Specific news communications needs of communities living on islands within Australia's Exclusive Economic Zone

John Cokley from the University of Queensland is interested in hearing from ISISA researchers who are working on projects which may touch on the specific news communications needs of communities living on islands within Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone. If so, he would like to know if you have any interest in working towards a collaborative arrangement (such as a journal article or an ARC proposal) in the future or if you could assist him with current data. 

Any data provided would be cited in the project when it is presented. "Current data" could be as simple as recent demographic, infrastructure, or community organisation data from AEEZ islands. 

If you are interested please contact:

Dr John Cokley
School of Journalism and Communication
University of Queensland
Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
Tel: +61 7 3365 3381
Fax: +61 7 3365 1377
Email: j.cokley@uq.edu.au
URL: http://www.uq.edu.au/sjc/

Project Overview 

Research question

What are the specific news communications needs of communities living on islands within Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone?

What is the problem?

Small remote communities such as those on islands, and individuals within those communities, become isolated because conventional media providers regard them as unviable markets. Community development is at risk in such apparently unviable media markets because individuals can lose touch with each other and others in the community.

Why is it a problem?

By virtue of the Seas and Submerged Lands Act 1973, Australia has the third largest Exclusive Economic Zone, behind the United States and France, capturing more than 8million sq. kilometres and more than 8000 islands large and small, including Heard & McDonald Islands, Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, Norfolk Island and Macquarie Island, and – mostly in the north – around the coastlines of Queensland (1955 islands), the Northern Territory (887 islands) and Western Australia (3747 islands), but also 1000 around Tasmania. Many of these islands are home to full-time but small communities, and many in the far north are home to relatively large Indigenous communities.Gossip has been reported as a barrier to democratisation and effective development. Examples are East Timor (during the nation building process since 2002) and Norfolk Island (during the current murder investigations).

What is a solution?

Media companies in the UK have recently acquired the ability and shown the willingness to aggregate similar previously unviable small markets into a viable whole using innovative technologies but this has resulted in those markets being served news and information over which they have little or no control, which works against the community development process. However, innovative electronic technologies do not always meet the needs of disseminating news and information within remote communities.

The current project will involve a survey of Australian island communities to acquire a more generalised picture of their media needs so as to be able to frame policies useful for regulators when assigning media markets and spectra in the upcoming conversion to digital delivery in 2008. Such policies should also be useful in the widening discussion about media markets among island communities in the Indian and south-west Pacific Oceans.