With an impressive and extensive corporate media background with more that 10 years in senior content, production, and management at Sky TV, Gesa Luamanu has hit the ground running in her new role as Programme Manager of the newly established Te Rito programme which aims to identify, train, develop, and hire 25 cadet Māori, Pasifika, and diverse journalists.
Gesa, who is of Samoan heritage and was recently leading the journalism, factual and documentary content development at Oriana TV, is a dedicated advocate for Aotearoa’s Māori and Pasifika communities, embracing Te Tiriti o Waitangi and tino rangatiratanga.
One of her first goals will be to support the hiring, training, and development of 25 journalists from communities traditionally under-represented in newsrooms around New Zealand.
Gesa says, “I see our largest challenge will be recruiting Māori, Pasifika and diverse cadets into journalism as it’s not seen as an attractive industry.”
“One of our big goals will be to create a vibrant, quality and safe learning environment for our cadets to have a life-long passion in journalism amidst the chaos of COVID and challenges of modern-day life, ” adds Gesa.
Head of News for Māori Television Service Wena Harawira says Gesa is one of the few women in the industry with the cultural, management and media experience necessary to establish Te Rito.
Te Rito is a collaboration between four media organisations Māori Television, Pacific Media Network (PMN News, 531pi, Niu FM), Newshub, and New Zealand Media and Entertainment (NZME) with support from NZ On Air via the $55 million Public Interest Journalism Fund.
Te Rito Journalism Project will receive up to $2,419,253 (spanning two financial years, $800,000 in the first year).
The full-time programme starts 7th Feb 2022.
To apply click – here