Latest research and knowledge exchange news at Bournemouth University
Following the recent Unesco global media and information literacy alliance event in Latvia and looking ahead to CEMP’s Media Education Summit in Rome, Julian McDougall reports here for the LSE Media Policy project on MIL developments and issues for the European research community in the context of Brexit.
A book full of insight and analysis about the EU Referendum has been launched at an event in Westminster.
‘EU Referendum Analysis 2016: Media, Voters and the Campaign’ was collated by academics from Bournemouth University and Loughborough University and features comments and opinions from academic experts from a number of institutions – sharing views on both the Leave and Remain camps and the final Brexit outcome.
The book was published just ten days after the EU Referendum and features 100 academics across 80 chapters.
Edited by Bournemouth University’s Dr Dan Jackson and Dr Einar Thorsen, alongside Loughborough University’s Professor Dominic Wring, the book features subjects like the language of prejudice, media coverage of the campaign, and the rhetoric of the EU Referendum campaign.
The event was opened by Conor Burns MP, who is Member of Parliament for Bournemouth West. He said, “This is a fascinating report, a really academic insight into what happened only a few short weeks ago.”
Dr Einar Thorsen, Principal Academic in Journalism & Communication at Bournemouth University, said, “We always felt that there was a bit of a gap between all the fantastic research that happens in academia and politicians, so we were looking for way to get all that expertise out there very quickly.
“The idea is that it is early reflections from academics and experts in media and politics in the UK. This includes early findings and a critique of the Referendum campaign in terms of communications and media coverage.”
Dr Dan Jackson, Principal Lecturer in Media and Communications at Bournemouth University, said, “There are eight sections, ranging from parties, social media, journalism, political communication, and news & politics, so all of the key moments from the campaign are reflected upon.”
Hosted in Portcullis House in Parliament Square, the event was attended by MPs, MEPs, Lords and prominent academics, who all engaged in healthy debate about the outcomes of the Referendum and lessons that can be learned for the future.
Professor Dominic Wring, Professor of Political Communication at Loughborough University, added, “Its nice to formally launch the report at Westminster and so soon after the Referendum, while it is still fresh in peoples’ minds.
“When normality resumes, and people start thinking about Brexit again, and thinking about what happened, there is actually a lot of evidence here that puts together some of the facts for people then to distil and think over.”
The book is available to read for free in PDF form at http://www.referendumanalysis.eu/
Our French samples of CS gas would leave our audience feeling sick, so for now we stick to power points when our tear gas research hits the road. Since the new year, members of Bournemouth University’s Civic Media team have had the opportunity to travel all around the country giving talks and workshops at UK Universities. Our Tear Gas project brings together academics, NGOs and digital designers to respond to the need for more publicly accessible information regarding tear gases’ effects on human life, animals and environments. We also consult and advise with organisation’s like Amnesty International on the policies and practices associated with the tear gas trade to help support human rights work around the world.
In February project lead Dr. Feigenbaum was invited to talk at the University of York as part of their Social and Political Sciences speaker series. Then it was over to the University of Sussex in early March, sharing two of our Fusion Funded BU Datalabs projects on Mapping Tear Gas and RiotIDs. Later in March, Dr. Feigenbaum headed into London for an invited talk on ‘Tear Gas and Other Media‘ at the University of Westminster. Then the whole team went up North in April for a RiotID workshop hosted by the University of Sheffield‘s Crick Centre as part of an ESRC Seminar Series. Postgraduate students and Senior Research Assistants Oz Demirkol and Daniel Weissmann, as well as URA Laura McKenna helped deliver a co-creation workshop alongside industry graphic design partner Minute Works and our NGO partner Omega Research Foundation.
To explore the innovative methodology our project employs, combining investigative and data journalism practices, in early May we teamed up with Kings College London‘s new Centre for Digital Culture to host a two-day investigative research workshop, bringing together academics, NGOs and journalist from around Europe. The event was co-sponsored by both MeCCSA Social Movement Network and the Political Science Association, as well as by our research groups at BU. Later that month we were back on the train headed for Keele University’s Media Environments workshop in May. Dr. Feigenbaum and Minute Works co-designed an interactive workshop using our Fusion model for how to turn research into information visualisations for making impact.
