The Role of the Press in Political and Social Change

The Embassy of Brazil, The London School of Economics and Political Science and The University of East London cordially invite you to the seminar on the role of media in development with specific focus on its role in Brazil.

In an era of increasing commercialization of the media worldwide and rise of cynicism in politics, can the press still have a role in strengthening democracy and can it contribute to wider political change? This seminar will compare media systems from different countries and the impact on the democratic process.

Speakers

• Carolina Matos, LSE Fellow in Political Communications. Author of Journalism and Political Democracy in Brazil (Lexington 2008)
• Charlie Beckett, Director of POLIS, LSE. Author of SuperMedia: Saving Journalism So It Can Save The World.
• Ashwani Sharma, Principal Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies and Programme Leader of the MA in Global Media, UEL.

Chair

Robin Mansell, Head of Media and Communications Department at the London School of Economics

The debate will be followed by a reception and the launch of Journalism and Political Democracy in Brazil by Carolina Matos.

The event is free, but booking is essential at beth@brazil.org.uk.

...the struggle to ask meaningful questions, call governments to account and explore the ‘nerve-endings’ of the culture should be integral to television today...

Writer Alistair Beaton, whose television credits include Spitting image, Drop the Dead Donkey and The Trial of Tony Blair, investigates the role of humour in drama and questions the prevailing norms of good and bad taste, and makes a plea for comedy with a social purpose.

Booking essential as space is limited. Please RSVP to:
Sandra Borley
s.borley@lcc.arts.ac.uk
Tel: 020 7514 6806

The seminars are hosted by Pratap Rughani, Course Director for the MA in Documentary Research for Film & Television.

Drinks reception to follow.

The Ofcom review of Public Service Broadcasting closes its public consultation phase on June 19th. Join us on June 3rd for a last chance to hear from Ofcom and put your views to them direct. Senior Ofcom executive Steward Purvis will be on a panel with Patrick Barwise from the London Business School.

The VLV (Voice of the Listener and Viewer) have teamed up with Polis, the media think-tank at the London School of Economics to provide this forum. Please email us at polis@lse.ac.uk for further information and to
reserve a place as seats are limited. A reception will follow afterwards.

Relevant links:

• Ofcom: Review of Public Service Broadcasting
• PSB Review: Interactive Executive Summary
  
• Voice of the Listener & Viewer

On June 2^nd the London College of Communication will hold a debate on the future of the creative industries set to be poised for rapid growth. The focus of the debate will be on the recent Government strategy document ‘Creative Britain’, to make a difference and help turn talent into jobs. The debate will be chaired by Julia Hobsbawn, visiting professor at the LCC, with a key note speech by Estelle Morris, Former Secretary of State for Education and Skills and current Minister for the Arts.

To attend please email: j.carey@lcc.arts.ac.uk. RSVP is essential.

To find out more about the event please click here.

...the struggle to ask meaningful questions, call governments to account and explore the ‘nerve-endings’ of the culture should be integral to television today...

Peter Kosminsky is a singular voice in television drama and documentary; asking difficult questions with films including Britz (two films about being second generation Muslim in Britain today), The Government Inspector (the Dr David Kelly drama for Channel 4) and Warriors (on peace-keeping). All have won BAFTA awards. Clips from these dramas will be screened at the seminar.

Booking essential as space is limited. Please RSVP to:
Sandra Borley
s.borley@lcc.arts.ac.uk
Tel: 020 7514 6806

The seminars are hosted by Pratap Rughani, Course Director for the MA in Documentary Research for Film & Television.

In collaboration with the LSE Media Group and Innovation Forum Future Media series, POLIS will hold an event on the New new journalism, addressing the changing position of journalism in society and the new possibilities presented by technology and design with, Director of POLIS, Charlie Beckett speaking.

The event will focus on informal debate and discussion, and the participation of attendees will be critical.

