Category / Media Studies

Narrative Research Group Talk on Making an Interactive Biography

The final NRG talk of this academic year will take place on 29 May 2019 in F307 4-6 p.m.

Dr Lisa Gee will speak about the thinking behind, and the process of making the interactive biography – or “zoeography” – of William Hayley (1745-1820), created for her PhD in Digital Writing by Practice at Bath Spa University with developer Michael Kowalski.

 

  • Why didn’t she just write a book?
  • What were the challenges she faced in developing the narrative and designing the reader journey?
  • How did the collaboration work?

 

She will also discuss her work at the Fitzwilliam Museum, where, with a fabulous team of colleagues, she’s working on Most Sacred Things: a pilot digital edition of Hayley’s correspondence.

A short video introduction to HayleyWorld can be found here.

Lisa Gee is Post-Doctoral Research Associate on the Ego-Media Project in the Centre for Life-Writing Research at King’s College, London, External Research Consultant in the Department of Manuscripts and Printed Books at the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, and a freelance writer, editor, facilitator and videographer. She is the author of Stage Mum, Friends: Why Men and Women Are From the Same Planet, and the editor of Bricks Without Mortar: the selected poems of Hartley Coleridge. She judges the New Media Writing Prize, and the Association for Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo) Awards for Excellence for Diversity & Inclusion and for Best Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative.

Latest publication from interdisciplinary BU project on the broadcasting of the Rio Paralympics, with a bit of SRA help

Publishing, student research

The BU-led, AHRC-funded project on the cultural legacy of the Paralympics is entering its final few months; a busy period involving impact visits to multiple stakeholders, the completion of the project documentary and exhibition, and the development of academic papers.

The latest academic output (written by Emma Pullen, Dan Jackson and Michael Silk) is published in Communication & Sport this week, titled (Re-)presenting the Paralympics: Affective Nationalism and the “Able-Disabled”. The paper is based on an analysis of three integrated data sets from Channel 4’s broadcasting of the Rio 2016 Paralympics: interviews with Channel 4 production and editorial staff, quantitative content analysis, and qualitative moving image analysis. It is an in-depth analysis of the tensions that emerge between nationalism – as a commercial logic of sports mega-event broadcasting – and progressive disability representation.

We are indebted to the two BU student research assistants that worked with us through the SRA scheme on the quantitative content analysis: Jack Beaunier and Bethany Crawford. As well as contributing to this scholarly publication, their work will also form an important part of the report we will present to Channel 4, Paralympics GB, and UK Sport later this Spring.

For more news and information on the project, head over to the Pasccal website.

CANDIDA YATES APPOINTED AS FOUNDING SCHOLAR OF THE BRITISH PSYCHOANALYTIC COUNCIL

Candida Yates has been appointed a Founding Scholar of the British Psychoanalytic Council. This is in recognition of her significant contribution to academic research in the area and beyond. The BPC is the professional registration body for the UK’s leading psychoanalytical practitioners. Up until recently, affiliations were open solely to qualified clinicians trained in the practice of psychoanalysis, psychoanalytical psychotherapy, and psychodynamic psychotherapy.

This newly created category expands the BPC’s purview by recognising the enormous contribution that academics and scholars have made to the study of psychoanalysis through research and publication. Being a Founding Scholar can open up further opportunities for debate, collaboration and knowledge exchange between the BPC, academia and beyond. The launch event was held at the Freud Museum in London on 21st February 2019.

As a Founding Scholar, Candida has now been invited to join the new organising committee for BPC Scholars to shape this new and exciting association going forward. She has also been invited to join the Editorial board of their members magazine ‘New Associations’: https://www.bpc.org.uk/new-associations.

REF Internal Review Panels – Recruiting Now!

BU Challenges, REF Subjects, Research assessment

To help us prepare for our upcoming submission to the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021 we are establishing a number of internal review panels to review and assess BU’s research outputs and impact case studies.

Expressions of Interest (EoI) are invited from academic staff who are interested in being a Panel Member. There will be one panel per Unit of Assessment (UOA) listed below. Those interested should identify which UOA Panel they would like to be considered for and put forward a short case (suggested length of one paragraph) as to why they are interested in the role and what they think they could bring to it. EoIs should be emailed to ref@bournemouth.ac.uk by 14th December 2018.

UOA Teams would particularly welcome EoIs from those who have:

  • Experience reviewing for previous REF stocktake exercises
  • Experience in editorship
  • Experience peer review

Full details of the role, the process of recruitment and terms of reference for the panels themselves can be found here.

