Events
The state of local news: Bright future or dark times?
The Centre for Research on Communities and Cultures is holding a public event on 25 January to explore the state of local news.
The event starting at 3pm Canterbury Christ Church University’s Canterbury campus, Powell Building has been organised by academics from Christ Church’s School of Media, Art and Design.
Lead organiser Professor Agnes Gulyas, Reader in Digital Transformations, said:
“There are those who say local news is dead. Yet more people than ever are engaging with the digital offering of their legacy publishers and we see huge amounts of engagement in community issues on social media.The Canterbury Residents’ Group, for example, has 15,000 members and is a constant stream of local news, debate and discussion. We want to explore the state of local news in this event with those working in journalism, the wider media industry and, of course, the public.”
Speakers at the event include KM Group editorial director Ian Carter, Will Roffey from the BBC, Tony Green from ITV , Keith Magnum from Hackney Citizen, Kathy Bailes - Isle of Thanet News, Edd Withers - Canterbury Resident FacebookGroup ; as well as Canterbury City Council head of communications Leo Whitlock, Sarah Munday - Marlowe Theatre, Eleanor Sheath - Pilgrims Hospice, Mark Cowland from Catching Lives, Andrew Metcalf from Maxim PR and Canterbury City Councillor Simon Cook.
They will consider questions such as:
- What is local news in the digital age? Is local news dead or stronger than ever?
- What are the key challenges currently for local news and media?
- Does online local news serve the communities better than traditional forms?
- Are local media today better at holding local power to account compared to twenty years ago?
- Who are local media in the digital age? Are social media local media?
The event is free however organisers have asked those interested to register for catering purposes.
'The state of local news: Bright future or dark times?' will see senior journalists, media professionals and key stakeholders consider the role of local and regional journalism today in two round-table discussions.
Beneath the Mask: Artists, Archives and A/Gender
Several of the School of Media, Art and Design’s research centres and researchers will be contributing to an event at the Sidney Cooper Gallery.
Beneath the Mask: Artists, Archives and A/Gender will provide an exciting day of events, exhibitions and spectacle prompted by Claude Cahun‘s exploration of identities and masking.
Throughout the day and with an eclectic and playful mix of presentation and performance, Artists, Archives and A/Gender will explore concepts of identity and masquerade.
Curatorial walk/talks; authors and artists in conversations; poetry and performance will shape the day, providing a plurality of perspectives and an opportunity to enter into dynamic dialogue and discussion.
This one-day event is in partnership with UAL’s Photography and the Archive Research Centre‘s ‘Moose on the Loose’ Festival. Contributions from a number of CCCU’s centres for research will include: the Centre for Research on Communities and Cultures; the Intersectional Centre for Inclusion and Social Justice (INCISE); the Centre for Practice-Based Research in the Arts and the South East Archive of Seaside (SEAS) Photography.
Note that this event will include adult content and themes.
Arcades, Archives and our Coastal Communities
Speakers: Alan Meades Karen Shepherdson (CCCU / Centre for Research on Communities Cultures)
- WHEN: Wednesday 16 November 2016
- TIME: 4.15pm-5.30pm
- WHERE: Cg09, CCCU, Broadstairs Campus
This presentation explores how the recent George Wilson photographic acquisition to the South East Archive of Seaside (SEAS) Photography has acted as potent catalyst for two strands of coastal community research, engagement and dialogue.
The research undertaken by Meades and Shepherdson focuses specifically upon the UK’s South East seaside amusement arcades and the personal memories/narrative histories of those who have inhabited these social spaces at the waters' edge. The findings to date highlight the rich heritage and cultural importance that seaside amusement arcades have had upon coastal communities, particularly youth culture from the 1960s to the present day.
The richly illustrated presentation will examine two inter-related strands of research:
- the archiving, cataloguing and making public a rare, authored photographic collection of the south east's seaside arcades. A collection that excitingly denotes the play and complex social interactions which take place in these often marginalised public spaces right on the coastline
- the locating, collating and transforming into graphic-comic form the overlooked oral narrative histories of those who have used and occupied our seaside amusement arcades.
karen.shepherdson@canterbury.ac.uk
How to build an engaged community through social media?