Then it was back to London in June for a double header of events on security and arms control at the University College London. First up was a paper presentation on the Wellcome Trust funded part of our research lookin
g at the Communication of Medical Knowledge in Tear Gas History. This two day interdisciplinary and international event was hosted aat UCL’s Global Governance Institute. A symposium directly followed on History, Security and Arms Control that marked the end of Professor Brian Balmer’s AHRC project on the Biological Weapons Convention. Speaking to an audience of 50 academics, policy-makers and NGOs, Dr. Feigenbaum presented on ‘Communication Approaches to the History of Tear Gas’, highlighting how policy-based research can engage with new digital technologies, information design and digital storytelling to make meaningful interventions in arms control.
Up next, in July Dr. Feigenbaum and summer URA Lauren Weeks are heading to the International Association of Media and Communication‘s annual conference to present their paper on the project’s use of social media in addressing issues of policing and human rights. Then it’s time for a holiday!
Our Tear Gas project has brought Bournemouth University’s Fusion vision to universities around the country. This work grew out of two fusion-funded grant projects. It has benefited from Fusion’s cross-faculty collaborations, partner networking opportunities, and working with four URA students over the course of its three years. The fruits of this collaborative labour can be seen in the steady stream of invitations we receive to take our cross-partner, co-creation project on tour–sharing and inspiring about issues that matter.
The Future for Public Service Television report, led by academics at Goldsmiths, University of London and chaired by Oscar-winning film producer Lord Puttnam, was published on Wednesday.
The Inquiry, launched in November 2015, has focused on the purposes of television in an era characterised by technological transformations, shifts in audience consumption habits, and changes in cultural and political attitudes. The report reflects on the extent to which the UK’s most popular television channels have addressed these issues and whether they continue to represent the interests and tell the stories of all the citizens of the UK. Above all, the report seeks to highlight the conditions that may allow for the production and circulation of high quality, creative and relevant public service content in these increasingly complex circumstances.
This Inquiry and report represent a major intervention in media policy, and features contributions from Dr Dan Jackson and Dr Einar Thorsen, both in the Faculty of Media and Communication at BU.
For five busy days in May, Faculty of Media and Communication academics Jim Pope, Brad Gyori, Kay Stonham, and Rutherford worked with local youngsters to produce a fully-working, online interactive narrative. Using a bespoke software package (Genarrator) developed within FMC with Fusion funding, five young people at the AIM community arts centre, Kinson, created a twisty tale of cyber-romance.
The project was a collaboration between FMC, and the staff at AIM central, the Bournemouth hub designed to give opportunities for self-expression and personal growth via performing arts, to unemployed teens, at-risk children, young offenders, and local young people more broadly. Jim Pope liaised with AIM leaders, Celeste Engel and Richard Newland, to bring together five young people, three of whom were ‘NEETS’, to work as a group to create a narrative that would blend film, words, music, graphics, and online interactivity. With a varied skill set, Brad (scripting and filming), Kay (scripting) and Rutherford (photography) were able to catalyse the enthusiasm and abilities of the young people, and from a standing start a plot emerged: all the writing, filming, recording, photography, and Genarrator design was completed in the five days that were allocated at the centre.
With support from the Centre for the Study of Journalism, Culture and Community, we were also able to involve three of our BA Multi-Media Journalism students, who documented the whole week, and have produced a short video of the event. See the You Tube video here: https://youtu.be/PSSvcKL3GbU
See the finished interactive narrative here: http://genarrator.org/view/7jf4el44s70pvpgy
Given the success of this small project, Jim and the AIM team are discussing funding sources to develop a larger project which can give opportunities to more BU undergraduates and more young people from the community.
First WAN book launch
Sara Ashencaen Crabtree, Heather Savigny & Jaeyeon Choe
The Women’s Academic Network (WAN) is heading towards its 3rd birthday in the Autumn. During that time we’ve put on many events designed to inspire our members, air and discuss concerns, build confidence, offer support and undertake research. We’ve heard some extraordinary speakers like feminist godmother, Germaine Greer, and courageous polar explorer, Felicity Aston.
