Abstract
It is with great pleasure that I take over the editorship of Asia Pacific Media Educator. Under the guidance and scholarship of Dr Eric Loo, the journal has established an important niche among Journalism academics who are passionate about educating future generations of journalists and who recognize that there is an important nexus between their teaching and research.
In forthcoming editions, I would like to continue the practice established by Eric in providing an opportunity for people to comment on important issues affecting Journalism educators, as well as hosting innovative research. In both respects, I will be open to suggestions from contributors. If you have a topic that you believe warrants a broader discussion in the pages of APME, please give me a call. I am happy both to initiate discussions about commentaries and to open the pages of the journal to individuals or groups of people who wish to discuss particular topics in a slightly more relaxed way than is the case with academic research. For example, given the changes that are taking place within Journalism, should we be teaching longer forms of journalism, particularly when very few of our graduates will get to produce such content in the early years of their working lives? What are your thoughts? If you wish to contribute to this debate, give me a call and pitch an idea for a 4,000 word comment piece.
I am also keen to maintain the strict academic standards established under Eric Loo’s editorship. So, if you have a research article that you believe is worthy of publication, please submit it to me. Likewise, if you have an idea for a special, themed edition of the journal, please do not hesitate to contact me and discuss it.
This edition, we continue the commentary series with the topic ‘teaching journalism in a post truth world which is characterized by allegations of post truth, fake news and alternative facts’. This section features a number of articles from well-known academics and practitioners, including Nick Richardson, Gordon Farrer, Mark Pearson, David Blackall, Harikrishnan Bhaskaran, Harsh Mishra, Pradeep Nair.
The post-truth theme continues in the research section with a case study on outspoken Australian politician Pauline Hanson by Angela Romano. This is followed by a number of other case studies, including an article by Bruce Woolley on teaching students to become foreign correspondents while embedded in a different country and culture. Understanding different cultures is a theme pursued by Andrew Dodd, Camelia Pasandaran, Sue Green, Adi Wibowo Octavianto and F.X. Lilik Dwi Mardjianto in an article that looks at a joint exercise between students in Indonesia and Australia. Taking this in a slightly different direction, Usha Harris discusses how students studying in Australia established a virtual partnership with an NGO in India. The student experience is also examined by Shawn Burns in an article that explores an experiment in a social and mobile-first newsroom. Each of these articles reveals the benefits of ‘real world’ or ‘near real world’ experiences to students.
The final three articles are linked by a common theme, namely journalism ethics. In the first, Damian Mellifont explores media reporting of the Disability Pride Parade in New York City. He concludes that there is an important lesson to be learned from this, namely that journalists can act ethically in covering a complex issue such as disability. This theme also emerges in the article by Fauziah Hassan and Siti Zobiday Omar, who investigate the coverage of Islam and Muslims in Malaysia and Indonesia in two major newspapers: The Wall Street Journal and Britain’s The Telegraph. Finally, Bahtiyar Kurambaev provides an interesting insight into the difficulties confronting journalists in Kyrgyzstan. Kurambaev reveals how journalists are being exploited by editors, but that there may be important lessons in their experiences for future generations of journalists (and for the current cohort of Journalism educators). Enjoy the read.