s panels include contributions from well-known journalists, media lawyers, and journalism and media researchers. Thursday morning’s panel, “Media Freedom in Aotearoa New Zealand,” includes Tracy Watkins, (Editor, The Post), Raynor Asher KC (Chair, NZ Media Council), Steven Price (Lecturer in Law, VUW), and Robert Stewart KC (Barrister, media lawyer).

Thursday afternoon’s first panel, “Journalism and the Far Right,” looks at the influence of far-right media outlets and commentators in New Zealand and beyond. Panellists include Sean Phelan (Associate Professor, Massey), Mohan Dutta (Professor, Massey), Nicky Hager (Investigative Journalist and author), Marc Daalder (Senior Political Reporter, Newsroom), and Paula Penfold (Investigative Journalist)

Thursday afternoon’s second panel, “Student Journalism Teaching in High Schools and Beyond,” covers emerging issues and ideas for teaching journalism to the next generation of journalists at both secondary and tertiary level. Panellists include Cate Prestidge (Lecturer, Wintec), Kyle Webb (Teacher of Social Studies, Media Studies and Journalism, Wellington High School), Jessie Davidson (Editor of Massive & Massey graduate), and Sammy Carter (recent Massive Editor & Massey graduate).

"We're really excited to bring you two other important issues: the influence of the Far-Right in New Zealand media, and the rise of student journalism,” Hollings said. “There are many high school students that want to do journalism, but aren't getting the chance. We want to talk about how to help them."

Friday morning sees Tara Ross (Senior Lecturer, University of Canterbury) discussing journalism industry training needs in conversation with Jane Patterson (Director of Editorial Quality and Training, RNZ).

The final conference panel features the works of different academic researchers from journalism programmes around New Zealand. The panellists will present their current work on hyper-local media (Tereas Heinz Housel, Lecturer, Massey University); news audiences (Akhteruz Zaman, Lecturer, Massey University); a documentary and research project on Timor (Jeff Hampton, Lecturer, New Zealand Broadcasting School); a podcast project on migrants in Kirikiroa (Programme Coordinator in Communication, Public Relations, Journalism, Wintec); and AUT journalism students’ recent experience on Breakfast (Greg Treadwell, Senior Lecturer, AUT).

The conference will be held in Room 4D11 on the Massey Wellington campus. It begins at 10am on Thursday, December 11 and ends at 1:30pm on Friday, December 12. The association’s annual general meeting will be held over a working lunch on Friday.

The conference is open to the public, but registration is required. The registration fee is $25, payable to deposit into the JEANZ account or cash at the conference. For students, entry is a koha. An optional lunch can be booked on one or both days with registration by Monday, December 8 at 5pm. Please register by emailing Dr Teresa Housel: T.Housel@massey.ac.nz.

The conference will be livestreamed on Zoom both days. Please email Dr Housel’s address above to request the Zoom link.

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