Webinar and one-to-one surgery for small non-profit organisations
8th July 2016
You are cordially invited to a free online webinar and/or a one-to-one online (or phone) surgery about how small non-profits can use social media to build an engaged community. The sessions will be run by Kirsty Marrins, social media consultant for the third sector, from Platypus Digital. You will learn about:
- How to plan content that engages your audience
- How to plan social media into your day-to-day work
- How to measure your success
Both the webinar and the one-to-one surgeries are free but pre registration is required. The webinar will start at 10:00 am (GMT) on the 8th July. To register please email Aurora Patera aurora.patera@gmail.com
This workshop is organised by Dr Agnes Gulyas, Centre for Research on Communities and Culture, School of Media, Art and Design, Canterbury Christ Church University as part of a study on social media adoption in the third sector. For further information about the events or about the project, please contact: agnes.gulyas@canterbury.ac.uk
We look forward seeing you on the call!
Social Media and Small Non-Profit Organisations: Practical Solutions and Policy Recommendations
- Workshop and stakeholder event for small non-profit organisations 16 December 2015, 9:00 - 14:00
Please join us at this event, where we will offer practical advice about social media use in small non-profit organisations. Participants will have a chance for one-to-one surgery with an experienced consultant who specialises advising non-profits about communication and social media use. The event will include short presentations, discussion and workshop type activities as well as one-to-one surgeries. The discussion will include exploring policy recommendations for stakeholders about how to support small non-profits in their social media adoption.
Presentations will include:
- Jane Redman/Jo Dawes (Porchlight) on how Porchlight has developed their social media use
- Stephanie Hayman (Chequers Kitchen) on how her social enterprise has adopted social media
- Sarah Fox (People United) on the successes and problems her small non-profit have experienced with social media
- Matt Collins Platypus Digital , digital marketing agency working with non-profits: on the opportunities social media offer for small non-profits
- Gemma Pettman (communication and fundraising consultant working with non-profits) on how to cope when social media turns bad
- Alex Krutnik (Canterbury and Herne Bay Volunteer Centre) offering a stakeholder perspective
- Agnes Gulyas (Canterbury Christ Church University) on findings of her research on how small non-profits use social media
SALT: Festival of the Sea and Environment
The Centre’s co-director Karen Shepherdson has been invited to co-curate this three day festival with Folkestone Quaterhouse and Folkestone Fringe. The Festival includes talks, workshops, installations, shows and exhibitions all exploring the unique coastal environment of this region, the communities it sustains and considers what the future might hold.
Centre for Research on Communities and Cultures Event: JOINING THE DOTS - Networks, Connections and Gatherings
- WHEN: Wednesday October 14th 2015, 4-6pm
- WHERE: Pf06
The Centre for Research is just over a year old and yet already producing some meaningful and high quality research - we are interested in seeing how researchers in the field - yet external to the University or the School - might provoke new thinking, meaningful connections, collaborations and consider further how being part of a national network might enhance research within the School and Centre'.
At this forthcoming event Professor Owen Evans and Dr Paddy Hoey from Edge Hill University, along with Tristi Brownett (CCCU’s School of Public Health, Midwifery & Social Work), will be presenting their current research orbiting around communities/cultures and how a developing national network in this field might have salience to and connections with CCCU.
Following short and dynamic presentations there will be a 'round table' discussion where points of connection can be highlighted and forged along with areas of debate and contention explored.
Our Speakers:
Prof Owen Evans : Breaking Out of the Temples of Culture: Exploring Arts, Health and Wellbeing Initiatives in the Community.
Owen Evans is Professor of Film in the Department of Media at Edge Hill University. His research interests embrace German film, literature, history and culture, European cinema, festivals, arts, health and wellbeing, autobiography, and the representation of history and cultural memory on screen. He has published widely on German literature and film, especially work from the former GDR and autobiography, and his most recent monograph is entitled Mapping the Contours of Oppression: Subjectivity, Truth and Fiction in Recent German Autobiographical Treatments of Totalitarianism (Rodopi, 2006). His recent research focus has been on the representation of history and memory in European cinema, in a series of articles and chapters. He is currently working on a monograph on German cinema since 2000, as well as a chapter on the work of Humphrey Jennings and deepening his interest in the social capital of film and arts festivals, having forged a relationship with the Ann Arbor Film Festival, the oldest independent, experimental and avant-garde film festival in the United States, and the Whitstable Biennale in Kent.
