Asia-Pacific Report Research Articles

Challenges for campus and community media in Asia-Pacific diversity

The ‘watchdog’ model has created a journalism culture that is too adversarial and creates conflicts rather than helping to solve today’s problems/conflicts. The panellists assess new journalism paradigms in the Asia-Pacific region where the media is able to make powerful players to account for facilitating the development needs of communities, especially those in the margins of society. A challenge for contemporary journalism schools is to address such models in a global context of ‘development rights’ with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals as a benchmark. In the Pacific Islands context, journalists face a challenging news reporting terrain on their news beats, especially in the Melanesian countries of Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. Besides dealing with political instability, coups, civilian unrest and complex developmental issues, journalists must contend with hostile governments and draconian media legislation. The talents, idealism and storytelling skills of Pacific journalists can be cultivated and strengthened to produce independent platforms and models of journalism that challenge the status quo. Examples of this campus strategy include Radio Pasifik, Wansolwara, Pacific Scoop and Asia Pacific Report.

Challenges for campus and community media in Asia-Pacific diversity

The ‘watchdog’ model has created a journalism culture that is too adversarial and creates conflicts rather than helping to solve today’s problems/conflicts. The panellists assess new journalism paradigms in the Asia-Pacific region where the media is able to make powerful players to account for facilitating the development needs of communities, especially those in the margins of society. A challenge for contemporary journalism schools is to address such models in a global context of ‘development rights’ with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals as a benchmark. In the Pacific Islands context, journalists face a challenging news reporting terrain on their news beats, especially in the Melanesian countries of Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. Besides dealing with political instability, coups, civilian unrest and complex developmental issues, journalists must contend with hostile governments and draconian media legislation. The talents, idealism and storytelling skills of Pacific journalists can be cultivated and strengthened to produce independent platforms and models of journalism that challenge the status quo. Examples of this campus strategy include Radio Pasifik, Wansolwara, Pacific Scoop and Asia Pacific Report.

Media plurality, independence and Talanoa: An alternative Pacific journalism education model

The shrinking mainstream media plurality in Aotearoa New Zealand provides a context for examining publication of campus-based media where student and faculty editorial staff have successfully established an independent Asia-Pacific digital and print press over the past two decades. New Zealand’s largest city Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland) has the largest urban population of Pacific Islanders globally—more than 300,000 people in a total of 1.7 million (Pasifika New Zealand, n.d.), earning the moniker ‘Polynesian capital of the world’. The presenter has had a pioneering role with four university-based journalism publications in the Pacific region as key adviser/publisher in Papua New Guinea (Uni Tavur, 1993-1998); Fiji (Wansolwara, 1998-2002); and Aotearoa/New Zealand (Pacific Scoop, 2009-2015; Asia Pacific Report, 2016 onwards), and also with two journalism school-based publications in Australia (Reportage, 1996, and The Junction, 2018-2020) (Robie, 2018). In early 2021, he was co-founder of the Asia Pacific Media Network | Te Koakoa Incorporated which has emerged as a collective umbrella for academics, student journalists and independent reporters producing innovative publications, including the research journal Pacific Journalism Review and a strengthened Asia Pacific Report, which draw on a cross-disciplinary range of media contributors and scholars in other professions. These contributors are mindful of the challenges of reportage about the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This article explores an independent journalism model drawing on professional outlets for Asia-Pacific students and how an investigative and storytelling model like ‘Talanoa Journalism’ can be an effective bridge to alternative media careers and addressing ‘blind spots’ in legacy news media.

Building independent media: Sustaining democratic freedoms

This article examines trends in new media journalism, identifying an independent sector which began to emerge with the internet circa 2000. It finds that publications from initially single-person start-ups like Crikey, to the large circulation New Daily, have proved viable and durable, providing alternatives to mainstream print and broadcast media. They have specialised in politics while publishing also in many other fields, characteristically emphasising user participation in both production and funding and exploiting possibilities of new digital models. This article has case studies of the publications Independent Australia, and the New Zealand-based Asia Pacific Report, to further explain the independents’ motivation and mode of operation. It reviews the media environment in two parts: a first phase from 2000 to 2010 and a second major change after 2010 with smart phones and social media. Conclusions are made that the independent sector stands to play a central role in sustaining democracy.

FRONTLINE: The sociology of a pandemic: Countering a COVID 'disinfodemic' with a campus media initiative

Parallel with the global spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic, a dangerous ‘disinfodemic’ has been infecting the flow of information worldwide. Communication and media outlets have faced a new challenge with not only being responsible for reportage and analysis of a fast-moving public health emergency—the biggest this century, but forced to sift through the mass circulation of falsehoods that have spread as rapidly as the virus. Concerned about the risks for both health and public responses to disinformation, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres identified the ‘new enemy’ as a ‘growing surge of disinformation’. The UN launched a COVID-19 Communications for Solidarity Initiative to rapidly inform people about facts and science and to ‘promote and inspire acts of humanity’ globally. New Zealand is one of the few countries in the world whose strategy of COVID elimination has been a sustained approach to ‘keep the virus out, find it and stamp it out’. Evoking a theme of ‘our team of five million’ and national kindness, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has led a remarkable campaign blending decisive action and transparency. In this context, this article critically examines a four-month ‘Coronavirus Plus’ initiative conducted by the Pacific Media Centre at a communication programme in one of the New Zealand’s universities in response to the pandemic, deploying the Asia Pacific Report website, asiapacificreport.nz.