Any queries regarding a specific panel should be directed to the UOA Leader. General enquiries should be directed to Shelly Anne Stringer, RKEO.

Unit of Assessment UOA Leader(s)
2 Public Health, Health Services and Primary Care Prof. Edwin Van Teijlingen
3 Allied Health Professions, Dentistry, Nursing and Pharmacy
4 Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience Dr. Peter Hills
11 Computer Science and Informatics Prof. Hamid Bouchachia
12 Engineering Prof. Zulfiqar Khan
14 Geography and Environmental Studies Prof. Rob Britton
15  Archaeology Prof. Kate Welham and Prof. Holger Schutkowski
17 Business and Management Studies Prof. Dean Patton
18 Law Dr Sascha-Dominik Bachman
20 Social Work and Social Policy Prof. Jonathan Parker
23 Education Prof. Julian McDougall and Prof. Debbie Holley
24 Sport and Exercise Sciences, Leisure and Tourism Prof. Tim Rees (Sport) Prof. Adam Blake (Tourism)
27 English Language and Literature Prof. Bronwen Thomas
32 Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory Prof. Jian Chang
33 Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies Prof. Kerstin Stutterheim
34 Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management Prof. Iain MacRury

 

Shaping Media Policy and Regulation

BRIAN, Knowledge Transfer

Following a business engagement event on Digital Strategy and Business Transformation and subsequent publications in academic and practitioner journals, Dr Oliver’s work on the strategic digital transformations of the UKs Creative Industries and media firms has been credited with shaping Ofcom’s media policy and regulation. Ofcom recently commented that his research into the how Sky Plc had managed the digital transition over the past twenty years provided them with a unique insight into Sky’s strategic approach, and it enabled them to “think differently about their ‘growth strategy’ and diversification into new markets such as broadband, fixed and mobile telephony”. Ofcom concluded that Sky had in fact contributed to increased levels of competition in those sectors.

Ofcom also confirmed that the research had helped them to consider their remit as a communications regulator and the potential areas where they could use their expertise in the future, most notably in terms of the potential future regulation of the internet.

Dr Oliver’s research – ‘Strategic Transformations in the Media’ can be found on BRIAN.

PROGRAMME RELEASED for FMC Postgraduate Researcher Conference 5 Dec 2018

conferences, PG research

We are two weeks away from our Second Annual Faculty of Media and Communication PGR conference. Below you will find the programme for the conference showcasing the diverse areas of research within our PGR community that will be presented throughout the day.

Official registration for the conference on December 5th is available via Eventbrite. Registration is open for all FMCers, free, and closes November 27th. There are a limited number of tickets for the beer tasting option for Dr Sam Goodman’s Keynote, so if you are interested in securing one of those spots please register as soon as possible. Over half of those tickets have already been claimed:  https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/second-annual-fmc-postgraduate-researcher-conference-2018-tickets-51544624359

However, if you are not apart of the FMC and interested in these presentations don’t fret! We would love to have your presence, insights and participation on the day. If you are interested in any of our programming and have any questions please contact Alexandra Alberda (she would love to hear from you) at aalberda@bournemouth.ac.uk .

Conference Programme

9:00 – 9:30am: Registration Check-in and Wristband Collection

9:30 – 10:00: Introduction

Prof Iain MacRury, Deputy Dean for Research and Professional Practice

Prof Candida Yates, Professor for Culture and Communication

Jo Tyler, PGR Broadcast Podcast

Welcome from Conference Committee – Alex, Steve and Mel

 

10:00 – 11:20pm: Panel 1 – Beyond the Image: Animation and Video Games

Chair: TBD

10:00am: Bibi Ayesha Noormah Soobhany – The Machine Brain

10:20am: Nurist S. Ulfa – Revisiting Consumption Play: Digital Virtual Consumption among Child Consumer

10:40am: Alex Tereshin – Automatically Controlled Morphing of 2D Shapes with Textures

11:00am: Valentin Miu – Real-time 3D Smoke Simulation with Convolutional Neural Network-based Projection Method

 

11:20 – 11:40 am: Tea and Coffee and Comfort Break

 

11:40 – 1:00pm: Panel 2 – Augmented Reality and the Body

Chair: Jill Nash

11:40am: Miguel Ramos Carretero – Efficient Facial Animation Integrating Euclidean and Geodesic Distance Algorithms into Radial Basis Function Interpolation

