Australian Defense Force gives Samoan photo, video journalism thumbs up

By Talaia Mika 27 August 2019, 9:00AM

The Australian Defense Force (A.D.F) media unit say they were pleasantly surprised by the high standards of video and photo journalism in Samoa during a tour of the country last week.

A training programme conducted last Saturday at the Taumesina Island Resort was an opportunity for the Australian Army's media personnel and local media to exchange their experience and skills in photography, videography and reporting. 

Their A.D.F. was in Samoa for an engagement visit as part of its Pacific Support Force initiative to deepen relations with Pacific nations. 

The tour included visits to local schools where top students were afforded a rare opportunity to fly in Australian helicopters over the city of Apia.  

Speaking to Samoa Observer, the A.D.F. mission's communications manager, Tom Maclean, a former journalist who now works as an Army Photographer said he was particularly impressed by the standards of photojournalism in Samoa.

"It's really impressive, I haven't been to Samoa before and it's been really good to work with the journalists and the photographers from Samoa this week and learn how it works," he said.

"I'm really impressed as I didn't realised there were so many TV stations and media organisations and also people do really good things like YouTube livestream where they're the whole host of this TV programme.

"It's really impressive to come up with those ideas and be able to have one person ding so much.

"It's like a whole TV channel but just for one person and I haven't seen that before."

"Mr Maclean was also impressed by the speed with which Samoan journalists cover stories.

The Royal Australian Navy ship HMAS Choules was in Apia last week for a seven day visit to Samoa,

"The particular thing that Choules is good at is it has the ability to defend [against disasters] so it's a ready ship in case something happens like a tsunami, cyclone or any disasters.

"It has trucks and a lot of things on board convenient to areas that need help for disaster emergencies."





By Talaia Mika 27 August 2019, 9:00AM

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