Spicol Daily: A pacific media partnership case study

For three years, the University of the South Pacific has hosted a unique week-long annual conference of young Pacific Island leaders where they “live out” daily examples of good governance and accountability. SPICOL, or the Student Pacific Islands Conference of Leaders, is a university interdisciplinary simulation exercise. Students take on the role of prime ministers, cabinet ministers, lobbyists, researchers — and reporters for the news media. Journalism students report, edit, publish and broadcast for their campus station Radio Pasifik and the special conference training newspaper, Spicol Daily. In 1999, Spicol Daily became a tabloid “newspaper within newspaper” publishing in one of Fiji’s three national newspapers, the Daily Post. The challenge provided a dramatic and practical learning curve for students.