12:00pm: Ifigeneia Mavridou – Designing a System Architecture for Emotion Detection in Virtual Reality

12:20pm: Mara Catalina Aguilera Canon – Interactive real-time material removal simulation for acetabular reaming training in Total hip replacement procedures

12:40pm: Farbod Shakouri – Connected Tangible Objects for Augmented Reality Narratives

 

1:00 – 1:15pm: 3MT Presentations

Chair: TBD

1:00pm: Aaron Demolder – Shared Perceptions: Recording 3D Video to Improve Visual Effects

1:03pm: Sydney Day – 3D Facial Reconstruction from Obscured Faces using Trained Neural Networks

1:06pm: Robert Kosk – Synthesizing Space-Time Features for Ocean Heightfields Enhancement

1:09pm: Jack Brett – Gamification of Musical Learning Experiences

1:12pm: Jo Tyler – The Aurality of the Antihero  Adaptation as curation for graphic narratives

 

1:15 – 2:00 pm: Lunch FG06 (for registered attendees)

  • You are encouraged to check on the Doctoral College Live Exhibition over in Kimmeridge House during this time.

 

2:00 – 3:40pm: Panel 3 – History Repeating Itself: Broadcasting Political Tensions

Chair: TBD

2:00pm: Hua Li – Democracy in the News!

2:20pm: Sara Aly – The Dynamics of Meso-public spheres: Media Usage in Egypt during the Uprisings

2:40pm: Searchmore (Itai) Muridzo – Managing Public Service Broadcasting in Turbulent Times: A Case of Zimbabwe’s 2017 Coup

3:00pm: Ícaro Joathan – The evolution of the permanent campaign: a general review of the criteria to measure this type of strategy

3:20pm: Ian Robertson – With God on Our Side: A Comparative Study of Religious Broadcasting in the US and the UK 1921-1995: The Impact of Personality

 

3:40 – 3:50pm: Tea and Coffee and Comfort Break

 

3:50 – 5:10pm: Panel 4 – Environments of Now: Media Perspectives

Chair: Salvatore Scifo

3:50pm: Rehan Zia – Light, Time and Magic

4:10pm: Kenneth Kang – Switching around the Constants and Variables in International Environmental Law

4:30pm: Daniel Hills – Agents’ understandings, procedures and engagements with consumer emotional state as a targeting tool within the advertising industry: A Practice Theory approach

4:50pm: Siobhan Lennon-Patience – Jaywick Fights Back – Poverty Porn or Community Resilience?

 

5:10 – 5:30pm: Comfort Break and Keynote Set-up

 

5:30 – 6:30pm: Keynote – Dr. Sam Goodman

Critical Drinking: Approaches to Interdisciplinary research practice through British Beer Culture

Chair: Alexandra Alberda

UK drinking culture is currently at the height of its renaissance. The market in craft beer and spirits is buoyant, with a raft of new independent bottle shops, breweries and distilleries opening each year, whilst supermarket alcohol aisles are heaving with a range of new options as ‘Big Beer’ conglomerates try to ride the wave of this unexpected trend. The high-street pub is likewise transformed; though many rural pubs are closing as stricter legislation on drink-driving comes into force, those in urban centres have been regenerated (for good and ill) into spaces that are increasingly egalitarian when it comes to gender, though conversely exclusive in terms of class, and wealth. However, these developments and the popularity of the drinks they advocate are not as modern as they initially appear, and in fact draw on the iconography, tastes and sensibilities of the British past, especially those of the British Empire. Through focus on the interrelation between history and the present-day, this session asks pertinent questions of a significant contemporary cultural movement. It considers Britain’s various regional, national and international drinking communities past and present, and the questions around gentrification, masculine/gendered and national identities, health, well-being and excess that exist within them, as well as analysing the links between cultural history and representation within a contemporary media context.

This talk will also illustrate how the field of ‘Drink Studies’ offers a means of bridging the fluid boundaries of humanities research across a range of disciplines, and for both scholarly and public audiences. Drawing on research conducted at the British Library India Office Archive and supported by the Wellcome Trust, the talk will draw focus on the advantages of interdisciplinarity through the lens of drinking, arguing that the development of flexible theoretical approaches to traditional subjects offer researchers new ways of working within historical studies, medical humanities, and contemporary media, culture and society. In addition, the talk will be accompanied by three tasters of modern British beers that have been chosen to pair thematically with the subjects under discussion, and to illustrate that how researchers approach a subject can be as impactful as the research itself.

