By Dr Anita Perkins
Members of the Asia forum are keen to keep up with current events in the Asia Pacific Region. Aside from the Forum’s regular events and web stories, where can we go to get this information? In recent years we’ve seen some substantial changes to the way media operates and news is disseminated. Rather than sit down with a newspaper you might now be more likely to receive a notification on your mobile from Stuff or the New Zealand Herald, or find news headlines popping up in your Facebook feed just moments after the events occurred. To a degree we see in-depth long form journalism disappear. So, apart from Sunday morning national radio, where can we go to get this kind of news? One great source is podcasts which are often free and which you can listen to while out for a walk, doing the gardening or taking a long-distance drive. Below I set out a few sources for keeping in touch with the politics and economics and culture in our corner of the world.
Online web content: The Asia New Zealand Foundation’s News Room
http://www.asianz.org.nz/newsroom
The Foundation’s News Room has grown over recent months and delivers insightful and relevant pieces on topics as diverse as whether there needs to be a choice between Te Reo or Mandarin in taught in New Zealand schools, expert views on North Korean nuclear proliferation and the experience of a Wellington Journalist working for the New York Times in Hong Kong.
Podcast: The Diplomat’s Asia Geopolitics
https://thediplomat.com/category/asia-geopolitics
This weekly podcast is described as a discussion of the geopolitical implications of current events in the Asia-Pacific. It is hosted by Ankit Panda a New York-based writer, editor and international affairs analyst. The focus of a recent episode is about the impacts of China’s decision to get rid of presidential terms.
Podcast: Stratfor
https://worldview.stratfor.com/media/podcasts
Every week an episode comes out from Stratfor’s podcast on geopolitics and world affairs such as North Korea’s projection of power or Water Scarcity and the India – Pakistan Indus Water Treaty.
Podcast Lecture Series: Payam Akhavan, In Search of a Better World
Payam Akhavan has a long and distinguished career working in international law and academia. This includes working for the UN in Cambodia and other conflict zones and representing Japan in the whaling case brought against it by Australia in the International Court of Justice five years ago. His lectures focus on topics such as ‘The Oneness of Humankind’.
Do you recommend a podcast or media source for Asia Forum members? If so, send a tweet to our handle @NZAsiaForum
