Category Archives: Community Media

SITES OF POPULAR MUSIC HERITAGE – SYMPOSIUM
 CFP

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Venue: Institute of Popular Music, University of Liverpool

Date: 8–9 September 2011
We invite proposals from a broad range of academic disciplines for a 2 day symposium examining sites of popular music heritage: from institutions such as museums, to geographic locations, websites and online archives. Papers are welcomed that explore popular music within narratives of heritage and identity, real and imagined geographies, cultural memory and contested histories.

 

The event will focus on three thematic areas:

Popular Music Heritage in the Museum

In recent years museums have increasingly engaged with popular music heritage, as evidenced in a proliferation of exhibitions including those in the UK such as Kylie: The Exhibition at the V&A and the British Music Experience at the O2. Museum interaction with popular music heritage enables methods of narration beyond traditional written histories, engaging visitors with objects, sounds and images. The place of popular music in the museum raises issues of how music is both represented and used to represent and explore social histories, personal and collective identities, memories, and geographies. Possible themes for papers include:

  • Popular music and locality in the museum
  • Disseminating popular music heritage in museums beyond text
  • History and memory in popular music exhibitions and collections

 

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An Analysis of Twitter and Facebook Use by the Archival Community

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Jez Collins, of the Birmingham Popular Music Archive reflects on a recent article about the use of Twitter and Facebook by the archival community.

I started the Birmingham Popular Music Archive as way of engendering civic pride through the wide range of music activity that has emanated from Birmingham and as a way celebrating and recognising those individuals and organisations that have played a role in this.

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Film Screening of ‘The Irishmen’ by Phillip Donnellan

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The Irishmen is a beautiful and an important film as it is one of the few accounts we have of the experiences of the millions of men and women who came from Ireland to Britain after the war to aid in rebuilding the country. However, when it was made, the film was rejected by the BBC and to this day has not been screened on British TV. Donnellan himself thought this rejection was for political reasons. You will be able to judge for yourself at this screening and discussion.

Time: 2pm
Date: Thursday 25 November 2010
Location: The Pump, Kitts Green Road, Lea Village, B33 9SB
Further info: info@reelaccess.org.uk / 0121 6758391
www.phillipdonnellan.posterous.com

Birmingham Zine Festival

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Discussions of fanzines are often in the margins of media and cultural studies literature but they do appear. A recent example is Chris Atton’s article Popular Music Fanzines: Genre, Aesthetic and the “Democratic Conversation” in Popular Music and Society (33.4, 517-531, 2010).

I was asked to talk about music fanzines at the Birmingham Zine Festival. This informal presentation relates my experiences of music fanzines around the end of the 1980s.

The Ins and Outs of Music Fanzines by Interactive Cultures

Social Media at 52 degrees north

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Marlon Parker
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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Pathways For Community Media

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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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