Dr Sam Goodman

Senior Lecturer in English & Communication, JEC (FMC)

sgoodman@bournemouth.ac.uk

@drsamgoodman

 

6:30 – 7:30pm: Reception in FG06

 

 

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN: Second Annual FMC Postgraduate Researcher Conference 2018

conferences, PG research

Firstly, we would like to take the opportunity to say thank you to all of the researchers who took the time to submit their abstracts for next month’s Second Annual FMC Postgraduate Researcher conference. The conference committee was particularly delighted to see the exceptional quality and diversity in submissions this year, and only further underlines the level of research being undertaken here in the Faculty of Media and Communication. We will respond to all applicants by Friday 9th November (today).

Conference Keynote Speaker – Dr Sam Goodman

In addition to this year’s fantastic collection of papers, we would like to say a massive thank ‘brew’ and warm welcome to our own Dr Sam Goodman, Senior Lecturer in English & Communication here in the Faculty, who will be delivering the keynote to close our conference:

Critical Drinking: Approaches to Interdisciplinary research practice through British Beer Culture (details below)

In addition to Sam’s talk, there will be a complimentary optional beer tasting, comprising of three tasters of modern British Beers that have been chosen to pair thematically with the subjects under discussion. So come along and ease the ‘ale-ments’ of researching with this fantastic closing event.

Although the tasting is free of charge to all FMC staff and postgraduates, we would kindly ask you to register as early possible, as places are limited, and it would be ‘un-beer-able’ if you were to miss out!

Registration

Registration is now open to all FMC staff and postgraduates, and can be accessed via the Conference’s Event Bright Page here:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/second-annual-fmc-postgraduate-researcher-conference-2018-tickets-51544624359

Through this link you will find registration for both the conference and the additional optional beer tasting. All of our conference speakers are required to register, so if your abstract is successful we still ask you to register (link above).  If you have any questions or queries regarding registration or the tasting please do not hesitate to email Alex: aalberda@bournemouth.ac.uk.

With a larger and more diverse line-up of papers, talks, and events than ever before, we can’t wait to see all of you at this year’s Second Annual FMC Postgraduate Researcher conference on the 5th December.

The Conference Team

Alexandra P. Alberda

Graphic Medicine and Curatorial Practice

T: @ZandraAlberda

Stephen Allard

Socio-digital Poetics

T: @fictiondissy

Melanie Brown

Copyright Law and Cultural Heritage

Mbrown@bournemouth.ac.uk

#FMCPGRcon18

Creating Impact on Business Practice and Strategy

Business Engagement, Industry collaboration

The future of YouTube was a co-created research project between Emma Parrett, Strategic Partnerships Director at OMD UK and Dr John Oliver (FMC). OMD are a strategic communications and planning agency that employs over 8,500 people in more than 120 offices globally and are the most awarded agency network in the world.

One of OMDs clients are YouTube and the challenge they faced was how to develop long-term market insight and strategic solutions in a rapidly changing media environment.The project combined imaginative and systematic thinking in a way that provided a unique insight into future media environments and how YouTube could compete using multiple strategic options.

The impact of the project and the scenario planning methodology has influenced OMD’s business practices in a number of ways. They believe that their media planning team were better able to make sense of often conflicting macro-environmental trends and are now able to find more advanced strategic insight. Additional positive outcomes were evidenced by increased usage of scenario planning, as well as staff and client understanding of a methodology which they ultimately regarded as a way of obtaining strategic solutions in a rapidly changing business environment.

Dr Oliver commented that the benefits of academics working with industry professionals to create knowledge and instrumental impact on business practices has been evidenced in this project. ​

Furthermore, the YouTube project has been written up and published in both industry and academic journals and the level of publisher downloads has run into the thousands.

The article can be accessed at: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1Wbaj1lnoC6sq

Icons and Inspirations: Alan, Tamsin and Alex

PG research, Research Integritiy, writing

Left to right: Alan Sinfield, Tamsin Wilton and Alexander Doty

Whilst researching a new Level 5 ‘Media Perspective’ unit (Life Stores and the Media) for the Department of Media Production, I decided to discuss the concept of ‘dissident reading’ within the lectures, relating the work of Alan Sinfield in this area.  In doing this, I not only checked out if our library had the relevant book Cultural Politics – Queer Reading, which we did, but also I thought that I would just check out (online) what Alan is working on now.

