Wansolwara hot off the press!

By WANSOLWARA STAFF

The latest edition of Wansolwara has hit the newsstands and focuses on one of the most defining global issues of our time – climate change.

The 28-page newspaper, produced by students of The University of the South Pacific’s Journalism Programme, was published as an insert in the Fiji Sun on December 1 this year and included a seven-page special report on climate woes in the Solomon Islands, major events and developments at the University and across the region, as well as sports coverage of the 2019 Rugby World Cup, Oceania Rugby Sevens Tournament and build-up to the 2021 Student World Cup in England.

Reporting of climate change stories in the Solomon Islands was made possible through the Internews/Earth Journalism Network Asia-Pacific 2019 media grant of $US20,000, which allowed a team of one staff and three students from the USP Journalism Programme to travel to Honiara in June, to report on the situation first-hand.

The EJN/USP Journalism project, titled, ‘Adapting to and mitigating effects of climate change and island sea level rise’, involves journalism students conducting climate change reporting in the Solomon Islands and the Cook Islands next year.

USP Journalism Programme coordinator Dr Shailendra Singh said the Pacific remains at the forefront of climate change impacts on top of other problems such as rape of fisheries and forestry resources, plastic pollution and waste disposal management.

He said environmental issues in the Pacific continued to be under-reported compared to the magnitude of the problems.

“The grant would take authentic learning – the idea of incorporating the classroom with the real world – to another level, with two teams of the best student reporters sent to the Cook Islands and the Solomon Islands to report on community mitigation efforts,” Dr Singh said.

The project, he said, was geared towards expanding coverage horizontally beyond Fiji, and vertically down to the grassroots level, building future capacity through student journalism.

“It will take students out of their comfort zone into new territory. Our story-focus is grassroots mitigation using traditional knowledge,” said Dr Singh.

“This covers a gap, since much of the coverage in the Pacific is based on conferences, speeches and and elite spokespersons. The stories would highlight problem-solving, rather than victimhood and helplessness, alone.”

Wansolwara has come a long way since it was founded in 1996, and some former student reporters and editors have become distinguished journalists in Fiji and abroad. An independent award-winning newspaper published by USP journalism students, Wansolwara is pidgin for “one ocean, one people”.

The student training newspaper covers local and regional stories. It is the longest surviving student training publication in the Pacific region with the largest circulation of any student newspaper in the Pacific and Australia.

Wansolwara journalists have covered the 2000 coup in Fiji, national elections, major sporting events, economic development, natural disasters, the environment, climate change, student association misuse of funds, and other issues.

Free copies of Wansolwara can be picked up from the following drop-off points:

• USP Library
• Cafeteria/Dining Hall
• Canteen (Lower Campus)
• Library (Lower Campus)
• Student Academic Services
• Coffee Central
• Upper security gate
• Southern Cross
• USPSA Printing Room (Opposite dinning hall)
• USP Book Centre
• USP Gym
• ICT Centre reception desk
• USP Journalism Newsroom