Contribute to the Asia Media Centre

The Asia New Zealand Foundation has created the Asia Media Centre to act as a resource hub for New Zealand journalists – to help improve the breadth and depth of Asia-related reporting in New Zealand.

We’re keen to hear from New Zealand-based experts, commentators and others with experience in Asia to help the Asia Media Centre with its goals. If you have expertise on Asia or Asia-New Zealand issues and would like to be added to our expertise directory, please get in touch.

Recognising the diverse ways that people build expertise on Asia, we are interested in hearing from you if:

• You have completed postgraduate study on an Asia-related subject, or at minimum are working on a PhD,

and/or

• You have significant professional experience working on Asia-related issues.
  
  

We’re also keen to receive contributions from Asia-based New Zealanders and other experts in the region who have an interest in New Zealand.

We’d love to hear from you if you are able to:

• Contribute opinion pieces of up to 1,000 words about an area of expertise in relation to Asia, or about New Zealand's Asia dimension. This can include experiences living and working in the region.

  or

• Be available for media interviews relevant to your expertise areas and experience in Asia. We'll work with you to support you in your interactions with New Zealand journalists, including providing media training by agreement.

If you’re keen to get involved, or just curious, please contact us.

Guidelines for opinion submissions

In brief

• Keep it simple: Writing should be engaging, concise, and on topic.

• Avoid jargon: Our content is intended to be used by journalists and read by the general New Zealand public.

• Be respectful: Focus on the issue(s) and avoid personal attacks.

• Be careful: Avoid saying anything that may be legally questionable – nothing defamatory, plagiarised, or in breach of copyright will be accepted.

The fine print

The Asia Media Centre is happy to accept opinion pieces and commentary on all topics related to Asian issues and peoples. We welcome submissions from anyone with experience and expertise on Asia. There is no story that is inherently not relevant – as long as you know how to tell it.

We seek to make expert knowledge of Asia accessible to journalists and the New Zealand public. All of our content should be suitable for republishing in New Zealand media publications.

Writing should be clear and engaging, meaning that it avoids jargon and keeps the general public in mind. There are a variety of ways to engage the audience, such as:

• Including personal stories, anecdotes, or humour

• Using subheadings, where possible

• Attaching related material – such as images or video which you have taken – to publish alongside the article

• Including an infographic, if your article is data-heavy. (Contact us to discuss how we can assist in producing an infographic to accompany your story.)

Avoid explicit references to literature review or disciplinary debates. Any use of other’s arguments or evidence should be referenced, preferably to an online source or reference. However, writing should be independent of hyperlinks (ie. avoid phrases such as, “as may be found on this blog”).

We are able to provide some editorial support.

We encourage debate and conversation in the form of responses to media stories, recent research, or a story on our website. Please be respectful when engaging with the work and perspectives of others.

We maintain editorial oversight of all content. We will not accept content that we consider discriminatory or disrespectful. We will also not accept content that is defamatory or otherwise legally questionable, including copyright infringement or plagiarism.

We reserve the right to send submissions to subject-matter experts for external review, where necessary.