Now it’s time to celebrate our own remarkable female colleagues. So where better to look for inspiration than the University of Cambridge book focusing on insights from their female dons in The Meaning of Success. Consequently next academic year we are planning to create a WAN publication of what women’s success looks like at BU, which will be used for general use across the university and beyond.
To embark on this new journey we were delighted to hold the first WAN book launch in May to celebrate the recent and important publications of three WAN colleagues. Professor Candida Yates is the author of The Play of Political Culture, Emotion & Identity , a highly intriguing and original socio-political-psychoanalytic analysis of relationships made and manipulated between the viewer and the political media ‘personality’.
Dr Bronwen Thomas, Associate Professor, has produced a ground-breaking textbook entitled Narrative: the basics. This volume draws from her extensive teaching practice to bring together a wealth of theoretical material to explain the diverse forms of and models underpinning fictional narrative.
Finally, Dr Julia Round, Principal Lecturer, has produced a marvellously eye-catching monograph with obvious wide readership appeal: Gothic in Comics & Graphic Novels Here the interface between comics and the gothic is examined through multiple analytic lenses.
Which brings us most appropriately to an early preview about The Shelley-Frankenstein Festival, 7th November ~ WAN is delighted to be part of the launch of this new and innovative Bournemouth-wide festival with 2 public engagement seminars planned at BU. Stakeholders include St Peter’s Town Centre Parish Church, Bournemouth County Council, AUB, Shelley Theatre, artists and musicians. More details to follow.
The week saw the publication of a new book by Elsevier (June 9th) Health Through Social Media which contains a chapter by FHSS staff Drs Carol Bond and Osman Ahmed called ‘Patient Empowerment Through Social Media’. Carol and Osman have a wide-ranging experience in researching and publishing about e-health, m-health and social media. They co-authored this topical chapter with a colleague in Australia.
Congratulations!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
The third BU ‘Dialogue in the Social Sciences’ will be held at 5.15 on Wednesday 22 June, in the EBC. This series of public meetings is bringing together social scientists and experts from outside academia to discuss social issues of pressing concern. Previous events have discussed the future of HE, and crime and the media. The title of this one is ‘Radicalisation: what is it and what threat does it pose?’ As with previous events in this series, there is an impressive panel. Professor Matthew Feldman of Teesside University is an expert on the Far Right; he will be joined by Emma el-Badawy of the University of Exeter and Dr Usama Hasan of the counter-radicalisation organisation the Quilliam Foundation, both experts on violent jihadism. Professor Barry Richards will be in the chair.
The ‘Dialogues’ series is organised by Profs Ann Brooks (FHSS), Candida Yates and Barry Richards (FMC).
To register for a free ticket: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dialogues-in-the-contemporary-social-sciences-22-june-tickets-25949415400
Speaker: Professor Paul Nesbitt-Larking (Huron University College, Canada)
Discussant: Professor Jonathan Parker (Bournemouth University)
Date: Monday 23rd May 2016
Time: 4pm – 6pm
Location: KG03, Kimmeridge House
Book your place via:
http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/perspective-pride-and-possibility-narratives-of-the-political-self-tickets-25057649103
Abstract: The stories we tell about our political lives, our personal political narratives, are the outcomes of our encounters with the master narratives of our time and place.
As we encounter significant others, enter into dialogue, and engage in social practice, we construct and reconstruct accounts of ourselves in political relationship with others.
In so doing, we give shape to our political identities. In the light of narrative research data, the paper is an exploration of encounters between personal and master narratives as they relate to three core elements of ideology: The cognitive construction of the political world (perspective); the affective orientation to the political world (pride); and imaginative deconstructions and reconstructions of the political world (possibility).
About the speaker:
Paul Nesbitt-Larking is Professor of Political Science at Huron University College in Canada and Visiting Professor, School of Health and Human Sciences, University of Huddersfield, UK. A scholar in political identities, citizenship, multiculturalism, and political communications, his recent publications include The Political Psychology of Globalization: Muslims in the West (Oxford University Press, 2011) and the Palgrave Handbook of Global Political Psychology (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) as well as numerous academic articles and chapters. He is currently Past President of the International Society of Political Psychology.
