For many Australians, Fiji is a place of holidays, coups and rugby. The extent to which we
think about this near-neighbour of ours is governed, for most, by what we learn about Fiji
through the media. In normal circumstances, there is not a lot to learn as Fiji rarely appears
in our media. At times of crisis, such as during the 1987 and 2000 coups in Fiji, there is
saturation coverage. At these times, the potential for generating understanding is great. The
reporting of a crisis can encapsulate all the social, political and economic issues which are a
cause or outcome of an event like a coup, elucidating for media consumers the culture, the
history and the social forces involved. In particular, the kinds of sources used and the kinds
of organisations these sources represent, the kinds of themes presented in the reporting, and
the way the journalists go about their work, can have a significant bearing on how an event
like a coup is represented. The reporting of the Fiji coups presented the opportunity to
examine these factors. As such, the aim of this thesis is to understand the role of the media
in building relationships between developed and developing post-colonial nations like
Australia and Fiji.
A content analysis of 419 articles published in three leading broadsheet newspapers, The
Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian and The Canberra Times, examined the basic
characteristics of the articles, with a particular focus on the sources used in these articles.
This analysis revealed that the reports were dominated by elite sources, particularly
representatives of governments, with a high proportion of Australian sources who provided
information from Australia. While alternative sources did appear, they were limited in
number. Women, Indian Fijians and representatives of non-government organisations were
rarely used as sources. There were some variations between the articles from 1987 and those
from 2000, primarily an increase in Indian Fijian sources, but overall the profile of the
sources were similar.
A thematic analysis of the same articles identified and examined the three most prevalent
themes in the coverage. These indicated important aspects of the way the coups were
represented: the way Fiji was represented, the way Australia's responses were represented,
and the way the coup leaders were represented. This analysis found that the way in which
the coups were represented reflected the nature of the relationship between Australia and
Fiji. In 1987, the unexpected nature of the coup meant there was a struggle to re-define how
Fiji should be understood. In 2000, Australia's increased focus on Fiji and the Pacific region
was demonstrated by reports which represented the situation as more complex and uncertain,
demanding more varied responses.
A series of interviews with journalists who travelled to Fiji to cover the coups revealed that
the working conditions for Australian media varied greatly between 1987 and 2000. The
situational factors, particularly those which limited their work, had an impact on the
journalists' ability to access specific kinds of sources and, ultimately, the kinds of themes
which appeared in the stories. The variation between 1987 and 2000 demonstrated that
under different conditions, journalists were able to access a more diverse range of sources
and present more sophisticated perspectives of the coup.
In a cross-cultural situation such as this, the impact of reporting dominated by elite sources
is felt not just in the country being covered, but also in the country where the reporting
appears. It presents a limited representation, which marginalises and downplays the often
complex social, cultural and historical factors which contribute to an event like a coup.
Debate and alternative ways of understanding are limited and the chance to engage more
deeply with a place like Fiji is, by and large, lost.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/243399 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Mason, Anthony, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Communication |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Anthony Mason |
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