A Conference to Evaluate 75 Years of BBC Overseas Broadcasting
Dear HumanDHS network friends
Please find below information on a conference on BBC overseas broadcasting.
Kind regards
Brian Ward
International Broadcasting, Public Diplomacy and Cultural Exchange
A conference to evaluate 75 years of BBC overseas broadcasting
18-19 December 2007, Brunei Gallery, School of Oriental and African Studies, London
This conference brings together academics and broadcasters, writers, producers and media policy makers, in order to debate the past legacy and future directions of British overseas broadcasting.
Through the prism of the BBC World Service (and its international broadcasting rivals) we address crucial issues for political, technological and socio-cultural change, such as: national perspectives and cosmopolitanism; objectivity and cultural relativism; freedom of expression; public and cultural diplomacy; diasporic cultures and transnational communication; media and development.
Since 1932 the BBC (then known as the Empire Service) has been broadcasting to many parts of the world, in up to 44 languages. What is now known as the BBC World Service (BBCWS) is widely respected and trusted, even though it is funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, ostensibly to promote British interests and perspectives abroad. BBC journalists have continually fought to protect their editorial independence.
BBCWS has long been a major employer of exilic, dissident writers. Displaced populations (refugees and other diasporas) are significant among its audiences. BBCWS can therefore be considered as a multi-diasporic ‘contact zone’ where politics and creativity merge – sometimes with unintended consequences.
Over this two-day conference, 50 papers will be presented by speakers from the UK and around the world. Among the confirmed contributors: Nigel Chapman, Behrouz Afagh, Nick Cull, Ali Fisher, Simon Derry, Graham Mytton, Igor Pomeranzev, Hosam el Sokkari, Gwyneth Williams, Jerry Timmins, Jean Seaton, Paddy Scannell, Philip Seib, Andrew Taussig, Jolyon Welsh and Zinovy Zinik.
Registration fees (inclusive of lunch): Full £50, Concessions £25.
Please use the attached conference booking form.
Deadline for registration is 12 December 2007.
To pay by credit card, use the attached credit card form. Do not e-mail us the card details as this may not be safe. Please either post or fax the form to us.
For further information please see http://www.open.ac.uk/socialsciences/diasporas/
http://www.cresc.ac.uk/events/forthcoming.html or contact CRESC@manchester.ac.uk
This Conference is supported by the AHRC project ‘Tuning In: Diasporic Contact Zones at BBC World Service’ at the Open University, the ESRC Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change at the University of Manchester and the Open University, and the Centre for Media and Film Studies at SOAS