He has won major research grants from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the British Academy and the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service). He is a co-founding director of the European Cinema Research Forum (ECRF), as well as a co-founding editor of the international journals Studies in European Cinema and the Journal of Popular European Culture , and sits on the advisory board of the new Modern Languages Open journal and The International Journal of the Image . He is also a member of the AHRC’s Peer Review College.
Dr Paddy Hoey : Community Media for Activists: what do activists want and what do communities need?
Paddy Hoey lectures in media at Edge Hill University and his research interests are in the areas of activist media, mediated politics, the public sphere and the internet, social media, Northern Irish politics and Irish republican activism. His wider interests lie in the analysis of the effects of citizen and activist journalism on the public sphere, the development of new political identities online and political communication. He has published articles on Irish republican and loyalist activist media for N ew Hibernia Review , Cambridge Scholars Press, Kritika Kultura and University of Manchester Press.
Ms Tristi Brownett : Community Arts and Cultural Festivals – Connection, Identity and Space as Contributors to Health and Wellbeing.
Tristi is an occupational health nurse and public health specialist practitioner and now lectures in Public Health and Health Promotion at CCCU. Having worked in a variety of publicly and privately owned settings for the past 21 years, she explores how wellbeing can be achieved and measured. Tristi’s research examines the role of Urban Arts and Culture Festivals in promoting a sense of identity, community and connectedness for wellbeing.
The Centre for Research on Communities and Cultures 2015 Review
An invitation to attend the first review event of the School of MAD's Centre for Research on Communities and Cultures to be held on June 9th 2015. We do hope you can join us as we not only have an excellent external speaker in Damian Radcliffe, but the morning offers opportunity to see work undertaken to date and also how the Centre can support future research projects.
- WHEN: June 9th 2015, 9.00-Noon
- WHERE: pg06
Speakers:
Keynote: Damian Radcliffe, Honorary Research Fellow, Cardiff University: ‘How can hyperlocal media create active and digitally inclusive communities?’
Damian is a journalist and researcher specializing in hyperlocal and community journalism as well as wider trends in social media and technology.
The Centre Looking Back/Thinking Forward with Distilled Project Presentations from Current Centre Members:
Ágnes Guylás – Social Media & Community Volunteering
Alan Meades – Arcade Cultures & Heritage
Rob Ball – Dreamlands
Karen Shepherdson – SEAS Photography
Seabathers: Reflections and Responses
- May 24th 2015 Turner Contemporary Gallery and Walpole Bay Tidal Pool.
An exciting day of events that reflected and responded to sea swimming. The event included a presentation by sea swimming cultural historian Susie Parr and artist talks and presentations by Emma Critchley and Karen Shepherdson. A Camera Obscura and a Tintype portrait studio were open at Walpole Bay tidal pool throughout the day. The event was a great success with every ticket sold.
Illustrated Research Presentation by Karen Shepherdson
Communities, Cultures and The Old Lookout Gallery: A Case Study for Community Engagement & Practice-Based Research
In March 2015 the Centre for Research on Communities and Cultures presented this illustrated research presentation. Karen examined how the unlikely site of a C18 fisherman’s ‘lookout’ on Broadstairs Jetty became a recognised place for contemporary practice-based research and a location where a plurality of communities engage with the arts.
The Old Lookout provides artist residencies, art events, spectacle and exhibitions and has cultivated a brand rooted in the specificity of place and space. But for this to be sustainable a commitment to the place and to the communities that inhabit and access this place had to be made manifest.
The research presentation examined how this is being achieved, the challenges faced, how the Old Lookout has been funded and how the future of this site might be shaped and indeed be dependent upon current researchers.
'What is Community?' Research Seminar by Ágnes Gulyás
As the first seminar event of the Centre for Research on Communities and Cultures Ágnes explored the notion of 'community' and provided an overview of the historical development of the term. The seminar examined different definitions, the similarities and differences between them. Emphasis was given on how understandings of 'community' have changed as a result of new communication forms and digital transformation. The talk also explored different typologies of communities and methodological considerations.