Film Executive Director Professor Heather Horst

The University of Sydney and USP Journalism Programme launched a documentary film called “Parenting in the smart age: Fijian perspective.”

Film Executive Director Professor Heather Horst says the film is about the struggles of parenting with children now having access to smartphones and social media.

Horst says over the past three years, they’ve been exploring ways in which the mobile communication landscape has been changing across the Pacific especially in Fiji.

“So the film itself focuses upon themes we’ve heard about in our interviews and experiences that parents, children and others have navigating the use of smartphones and social media. But rather than being prescriptive or a guide of what to do and what not to do, we hope that the film provokes the collective conversation about the challenges of new communication technology.”

Meanwhile, the documentary film took a year to produce and was funded by the Australian Research Council.