For futher information on this event please contact: mfathi@bournemouth.ac.uk
Parking information: Please note that there is no parking available on campus, please refer to the “how to get to BU” section to plan your journey.
I have just returned from a conference at the University of Malta organised by the EU COST Action on Cyberparks which I am participating in. The conference was on the theme of the I-city, enhancing places through technology and featured keynotes reflecting on and critiquing the notion of the ‘Smart City’ from different disciplinary and methodological perspectives and with reference to projects taking place across Europe. Valletta, where the conference took place, is going to the European Capital of Culture in 2018 and one of the presentations was from the Foundation team, offering some interesting insights into how preparations would focus on technologically-driven community regeneration.
Discussion in the parallel sessions which followed was organised around three tracks (Digital Methods and Social Practices; Ethnographic challenges; People, spaces and technology) led by COST Action members. The organisers also organised two field visits for us, looking at how technology is being used for the regeneration of public spaces and historical building in Valletta. Following the conference, I also participated in the working group meetings for the project, where discussion centred on dissemination and networking, and plans for future collaborations between members.
This was the second COST Action meeting I have attended so far and it was good to see how the project and collaborations between members are progressing. I have learned a great deal from working alongside colleagues from a diverse range of disciplines and cultures, and hope I will be able to attend the next meeting, which will be in Skopje in Macedonia in October. As well as myself, FMC Visiting Fellow Sue Thomas is also involved in the Cyberparks project and in addition to being a working group member is also on the project’s Editorial Board.
Maternal Mortality in Nepal
Abstract: The session links various social and political factors that affect maternal mortality. Women dying in pregnancy and childbirth is very much a problem of and in low-income countries. This talk focuses on Nepal, one of the poorer countries of the world, to highlight a range of maternal health issues and wider influencing factors including globalisation and the influence of global organisations such as the World Health Organisation.
For further information regarding the Social Science seminar series, get in touch with Dr Mastoureh Fathi (mfathi@boutnemouth.ac.uk).
Through the Creative Europe programme, the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency is promoting the following calls and their closing dates:
All closing dates are at 12:00 (CET/CEST, Brussels time)
If you are interested in applying to these funds, please contact Emily Cieciura, REKO’s Research Facilitator for EU & International funding or your relevant faculty Funding Development Officer.
Check out the interactive maps on our BU Civic Media Hub website to find out!
Everyday tear gas is used around the world, from Brazil to Bahrain, from Thailand to the Occupied Territories of Palestine. Yet, while journalists file news stories of tear gas deployments, there is no national or international data recorded on its use or its effects.
Researchers and campaign groups work hard to raise awareness of the true effects of tear gas, yet its health effects remain undetermined and its death toll ill-defined. Data on tear gas is dispersed across nations, suppressed by governments, and spun by corporate manufacturers with a vested interest in keeping sales figures high. Largely unregulated and unmonitored, the for-profit transnational trade in tear gas continues to raise legal questions, as people around the world face its repressive and often violent effects.
Our 2015 Mapping the Media project sought to aggregate news reports on tear gassing in efforts to make public the frequency and motivations for its use. The maps form part of a larger research project led by Dr. Anna Feigenbaum, Senior Lecturer in Digital Storytelling at Bournemouth University. The 2015 mapping was done by Dr. Feigenbaum and her Undergraduate Research Assistant (URA) Laura McKenna with support from Dr. Pippa Gillingham and the BU Datalabs Team that came together through CCCP Fusion Grant in 2014.
Find out more about digital storytelling for impact from Dr. Feigenbaum’s blog post on the topic.
CHAIN – Contact, Help, Advice and Information Network – is an online mutual support network for people working in health and social care. It gives people a simple and informal way of contacting each other to exchange ideas and share knowledge.
The online Directory can be used to identify and communicate with other members. You might wish to do this to draw from their experience, or to elicit an opinion on an issue or something you are doing. Or you might wish to find collaborators or liaise with fellow-travellers or people with specific skills or interests for a wide range of purposes. You can do this quickly and easily with CHAIN, and part of the advantage is that the people you find will usually be happy to help you if they can.
