I spent one day at The Radio Conference: A Transnational Forum 2013 in Luton this week.  It was really good to see so many old friends and acquaintances.

In the morning I presented my paper as part of a panel that included Dr. Guy Starkey and Nele Heise. It was a well programmed panel because we covered similar ground about technology and radio from different perspectives. Starkey’s paper ‘Analogue yet digital: the paradox of radio’s transition to modern production methods and its reputation as an “old” medium’. He provided a succinct and enjoyably presented history of radio’s development, but his discussion was far more about radio distribution technologies than it was production, and he relied on quite a bit of technological determinism and the idea that radio was a resilient medium because it had survived this history of technological change. He suggested that people still think about radio as an analogue medium. I wasn’t convinced about these central ideas, and my own paper was based upon an attempt to get beyond them. I’m really not sure radio has been the same thing for all its history; I see broadcasting as a social institution, rather than a technological medium; and I’m not sure the ideas of digital and analogue are in any way key concepts in the way most people think about radio. Rather than resilient, I think we need to think about radio as a very adaptable form of institutionalised practice built upon shifting technological and social worlds.

I tried to demonstrate that myself by linking other moments of technological change to today’s shifts in engineering, cultural practice and media ecology. I hoped the title – ‘A new age for radio: understanding radio’s present from radio’s past’ – conveyed something of that.  You can read a version of the paper by downloading the document, and match it to the presentation slides. If the ideas catch your attention and you’d like to find out more, the wider research is published in a series of articles and book chapters that are starting to come into print:

•  ‘The political economy of internet music radio’ The Radio Journal 2/1, 27-44, 2004
• ‘Music, radio and the internet’ in Christina Baade et al Over the Waves: Music in Broadcasting (forthcoming 2013).
• ‘Duke Ellington, radio remotes, and the mediation of big city nightlife, 1927 to 1933’ Jazz Perspectives 2013
• ‘Changing cultural co-ordinates: the transistor radio and space / time / identity’ [with Nick Webber] in Oxford Handbook of Mobile Music (forthcoming 2013).
•  ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll: Cars, Convergence and Culture’ [with Nick Webber] in Chris Hart (Ed) Music and Automobiles (forthcoming 2013)

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Last week I attended the Rhythm Changes: Rethinking Jazz Cultures conference at Salford University in order to present a paper entitled Rethinking ‘European jazz’ through the work of Steven Feld, and also to chair a roundtable discussion on ‘Jazz and the Media’.

In the paper I used the anthropological work of Feld with African jazz musicians to open up a discussion regarding how we think about European jazz, and in particular the way in which the cultures and sounds of the movement are distinct from those which developed in the USA. As a media and cultural analyst, rather than an anthropologist, I gave particular attention to the role of European jazz media in this area.

The mediation and representation of jazz, and in particular jazz histories, is a theme I have explored in my work with Paul Long. I was delighted, then, to be invited to chair the ‘Jazz and the Media’ panel, which included Alyn Shipton and Alexander Kan from the BBC. We discussed the role of the organisation in light of changes to jazz consumption habits in the digital age, a topic which I have previously published work on with Andrew Dubber.

Also presenting at the Salford conference was my BCU colleague Simon Barber. As part of a BCMCR project Simon has recently been working with Dave Stapleton (Edition Records), on his engagement with digital and internet technologies. You can read more about Simon’s paper here.

The Salford event was a resounding success and greatly enjoyable, and as ever it was good to meet with colleagues and friends from across the world. The event was covered in great detail by the All About Jazz website, and also received some coverage in London Jazz News.

This week I have been at the POPID Conference: Popular Music Heritage, Cultural Memory & Cultural Identity held in Rotterdam at Podium O950.  I was at the bit called Re/Soundings: Documenting Music and Memory, and the whole event was timed to coincide with the International Film Festival Rotterdam.

The Documenting Music thread aimed to bring together work in two European projects: Popular Music Heritage, Cultural Memory and Cultural Identity (POPID) and Jazz Cultures and European Identities (Rhythm Changes). We’ve been involved in the Rhythm Changes project, especially through Andrew Dubber’s role in developing the online profile of the project, and you may have seen some discussion of other aspects of the project’s work.