Alan Sinfield had been a catalyst in my research journey, as way back in 2004 when I was in the final stages of my PhD, Alan had invited me to speak at a research seminar workshop at the University of Sussex.  I remember that Alan was a little critical of my interest in the ‘carnivalesque’, but largely supportive. That seminar offered me a great experience in developing my ideas for the eventual PhD at Bournemouth, and it provided me with a much-needed psychological boost, as the PhD submission date loomed. I remember at the time I had asked Alan some probing questions regarding his new research interests. Alan’s work was fundamental in developing gay and lesbian studies in theatre and popular culture. He replied that he was working on something new, concerning ageing.  It was remiss of me to not follow up on this, despite having more contact with the University of Sussex in other areas later on, such as working with Sharif Molabocus who contributed to two of my edited collection books, and also working there as an external PhD examiner.  On searching for Alan’s latest work, I discovered that he had passed away last year, aged 75.

In thinking through my meeting with Alan in 2004, I had not realized that soon after this he would retire, as Parkinson’s disease would effect his speech.  Now I maybe understand Alan’s interest in writing about ageing, at a time when his life must have been changing.  The loss of Alan also made me think about others in the LGBT and queer studies media research community who I have met that are no longer with us.

Before I was accepted to study my PhD at Bournemouth, I had applied to the University of the West of England.  When the panel interviewed me, I met Tamsin Wilton, whose ground-breaking book was entitled Immortal, Invisible: Lesbians and the Moving Image. While I did not get the doctoral scholarship at UWE, Tamsin confided in me that her research was mostly done within her own time, suggesting that at that time the department thought her work was ‘too radical’. Tamsin passed away in 2006, only a few years after we met, and I remember thinking how much we have lost in her passing, her work was revolutionary, and she genuinely encouraged me to press on with my research, in times when LGBT studies were less popular.

Besides the loss of Alan Sinfield and Tamsin Wilton, I cannot forget the sudden loss of Alexander Doty. Similar to meeting Alan and Tamsin early in my research journey, I briefly met Alex when he was presenting at the feminist Console-ing Passions Conference in Bristol in 2001, a conference that I would eventually co-organise this year at Bournemouth. In 2001, I was studying for an MA at Bristol, and I had never been to an academic conference before, but we were required as students to help out. I remember attending Alex’s paper on the TV series Will and Grace, and I had a brief conversation with him over coffee. Somehow, I made some links between his ideas, and those that I was studying, and I am forever grateful to Alex for his work, and his non-pretentious demeanour. Although if I am honest, I was a little in awe of him, and at the time I could have never imagined that I could have published my academic work.

So I think, often we encounter inspirational researchers along the way, at conferences, seminars, symposiums, and even in interviews. For me, the loss of Alan Sinfield, Tamsin Wilton and Alex Doty, almost seems too much to bear, as clearly they had far more to offer, despite their remaining stellar work. In the manner where I discussed the legacy of Pedro Zamora (the HIV/AIDS activist) and the meaning of a life cut short, theoretical and political ideals potentially live on. Our task is not only to remember all that potential, but also to continue it in any way we can.

 

The Impact of Digital Strategy and Business Transformation

Business Engagement, Industry collaboration, Knowledge Exchange

In April 2017 Dr John Oliver co-hosted a business engagement event on Digital Strategy and Business Transformation with The Hackett Group (London). The Hackett Group are leading management consultants providing expert advice on digital transformation and benchmarking to major corporations and government agencies, including 97% of the Dow Jones Industrials, 89% of the Fortune 100 and 59% of the FTSE 100.

The event formed part of a British Academy/Leverhulme Trust funded research project and was attended by senior business executives from the likes of Ofcom, the Financial Times, Astrazeneca and Bell Pottinger. At the time, the delegates commented that it was an “excellent event” that provided different perspectives on digital transformation and new ideas on how to manage strategic digital transformation within their firms.

After 18 months, a clearer picture has emerged of the impact that the presentation of findings and subsequent discussion has had on business practice. Chris Davenport, a Senior Director at The Hackett Group, recently commented that “the event influenced our strategic approach to the development of a new Digital Strategy and Analytics service for our clients. This new consultancy service has been now been launched and several of our FTSE100 clients (among others Tesco, John Lewis and Unilever) have gained insight from this. Some of these clients have already decided to invest millions of pounds into resources creating many new jobs in Digital services and Analytics departments in their firms and we expect many more to follow”.

The research findings have been published in several practice management journals, whilst the academic papers are in the final stages of peer review.