White Poppy Peace Scholarships
Awarded for research in 2013

One White Poppy Peace Scholarship was awarded in 2013, to Lolohea Bulamaibau, please scroll down this page for information about the recipient's research.

Lolohea Bulamaibau Lolohea completed a Bachelor of Arts with Honours at Va'aomanu Pasifika / Pacific Studies, Victoria University of Wellington. Her research is titled 'Comparative analysis of secondary literatures on media representations of political tensions in Fiji and West Papua'.

Lolohea's research examines the relationship between local media representations of the situation in Fiji and West Papua and international media representations, including the role of militarism and how that is a factor in what is represented through the media about political tensions in Fiji and West Papua.

This comparative literature review seeks to establish how Media Studies scholars have analysed representations of the political conflicts in West Papua and Fiji, as their perspectives are relevant in understanding how the political tensions in West Papua and Fiji are being framed in different quarters. The research looks at questions such as: Do Media Studies scholars highlight different or similar aspects of the conflicts in these two countries? Are Media Studies scholars showing us similar or different ways to be responsible and critical consumers of the media?

The relationship between the media and representations of political violence also contributes to understanding how violence is being negotiated or filtered through the media and how that affects what we consume from the news; and Lolohea hopes that her research will encourage more critical and accountable engagement with media representations of Fiji and West Papua.

Lolohea's research was completed in October 2013 and is available here.