Asia Pacific Report: A New Zealand nonprofit journalism model for campus-based social justice media

For nine years, the Pacific Media Centre research and publication unit at Auckland University of Technology has published journalism with an ‘activist’ edge to its style of reportage raising issues of social justice in New Zealand’s regional backyard. It has achieved this through partnerships with progressive sections of news media and a nonprofit model of critical and challenging assignments for postgraduate students in the context of coups, civil war, climate change, human rights, sustainable development and neo-colonialism. An earlier Pacific Scoop venture (2009-2015) has morphed into an innovative venture for the digital era, Asia Pacific Report (APR) (http://asiapacificreport.nz/), launched in January 2016. Amid the current global climate of controversy over ‘fake news’ and a ‘war on truth’ and declining credibility among some mainstream media, the APR project has demonstrated on many occasions the value of independent niche media questioning and challenging mainstream agendas. In this article, a series of case studies examines how the collective experience of citizen journalism, digital engagement and an innovative public empowerment journalism course can develop a unique online publication. The article traverses some of the region’s thorny political and social issues—including the controversial police shootings of students in Papua New Guinea in June 2016.

Asia Pacific Report: A New Zealand Nonprofit Journalism Model for Campus-Based Social Justice Media

For nine years, the Pacific Media Centre research and publication unit at Auckland University of Technology has published journalism with an ‘activist’ edge to its style of reportage raising issues of social justice in New Zealand’s regional backyard. It has achieved this through partnerships with progressive sections of news media and a non-profit model of critical and challenging assignments for postgraduate students in the context of coups, civil war, climate change, human rights, sustainable development and neo-colonialism. An earlier Pacific Scoop venture (2009-2015) has morphed into an innovative venture for the digital era, Asia Pacific Report (APR) (http://asiapacificreport.nz/), launched in January 2016. Amid the current global climate of controversy over ‘fake news’ and a ‘war on truth’ and declining credibility among some mainstream media, the APR project has demonstrated on many occasions the value of independent niche media questioning and challenging mainstream agendas. In this article, a series of case studies examines how the collective experience of citizen journalism, digital engagement and an innovative public empowerment journalism course can develop a unique online publication. The article traverses some of the region’s thorny political and social issues—including the controversial police shootings of students in Papua New Guinea in June 2016.

From Pacific Scoop to Asia Pacific Report: A case study in an independent campus-industry media partnership

Media convergence within the news and current affairs landscape over the past two decades has opened opportunities for competing newspapers, television stations and online publishers to form alliances to approach digital and editorial challenges with innovative strategies. The partnerships have often enabled journalists to embrace multimedia platforms with flexibility and initiative. This has fostered a trend in ‘gatewatching’ and a citizen responsive and involved grassroots media rather than legacy mainstream gatekeeping, top-down models. Such committed media attempts in search of investigative journalism accompanied by ‘public’ and ‘civic’ journalism engagement initiatives have also been emulated by some journalism schools in the Asia-Pacific region. This has paralleled the evolution of journalism as a research methodology with academic application over the past decade. Selecting two New Zealand-based complementary and pioneering Pacific digital news and analysis publications, Pacific Scoop (founded 2009) and Asia-Pacific Report (2016), produced by a journalism school programme in partnership with established independent media as a combined case study, this article will demonstrate how academia-based gatewatching media can effectively challenge mainstream gatekeeping media. Pacific Scoop was established by an Auckland university in partnership with New Zealand’s largest independent publisher, Scoop Media Limited, and launched at the Māori Expo in 2009. The article also explores the transition of Pacific Scoop into Asia-Pacific Report, launched in partnership with an innovative web-based partner, Evening Report. The study analyses the strategic and innovation efforts in the context of continuing disruptions to New Zealand’s legacy media practices related to the Asia-Pacific region.