At this event I was asked to go and present something of the work I’ve been doing with Dr Paul Long on television popular music histories.  Our work on the BBC series Jazz Britannia was particularly relevant to the work of the Rhythm Changes project. I invited Tony Higgins, who had been the researcher on the Jazz Britannia programme, to join me in a discussion about the making and final form of the documentary.  We roamed over much of the ground that Paul and I covered in our published analysis of the programme.

Tony Higgins is a really knowledgeable and thoughtful commentator on British jazz, its history and the way we can represent it on television. He was involved in producing the Impressed With Gilles Peterson compilation CD of 1960s British jazz which sparked-off some renewed interest in earlier British jazz, and which in some way led to the commissioning of the television series.

The general consensus at our session on Jazz Britannia seemed to be that the television series offered an important insight into a neglected aspect of European jazz, and included forms of jazz that are often neglected as they don’t have the same ‘cool’ as others. There were some very interesting discussions about the necessary compromises in programme making and Tony’s insights into the gestation of JB was illuminating.

The day before we had watched a screening of Julian Benedict’s 2007 documentary Play Your Own Thing: The Story of Jazz in Europe, and discussed the way it represented jazz in Europe and European jazz. George McKay, one of the other participants offeres a good summary of our discussion, and of the rest of the conference. Much of the discussion focused on different aspects of how one could represent such a diverse topic, and some of the conventions of presenting jazz and of making documentaries.

The rest of the two days was equally interesting, and covered a whole range of other documentaries. Walter van de Leur and Tony Whyton led a session which included watching extracts of a documentary on ECM records, Manfred Eicher: Sounds and Silence: Travels with Manfred Eicher (2009) and one on the Dutch drummer, Han Bennink: Hazentijd (2010). Sadly there wasn’t time to watch Afijn a documentary on Misha Mengelberg: (2006).  Everyone seemed to love the Han Bennink documentary, mainly because the guy is so engaging and his music is particularly effective when seen as well as heard. Equally, though, the documentary was noticeably ‘open’ in the way it presented its subject, and eager to give the music some personal and cultural context. Even though this analysis included a lot about Bennink’s Nederlands rural background it avoided any obvious essentialism about the drummer’s music being somehow ‘Dutch’. The ECM film was less well-received, although I found myself in the unusual situation of being less negative about a music documentary than my colleagues. I wondered aloud if too many stereotypes about ECM were being bandied around and if the reception of the documentary was being determined by perceptions of the company and its owner and creative leader.

Other conference attenders went to watch Jeremy Xido’s 2012 Death Metal Angola, but I went to the hotel for some sleep. I tend not to think of death metal as a must-see/listen. The following day we watched a very long extract from the even longer Julien Temple 2006 study of Glastonbury and then discussed our responses in a session led by George McKay. A major focus here was the issue of selectivity and the highlighting of the unusual and striking against the commonplace. We noted how little music there was in music documentaries and mused on ideas of Englishness that pervaded the film. I raised the issue of the absence in any sense that music has an economic dimension, as I had several times that week. Not even George’s dismissal of my preoccupation is likely to stop me asking the question.

Overall, a worthwhile event.  Small in scale, interesting in terms of the screenings, and high in quality of debate.

£37,310 – £44,561 per annum Closing date: 05/11/2012 We wish to appoint a senior member of staff to lead and ensure the successful delivery of the university’s contribution to a landmark two-year Developing Citizen Journalists in the Arab Region project. The post holder will also develop new research projects and help establish new postgraduate courses in the area of media for social change. You would work within the Birmingham Centre for Media  & Cultural Research, and with our project partners Meedan, and delivery teams based in Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan, and with Syrian citizens in Lebanon to help develop the media literacy skills of citizen journalists in these rapidly changing countries. This new project builds upon a successfully completed one-year project in Egypt. You will join existing experts in social media, citizen journalism and media for development, who work on a range of associated research projects and postgraduate courses in this field.   You will need proven ability to design and manage research projects and strong leadership, mentoring and personal communication skills. Proficiency in Arabic is desirable. In addition you should have a broad knowledge of affairs in the Arab region, new social and traditional media, citizen journalism and the role of media in social change. An advanced educational qualification, preferably a doctorate, along with strong research skills, and some teaching experience or evidence of mentoring, are essential.