As participation is restricted to 50 people, please book early if you want to take part. To book a ticket or to find out more information please click here.

Panelists

Charlie Beckett, Founding Director, POLIS

Charlie Beckett is the founding director of POLIS , the thinktank for research and debate into international journalism and society, a joint initiative between the LSE Media and Communications Department and the London College of Communication. POLIS hosts public lectures and seminars for journalists and the public. It runs Fellowship and Research programmes, and publishes reports on a range of topics including new media and journalism, media and development, financial journalism, and public service broadcasting. Becket has been a programme editor at ITN’s Channel 4 News, and a film-maker and programme editor at BBC News and Current affairs. He was also a Reuters Fellow at Oxford University, where he wrote a field-work based paper on New Technology and Journalism in Uganda. Beckett’s book SuperMedia: Saving Journalism So It Can Save the World is published by Blackwell on 20 May. It describes the crisis facing mainstream journalism and argues that ‘professional’ journalism must be transformed through the integration of the public into the production and dissemination of news.

Tessa Mayes, Campaigning investigative journalist

Tessa Mayes is a campaigning investigative journalist based in London and New York. Her investigations cover subjects ranging from pressures on illegal immigrants in prostitution to problems with the UK criminal justice system. Mayes’s reports have been broadcast on or appeared in: BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Five, the Spectator, The Sunday Times, the Guardian and spiked-online. She has written and spoken on legal, political and media issues and appears on CNN as a commentator. Mayes also campaigns in favour of free speech.

Bill Thompson, Journalist, commentator and technology critic

New media pioneer Bill Thompson is a journalist, commentator and technology critic based in Cambridge. He has been working in, on and around the Internet since 1984. He currently writes a weekly column for the technology section of the BBC News site, and contributes to other publications, both on and off-line, including the Guardian, The Register and the New Statesman. He writes a monthly column for new ’net users for BBC WebWise, and a technology column for Focus magazine. Bill appears weekly on Digital Planet (formerly Go Digital) on the BBC World Service and occasionally on other BBC radio and television programmes. Bill is a visiting lecturer at City University where he teaches Online Journalism in the Journalism and Publishing department, and is an external editor for openDemocracy.net. 

Julia Whitney, Head of Design & User Experience, Journalism, BBC Future Media & Technology

Julia Whitney is responsible for the design and user experience for BBC News, Sport and Weather on digital platforms. Before joining the BBC Julia was Director of Interactive Design at WGBH in Boston, a national producer of public service media for PBS. She received a BA in Mathematics from Brown University and an MFA in Graphic Design from Yale University, where she later taught graduate level interaction design.

Source: Innovation Forum

Chaired by LSE Professor. Mary Kaldor. Award–winning international journalist Misha Glenny will talk about his intrepid investigations into the world of transnational organised crime in his new book, McMafia: Crime without frontiers. It reveals how conventional policing cannot cope with globalised crime corrupting governments and how it is fuelling human rights abuses. Glenny offers an insight into the pitfalls of a globalisation where the rules dividing the legal from the illegal are often far from clear.

To reserve a seat, please email polis@lse.ac.uk

We're also hosting private seminars and conferences on a number of different issues including credibility and the media, politics and the media in South East Europe and the future of consumer publishing in Europe. If you're interested in any of these themes please contact us.

In the light of the recent revival of the cartoons controversy in Denmark and Western Europe, this talk will be addressing issues of free speech and the public-private divide through the question of images. The aim is to philosophize the twin and perhaps irreconcilable problems of free expression and moral degradation.

This debate, in partnership with the Gender Institute, will ask why, despite the increased number of women in the profession, many still accuse the media of not getting the gender balance right. As women become increasingly powerful in the news media, is journalism ‘female friendly’ or are women still repressed by the press? Confirmed speakers: Rosalind Gill, Professor of Social Psychology and Cultural Theory at the Open University and Samira Ahmed, Channel 4 News presenter.