We are delighted to welcome a representative from CHAIN to BU on 23rd March at 2:30pm in Wollstone Lecture Theatre, Bournemouth House (BG10) to demonstrate how to make the most of being part of the network. All staff are welcome to attend, and please pass the invitation on to students who may be interested in learning more about what CHAIN has to offer.
Contact Lisa Gale-Andrews at lgaleandrews@bournemouth.ac.uk for more information.
Our latest paper in the international journal BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth published late last month was highlighted yesterday in a BMC Series Blog.[1] The blog post reminds us that the media plays an important role in providing the general public with information about a range of issues, including pregnancy and childbirth. The visual media, such as television, can provide planned information (education), for example in documentaries, advertising and the news. Our paper “Is it realistic?” the portrayal of pregnancy and childbirth in the media’ looked into how the representation of childbirth in the mass media affects childbirth in society as there is evidence to suggest that it can have a negative effect. BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth is an Open Access journal therefore the paper is freely available for anybody across the globe with an internet connection, for access click here.
Our paper is great example of interdisciplinary research, as celebrated at the forthcoming Interdisciplinary Research Sector Day on June 21st (see here). The authors of our paper combine expertise in media studies, midwifery, sociology and health services research. Moreover, it involved collaborations across universities (Bournemouth and Stirling) and within BU across faculties, namely the Faculty of Media & Communcation and the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences.
Ann Luce, Marilyn Cash, Vanora Hundley, Helen Cheyne, Edwin van Teijlingen & Catherine Angell
Reference:
Written evidence submitted by Brigadier (Rtd) Anthony Paphiti, former ALS officer and Visiting Researcher at BU’s CRoLS and Dr Sascha Dov Bachmann, Associate Professor in International Law and Visiting Research Fellow at the Swedish Defence University, Stockholm, to Parliament’s Defence Select Committee has been published and can be viewed at the Defence Committee’s website.
Accepting written submissions. The deadline for submission of written evidence has been extended for three weeks until 8 March
The House of Commons Defence Select Committee will be conducting an inquiry into Russian defence policy and the implications of this for UK defence and security.
The submitted evidence is the result of some ongoing collaborations on various aspects of Hybrid Warfare and its impact on Media, Law, Society undertaken by Sascha Dov Bachmann and colleagues from Exeter, Stockholm, NATO and Austria. More information on these collaborations can be found in BU’s 2016 Research Chronicle.
Today saw the publication “Is it realistic?” the portrayal of pregnancy and childbirth in the media, a paper which is truly interdisciplinary, both in terms of its authorship as well as its topics[1]. The lead-author, Dr. Ann Luce is based in the Faculty of Media & Communication, whilst her BU co-authors Dr. Catherine Angell, Prof. Vanora Hundley, Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen and Dr. Marylin Cash are all associated with the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences. Prof. Helen Cheyne, the only non-BU co-author, is based at the University of Stirling.
The paper is a scoping review to assess the influence media have on pregnant women. Much of the academic literature discusses the influence of (reality) television, which often portrays birth as risky, dramatic and painful. Although many claim that the portrayal of childbirth has a negative effect on society, there is little research evidence to support this claim. It has been suggested that women seek out such programmes to help understand what could happen during the birth because there is a cultural void through the increasing anticipation of negative outcomes. However the impact that has on normal birth has not been explored. Our paper highlighted three key themes: (a) the medicalisation of childbirth; (b) women using media to learn about childbirth; and (c) birth as a missing everyday life event. The key conclusions are the media appear to influence how women engage with childbirth. The dramatic television portrayal of birth may perpetuate the medicalisation of childbirth, and last, but not least, portrayals of normal birth are often missing in the popular media. Hence midwives need to engage with television producers to improve the representation of midwifery and maternity in the media.
BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth is an Open Access journal so our paper is freely available to researchers, journalists, childbirth activists as well as pregnant women anywhere in the world. This paper builds on a growing number of academic papers published by staff in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) on the role the media play in health and midwifery, both in the UK [2-3] and in Nepal [4-6].
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
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