interactivecultures

Marlon Parker addresses the Black Country Social Media Café

Last month I spent two days in the company of South African social media academic Marlon Parker. Regular readers will remember Marlon from his guest post several months ago. The purpose of the visit was to share thoughts and ideas in the field of social media, and to discuss social media education. We were fortunate that the visit coincided with a number of social media events in Birmingham, which meant I could give Marlon a real flavour of what we do in the West Midlands and I could introduce him to as many contacts as possible in a few short days. So what does an academic and social entrepreneur from Cape Town make of the social media activity in Birmingham? And what could we learn from him? The answer is: “a lot”.
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There are currently 195 licensed community radio stations in the U.K. – with more on the way. At this rate, it won’t be long before community stations outnumber their commercial cousins. But although community radio’s thriving across the country, it’s been noticeably underrepresented in London, where frequencies have been scarce. It would seem that’s about to change, as Ofcom is currently seeking applications for community radio licences within Greater London and the M25.

With this in mind, earlier in the month Siobhan Mullen and I joined the first of three “Pathways For Community Media in London” seminars organised by London Metropolitan University. The aim of the series is to “bring together community media practitioners to identify the needs and aspirations of London’s many disenfranchised communities and discuss a way forward that will give them a voice over the airwaves and the internet”. The hope is to eventually produce a manifesto for Community Media in London.

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