Sir John Tusa is the Chairman of the University of the Arts of London. As Managing Director of the Barbican he revolutionised its arts programme. He had a long and distinguished career prior to that as a BBC presenter and Managing Director of the BBC World Service. He is a passionate defender of publicly-supported arts:

"Why is the demand for justification of the arts so often accompanied by the implied slur that those in the arts are engaged in a selfish activity? All the evidence points to widespread use made of the arts, the overwhelming support for their funding and the enjoyment that they bring. Why is so much overt public debate founded apparently on … wilfully false assumptions?" (The Times, April 17 th)

Panellists including PR expert Justine McGuiness, McCanns spokesperson Clarence Mitchell, media commentator Roy Greenslade, McCanns documentary maker David Mills, Dispatches Executive Producer Roger Graef and former Sun Editor Kelvin MacKenzie discussed their views on the McCanns story and the media phenomenon that surrounds it. The debate was chaired by columnist and broadcaster Steve Hewlett.

A podcast is available by clicking here.

The LSE's Professor Sonia Livingstone gave a recent lecture on the impact of children's media. To read her speech.

click here. To listen to the podcast click here.

Debate in partnership with the BBC Chinese Service. The event - held primarily in Chinese - was webcast via the BBC Chinese Service: for more details click here.

Head of Ofcom Ed Richards spoke on the Future of Broadcasting, in conversation with Damian Tambini.
To listen to the podcast of this event, click here.

Intelligence and the media - can we trust journalists with public security? Drawing on his experience as Head of SIS during 9/11 and the intervention in Iraq, Sir Richard Dearlove will examine the relationship between the intelligence services and the media: can we trust journalists with our safety and security?

Dearlove made headlines on the Today programme, BBC News, the Guardian, the Times, and the Mirror.

Media and democracy in post-Putin Russia - has the death of press freedom been exaggerated? A year on from Anna Politkovskaya's death, this debate asked who is to blame for the current state of the Russian media? Can press freedom be revived? The debate was chaired by Margot Light (LSE), with panellists including Edward Lucas (The Economist), OSCE Freedom of the Media representative Miklos Haraszti, Russian news agency Novosti's Pavel Andreev and Russia Today's Darya Pushkova.

The debate was highly controversial. If you missed it, click here for the podcast. To read what POLIS thought click here. Edward Lucas continued the debate on the Guardian's Comment is Free and Pavel Andreev blogged for The Telegraph. Nick Cohen also covered the event for The Observer.

Former LSE student Shrenik Rao launched his new documentary giving the inside story on Zimbabwe. The screening was followed by a panel debate on freedom of expression and human rights in Zimbabwe. For more information on Shrenik Rao, click here. The podcast of the event is now available here. click here to see the video

Can we still trust TV? The box in the dock. Speakers: Former chief executive of Channel Five David Elstein, media lawyer Mark Stephens, former controller of editorial policy at the BBC Stephen Whittle, documentary maker Paul Watson, Daily Telegraph TV Editor Neil Midgley and former BBC controller of editorial policy Phil Harding. Chair: Roger Bolton, presenter of Sunday and Feedback on Radio 4.

This event was held in partnership with the Media Society and the LSE Media Group. For more details click here.

To download the podcast of the debate click here.

The Future of Impartiality - is the public service ethos doomed? BBC critic Richard D North, The Guardian's Emily Bell, and the BBC's Economic Editor Evan Davis joined Roger Bolton to debate whether it is possible to regulate for impartiality in a post- 2012 world. For the podcast, click here.

This event is being held in partnership with the BBC College of Journalism.

The Iraq Commission: the Press and Public response. POLIS hosted the first public and press debate on the findings of the Iraq Commission, the independent cross-party body that will produce recommendations on the future of Britain's role in Iraq, run by Channel 4 and the Foreign Policy Centre. A recording will be made available via the LSE Event podcasts website.

