SEVERAL important developments have occurred in recent months, strengthening and enhancing the University of the South Pacific's journalism programme in its relatively young life. Senior lecturer DAVID ROBIE, who has been coordinating the programme since 1998, leaves shortly for New Zealand. He tells why he is leaving, what the programme has achieved and its future plans. He talks to ANA TUDRAU.
DAILY POST: You have done so much for the programme at USP, considering that there were initially six enrolments at its establishment in 1994, up to about 45 now. Why are you leaving?
DAVID ROBIE: Well, basically it is for family and personal reasons. Somebody can only work for so long and the level of intensity that I've had to work here for four years now. I was the sole journalism lecturer for some time. It's basically a seven-day-a-week job, very long hours and it's rare that I get away from 10pm or midnight even, particularly when we are in production cycles and so on, so it's taken a toll on my health and my family life. I've been offered a post as senior lecturer at the Auckland University of Technology's School of Communication Studies and will be involved in developing new courses. But I feel the journalism programme here has now reached a point where it's well-established and we've now got two new lecturers. I thought it would be good for me to take take the chance when this excellent job offer came up. It's too good to refuse.
DAILY POST: Will you miss working here?
DAVID ROBIE: Oh yes, I will, very much! I've enjoyed teaching here at USP. I love the students. I love the university and in many ways I am disappointed that I'll be going at this stage because I've got a lot to offer still at USP. But it has been forced on me because of the stress and my health situation.
DAILY POST: You've coordinated the journalism programme at the University of Papua New Guinea for five years and you've made a great contribution to the programme here at USP. What would you say about students who have undergone this programme?
ROBIE: I think USP's journalism programme has made a significant contribution to journalism in the region. Students who have successfully undergone the programme are now all over the place and I believe they are making an impact now. What comes out of our programme, especially our graduates, is a professional ethos and an ethical background, which is sometimes lacking in the region and is good for good governance.
DAILY POST: How many graduates has the programme produced so far?
ROBIE: We've now produced 55 graduates in the region since it began in 1994. Some of them are actually doing a good job out there.Out of this 55, 33 became working journalists in the South Pacific, 14 took on media-related jobs such as information and public relations jobs, three took up higher education studies, two became teachers, one became an economist with the Fiji government while what two are up to is not known.
DAILY POST: How many awards has the programme won?
ROBIE: We've won 10 awards or citations in the last three years with the Journalism Education Association, which is based in Australia. We're regarded very highly in the Australian media fraternity so to win any award at all is quite an accomplishment for a small programme like ours. We're tiny compared with most of the journalism schools in Australia and New Zealand. Most of the awards were for publication so it's been a team effort. Last year was the first time we actually won an outright award for individual student and that was Joycelyn Narayan, who won the best postgraduate television news award for a report she did on Fiji TV.
DAILY POST: As an experienced journalist, what can you say about the standard of journalism in Fiji?
ROBIE: Well, it is very patchy. There is some excellent work done. But it is generally very vigorous for a small city the size of Suva to have three daily newspapers in a highly competitive situation. Many, of course, argue that the economy cannot really sustain three dailies but it is tremendous for democracy, it's tremendous for the public to have a choice of three newspapers. There are some places in Australia, and particularly in New Zealand, where there is no competition between newspapers anymore. But coming back to overall standards, journalism in Fiji is very patchy because there is a very high degree of untrained journalists and that's probably the fault of some of the media employers who pay a lot of lip service to training but in fact invest very little into it. Some depend on donors and when donors don't put in any funds for training, there would be virtually no training at all, So according to research, about 47 percent of journalists in Fiji have no actual form of training. Some people argue that you are born as a journalist and that you don't need it, you're just doing it on the job. These days society is so complex all over the world and there are so many more things you need to know as a journalist in 2002 than in 1965 when I started off.
DAILY POST: Are you aware of any proposed changes to the programme?
ROBIE: Programmes change all the time. When I came in at the start of 1998 we did a complete review of the courses and made some major changes. We introduced the first elective course in journalism where previously there was none. We changed the focus of some of the courses that we had, for example the Print course became the Print and Online course in line with the growing need of journalists who've had a background of online publishing in the Pacific. At this stage the programme is now consolidated and is growing quite a bit. We've put in recommnendations and, of course, we've just recently had a review. (All programmes at universities have a review. It's usually every three years or so when an external professor is brought in from another university to do an independent review of the structure of the programme and other issues). We've recommended that two additional courses be introduced at the first year level, including New Media Technologies, which will appeal to students. Now we want to raise the standard of all our graduates and we'd rather have a smaller number of graduates coming out having very high quality. And so what we propose to do is open entry in the first year where 30 or 40 students come in, and we're raising the English level to actually qualify. Students coming in for the open entry will do the first year courses and then the top 12 would go into the second year production courses. We've set it at 12 because that's the limit on production courses based on the facilities that we have.
We want to put more emphasis on economic and political courses so that journalists have a lot more knowledge on basic economics and how a government works.
DAILY POST: How do you feel towards where the programme is headed?
ROBIE: I'm very optimistic. I'm delighted to have the opportunity to be one of the pioneers in this programme. Of course, it started off initially with French government aid and the programme was established for the next four years. The coup period was a major turning point for the students as it was for the media as well. It was challenging for everybody and it was equally challenging for us because we covered that period in great difficulty at that time. It was a tremendous experience for all those journalism students who worked on that. But as a result, we actually structured in quite a few changes in the following year. For example, we re-established our news website, Wansolwara Online, as a daily news training service, we expanded our online classroom and web resource for students, and of course we covered the Fiji general election last year.
DAILY POST: What has the response been like from students studying in the programme?
ROBIE: I think there's a tremendous feeling of pride in the programme among the students and there's a really good feeling of comradeship among all. They feel they all belong, like a family.
DAILY POST: Does the programme have enough resources?
ROBIE: No, not at all. During my time here that's one of the frustrations I've had, trying to get adequate resources. When I came here, i had a discussion with the administration at the that time finding out what was available. I was actually shocked when I arrived to find that all we had was a little cubby-hole room over at the media centre and we couldn't even fit the students in. But there's actually been some progress when gradually we got our newsroom here in the School of Humanities but these facilities are not actually designed for journalism. We don't have enough computers for every student and basic things like recorders.
However, I would like to praise the USP administration, particularly since Vice Chancellor Savenaca Siwatibau came last year. He has had a very positive attitude towards journalism and an understanding that if journalism is to play a role in good governance in the region as the whole university is trying to play, then it does need better facilities.
