Pacific Island communities are increasingly experiencing the impacts of climate change. Inaccessibility to relevant information about contemporary climate change adaptation strategies at the community level presents challenges. At the same time, indigenous strategies to adapt to climate changes have been overlooked in both local and global climate change debates. This article discusses a project undertaken with a community on Andra Island, Manus Province, Papua New Guinea. Climate change impacts and adaptation strategies were explored through photo essays developed by community members, engaging in approaches of visual participatory action research and indigenous research approaches. The collaboration with the Andra Island community created a space for reflective dialogue about challenges posed by climate change as well as how photo essays can be used to promote Indigenous Knowledge (IK) as a viable capital for community-based adaptation (CBA). Within this context, this article demonstrates how climate change is both a natural and cultural process of change which poses socio-economic challenges. These challenges can compel people to engage in unsustainable practices that might exacerbate natural climate change impacts. The article highlights that building community capacity in participatory media can be an important tool to forge collective synergy, dialogue and ownership in local climate change initiatives. In particular, the authors demonstrate how participatory media can be harnessed to integrate indigenous knowledge in community-based climate change adaptation.
This article explores the collaborative application of media and arts-based research practices involving students from the University of Goroka (Papua New Guinea) as co-researchers. It critically examines the processes of developing a community-responsive approach to filmmaking in order to challenge preconceived notions of media and research practice in Papua New Guinea. The analysis draws on results from a film workshop run at the University of Goroka over a duration of six weeks through which a team designed a Melanesian approach to filmmaking practice. The research study found that stereotypical perceptions and understandings of Papua New Guinea communities could be challenged by respectful and community-responsive ways of making films involving local community members. It presents filmmaking as creating a meaningful space for exploring community relations and practices. Papua New Guinean co-researchers acted to bridge dialogue between rural communities, media technologies and the national and transnational media sphere.
This article draws upon the Pacific Media Assistance Scheme (PACMAS) State of Media and Communication Report to examine the implications of a changing media landscape for journalism practice in the Pacific region. The report contributes to an understanding of the diverse media and communications environments in the Pacific Islands (PI) region and captures aspects of the variations both in media, and in context, across and within the 14 Pacific Islands countries. This article highlights the need for synergies in the Pacific Islands to strengthen legislation, capacity-building initiatives and content production in a fast-changing digital environment.
Aims of the SeriesThe International Association for Media and Communications Research (IAMCR) has been, for over 50 years, a focal point and unique platform for academic debate and discussion on a variety of topics and issues generated by its many thematic Sections and Working groups (see http://iamcr.org/) This new series specifically links to the intellectual capital of the IAMCR and offers more systematic and comprehensive opportunities for the publication of key research and debates. It will provide a forum for collective knowledge production and exchange through trans-disciplinary contributions. In the current phase of globalizing processes and increasing interactions, the series will provide a space to rethink those very categories of space and place, time and geography through which communication studies has evolved, thus contributing to identifying and refining concepts, theories and methods with which to explore the diverse realities of communication in a changing world. Its central aim is to provide a platform for knowledge exchange from different geo-cultural contexts. Books in the series will contribute diverse and plural perspectives on communication developments including from outside the Anglo-speaking world which is much needed in today's globalized world in order to make sense of the complexities and intercultural challenges communication studies are facing.
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