Reporting Muslims and Extremism. The latest POLIS seminar, with leading Muslim figures, to debate how the media reports issues around public security and community cohesion. Click here for the report.

Development Governance and the Media: The role of the media in building African society. POLIS launched the report of the March conference with a panel debate and drinks reception at the LSE. Podcast available here.

Future of News Seminars - last of four private seminars bringing together leading New Media thinkers with high-level media executives to brainstorm the future of journalism. Click here to read the report.

Charlie Beckett delivered a presentation on press freedom at the UNESCO World Press Freedom Day debate.

Future of News Seminars - Third of four private seminars bringing together leading New Media thinkers with high-level media executives to brainstorm the future of journalism. Click here to read the report.

Development Governance and the Media: The role of the media in building African society. POLIS held a high-level conference bringing together academics, policy makers, donors and media practitioners to explore the role of the media in the DfID ‘Making Governance Work for the Poor’ agenda, in light of the July 2006 white paper.

Charlie Beckett delivered a presentation on Ethnicity and the Media at the Westminster Media Forum Seminar. Click here to read what was said.

Second of four private seminars bringing together leading New Media thinkers with high-level media executives to brainstorm the future of journalism.

The Annual Hugh Cudlipp lecture at the London College of Communication - Paul Dacre, Editor in Chief, Associated Newspapers

Allan Thompson launched his latest book on The Media and the Rwandan Genocide, the first book to explore both the international and local dimensions of the media equation. Allan Thompson's presentation was followed by a panel debate with James Putzel, LSE, Linda Melvern, author and investigative journalist, and Richard Dowden, Director of the Royal African Society.

This event was held in partnership with the Crisis States Research Centre.

A full transcript is now available.

POLIS Director Charlie Beckett presented a BBC Radio 4 Analysis documentary on reporting Muslims in Britain. You can view the transcript here and listen via Radio 4's website. And we always welcome your feedback - contact us here.

First of four private seminars bringing together leading New Media thinkers with high-level media executives to brainstorm the future of journalism.

The News We Deserve Lecture Series - Sir Christopher Meyer, Chairman, Press Complaints Commission: Protecting the Press or the People?

For details of what was said refer to our press release.
For the POLIS Director's reaction check out the weblog.
Here is what The Guardian had to say about the lecture.
A podcast is also now available. And you can watch the video highlights too.

David Lammy's speech is available here. The podcast is also now available.

This event was covered by The Guardian and the Press Gazette.

A panel of leading academics and journalists will discussed before a public audience the ideas and implications for journalism and media studies of the posthumously published Media and Morality by the late Professor Roger Silverstone. Charlie Beckett, Professor Lilie Chouliaraki, Professor Stan Cohen, Daniel Dayan, Richard Sambrook, Robin Mansell (Chair): Morality and Media in the 21st Century

Charlie Beckett's speech is available here, and please click here for a full podcast of the event.

The News We Deserve Lecture Series - Yosri Fouda, Chief Investigative Correspondent, Al Jazeera: Al Jazeera - A Different Voice in the World?

For Charlie Beckett's reaction, go to the Director's weblog.

Here is the transcript for Yosri Fouda's lecture. We hope that a podcast will be available shortly.

Reporting Seminar - Killing Journalism conference on journalist safety in conflict zones followed by a public debate on Reporting War. Sir Malcolm Rifkind MP, Adrian Wells (Sky News), David Loyn (BBC), Charlie Beckett (Chair): Killing Journalism?

For Charlie Beckett's reaction, go to the Director's weblog.

To listen to the lecture download our podcast. For the moment this is just a partial version, but we are working on it - and hope to supply full podcasts for future events.

The public debate was covered by the Press Gazette and The Guardian.

Charles Clarke gave the inaugural POLIS lecture at the LSE. See POLIS lecture - Charles Clarke to speak at LSE for details of his speech and the reaction in the press.