Asia Pacific report: China: amid its economic boom, China has become the world's second largest paint producer

Asia Pacific report: China: amid its economic boom, China has become the world's second largest paint producer

An Overview of Frac Packs: A Technical Revolution (Evolution) Process

Technology Today Series articles are general, descriptive representations that summarize the state of the art in an area of technology by describing recent developments for readers who are not specialists in the topics discussed. Written by individuals recognized as experts in the area, these articles provide key references to more definitive work and present specific details only to illustrate the technology. Purpose: to inform the general readership of recent advances in various areas of petroleum engineering. Introduction Several completion methods are the current options typically considered when completing oil and gas wells in unconsolidated sand reservoirs. These include(1) rate control, where the flow rate is held below the sand-production threshold or below erosional limits handling produced sand at surface; (2)screen-only completions, which are common to horizontal and extended-reachwells; (3) underreamed openhole gravel packs; (4) cased-hole gravel packs; (5)in-situ resin treatments; (6) high-rate water packs; (7) water fractures; (8)" frac packs" ; and (9) screenless frac packs. Frac packing is a developings and-control alternative, and use of this method continues to increase in both absolute numbers and percentage of all sand-control completions implemented. Frac-pack pumping strategies represent a definitive break in the long history of sand-control developments. Most early procedures categorically avoided pumping strategies that "break down" unconsolidated formations. Discarding the" don't-break-down" paradigm has resulted in a new generation of sand-control concepts. This paper provides a brief overview of frac-pack evolution and discusses how growing acceptance of the method is creating a revolution in well-completion practices where sand control is required. Frac-Pack Beginning Focus on frac-pack developments started about 1987 after convincing technical and economic achievements resulted from application of tip-screenout(TSO) hydraulic-fracture stimulations in North Sea chalk formations and in high-permeability Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk field formations on the North Slope in Alaska. The TSO-fracture method significantly increases proppant loading in a fracture, providing substantial conductivity improvement. High fracture conductivity resulted in dramatic and sustained productivity improvements and prompted application of TSO-fracture stimulation in high-permeability, unconsolidated formations. Amoco experimented with completions in 1964 in the Hackberry field, Louisiana, that included fractures in conjunction with sand-control completions(call "hack fracs"). The term frac pack was actually used as early as the late1950's by Shell in Germany for sand-control completions that were fractured before gravel packing. Current use of frac pack refers to completions that combine TSO hydraulic-fracture stimulation pumped with a gravel-packscreen packer assembly in place. The TSO fracture creates a short, highly conductive fracture that is designed to bypass near-wellbore damage. The gravel-pack screen assembly prevents proppant flowback. The proppant/formation interface establishes a stable barrier, preventing sand production. This increase in effective wellbore radius reduces (and often eliminates) positive skin and mitigates factors related to fines-migration problems (see Figs. 1through 3). Frac-pack case histories from the Gulf of Mexico, Europe, Africa, South America, and the Asia-Pacific report increased productivity and effective sand control. In the past 10 years, the use of frac-pack completions has steadily increased in both absolute numbers and as a percentage of sand-control completion methods deployed throughout the world. Significant investment by the service sector has increased the number of purpose-built fracture boats for offshore operations in the past 4 years. Further expansion of these resources is under way. Frac packs are often considered whenever and wherever sandcontrol is required. During the early frac-pack development period, operator and service company innovators often discussed minifracture interpretation methods, design strategies, implementation techniques, and job procedures. Sharing of experiences, observations, concerns, and nonproprietary results was fairly widespread. This open dialogue significantly accelerated frac-pack evolution. In 1992 and 1993, SPE chapters in Houston and Lafayette, Louisiana, sponsored meetings and study-group sessions to present frac-pack developments and address opportunities to improve frac-pack techniques and procedures. The SPE Gulf Coast Section organized a 1-day frac-pack workshop in 1994 and has held three more since. In 1996, "Frac Packs and Other Sand Control Methods" was an SPE Forum Series in North America topic. All these technology exchange sessions had excellent industry participation. Early Concerns At the beginning of the frac-pack revolution, application of TSO-fracture stimulation to highly deviated, typical Gulf of Mexico wells was a controversial concept and many concerns were voiced. The most frequently stated issues were increased cost, inadequate gravel-pack tool capabilities, fear of fracture-height growth into nearby water sands, and lack of coincidence between a vertical fracture and a deviated wellbore.

Asia-Pacific Report 1989. Focus: China in the Reform Era

The Asia-Pacific state system is in the process of being developed and consolidated. As far as China in this region there are expectations that reforms will continue with intermittent periods of advances and retreats. It is most likely that a mixture of traditional elements of socialist characteristics and special Chinese innovations will prevail. The political reforms in this post Mao era have disengaged the communist party and state bureaucracy from detailed management of the economy and allowed moderation of the legal system. It is unlikely any major step from authoritarianism to democracy would take place in the near future. Economic reforms are much more promising with the creation of regulated markets and private and collective ownership. Political reform will consist of a somewhat more free press some active interest groups more elections to higher levels of the peoples congress a more active legislative process advances in the legal system democracy in the party and a more rational administrative system. Reproduction is the one aspect of life that has become more restrictive and the government has purchased family planning with other freedoms. The economic program failure could be the undoing of the fertility control programs on which so much else depends. China will depend on external supplies of resources but can improve its resource position by more production delivery and efficient use of mineral and energy resources.