Full job description and person specification, and details on how to apply through the university’s HR department here.

This Wednesday I presented my annual report on the achievements of, and challenges for, staff in the Birmingham Centre For Media and Cultural Research.

The highlights included:

Three new projects focused on Citizen Journalism in Egypt (£32k funded by Swedish Development Agency allowing us to fund Noha Atef as a Research Assistant), Digital R&D for the Arts (funded by NESTA / AC / AHRC £22k) and Connected Communities Hyperlocal Publishing (funded by AHRC £285k over 30 months allowing us to fund Dave Harte to lead and appoint Jerome Turner as a Research Assistant), and continuing projects based upon European Jazz and on Cultural Heritage.

Nine new funding bids including a successful bid the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office to extend our work in Citizen Journalism in MENA (which was successful), a proposal to AHRC to undertake research on Jazz on UK radio 1955-80 (which is waiting a decision), and participation in a submission to the AHRC with five other universities for funding for research degree studentships in the arts and humanities (where we were successfully selected to make a full proposal).

Two of our PhD students, Yemisi Ogunleye and Sukanya Borthakur were examined in their theses, and should both soon graduate. Staff working on research degrees made great strides with Oliver Carter, Pete Wilby, and Faye Davies nearing completion; Matt Grimes, Siobhan Stephens and Jon Hickman were preparing a proposal to transfer to PHD; Annette Naudin made substantial progress towards completion, and Dave Harte and Vanessa Jackson started degrees. Sam Coley and Dave Kane successfully applied to start PhDs. Independent students Rob Horrocks, Jacob Tsado, Selbin Kabote, Kene Ochonogor showed lots of interesting contributions, and they were joined by Noha Atef, Emmanouil Melisourgakis, Les Johnson, and Rachel-Ann Charles who are nearly all now registered with strong projects.

Research active staff also published an impressive array of books, book chapters, articles and conference papers which you can read about under their individual profiles.

We have a very positive, but realistic university review with the external assessor suggesting that “There is an excellent job being done in BCMCR in terms of engendering research culture; supporting ECRs and bidding for external funding from many sources, but there is a long way to go … BCMCR is also spearheading new paradigms for the use of blogging/alternative forms of outputs. There are good PGR completions and a number are in train for completion by REF-2014 … the centre faces some significant challenges although there is evidence of excellent internal leadership; support from highly experience academics and mentoring for ECRs and new staff”.

We have 20 research-active staff, four of whom are engaged with research for a significant part of their time, four are establishing strong post-doc careers, and over six are likely to be submitted to the REF as research-active with outputs. The remaining staff are making important contributions in developing their academic career through their research degree.

We have also attracted a number of visiting researchers, including our current guest, Antonio Planells De La Maza from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.

Next year we will continue with the HERA Rhythm Changes, Leonardo Cultural Heritage and AHRC Connected Communities projects and start our FCO/SIDA two-year £115k Developing Citizen Journalism in the Arab Region project with our partners Meedan. The latter project, together with faculty funding will allow us to appoint a new Senior Researcher in Media for Social Change, to pay for a Research Assistant, support staff buy-out time and cover some of the costs of our centre Research Activities Coordinator.

We also hope to appoint new academic staff in the Birmingham School of Media who will join the research centre and add their scholarly expertise.

The challenge ahead involves articulating our achievements and culture as a research centre in our submission to the UK Research Excellence Framework assessment in 2013, and ensuring that there is clear evidence of out research outputs, income, PhD completions, research environment and impact. We hope that we can communicate clearly that we are a new research vibrant and supportive centre with an enabling culture which draws on scholarly and production traditions to produce research of excellence and impact.

Rob Horrocks will be starting his full time studies with us on 4th May, developing a proposed thesis on ‘The use of sound recordings in public exhibits and digital archives documenting popular music histories’.

Rob will be joining a group of strong popular music and new media academics, and playing a full part in the intellectual life of Interactive Cultures and our wider research centre.

We interviewed four particularly strong candidates from an impressive set of applications, and Rob’s combination of strong postgraduate background, his involvement in the application of digital media to music history, and his enthusiasm was impressive.

We have also offered the other suitably qualified candidates unfunded PhD places and we hope they will take them up.