Transcript
APULU LANCE POLU: It has to happen because we need to lift the entry point so that the quality that we get after the training, the quality of the students that we require to in service of the industry and ultimately the Samoa public.
MOERA TUILAEPA-TAYLOR: I guess the way we tell stories has also changed with social media and other aspects as well. So that also will be a good training ground about how things have changed over the years.
APL: Yeah, well certainly, Samoa as a Polynesian country and any other traditional society is a very firm and very strong oral tradition, telling stories and communicating through word of mouth passed through generations and it's that skill and knowledge, the art that needs to have modern ways of delivering and telling those stories through pictures and sound, and the word itself. So perhaps that's what we are looking at here, and of course you may know that Samoa over the last 10-15 years, the explosion of the media has been so that we have the major players in society, like the churches who now run their own television and radio stations and newspapers and online stuff, so other then the privately owned media, so there is that need for properly trained personnel to deliver that and perhaps marrying that traditional knowledge telling stories and the oral tradition within us and using that the new technology through the cameras, the soundbites, images that we use and the other very significant skills like animation and that stuff, telling the stories in a different way and in a more interesting way, so that will continue on into the future. So yeah, these are exciting times and I hope the course will deliver that.
MTT: Have you seen the numbers increase over the years, in terms of young people interested in looking at media as a future career?
APL: You and I know that the parents will always be pushing for their child to be doing law, doing accountancy or economics, and the media is usually the last that they will take but that's perhaps one of the reasons why they are elevating the entry point so that it will make it more appealing to the parents and with the way that the media is really in a high profile in the country and I think that will also help but yes it's all that and lifting the entry point and of course looking at where we can actually deliver and teach and produce students who can actually help out and do the work in a very professional way and in the standard that is really high for Samoa.
