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University of the West of England (UWE), Bristol
Thursday 12th and Friday 13th July 2007
> Click here to view the detailed programme overview (online)
> Click here to download the detailed programme overview (pdf)
Conference Programme - Abstracts
Panel 19: Citizens, Interaction and the Public Interest
Chair: Dr Lee Salter
The citizen producer
Jo Henderson, Institute of Education
user-generated content, first person narrative, self-documentation
Alongside audience or user generated content, ‘citizen producer’ is a term generated from new media discourse, although the practice is neither new nor exclusive to digital media. The term refers to the amateur producer of raw material that becomes assimilated into the mass media. The notion of citizenship is implied by the relationship with the mainstream media rather than by any ideological position the producer might occupy. This paper examines the range of contemporary video practices that the term incorporates and focuses specifically on my doctoral research into the BBC’s cross-platform project Video Nation. I identify institutional motivations for this form of cultural production and outline the tradition within the BBC of the representation of ‘ordinary people. Through textual analysis I look at ways in which specific participants have chosen to construct themselves and highlight potential tensions between the institution and themselves. I conclude by suggesting frameworks from which we might read these ‘embodied first-person narratives’
(Dovey 2000) and what they may say in relation to identity and representation.
Secrets and spies: national security and the public interest
Julie-ann Davies, University of Strathclyde
qualitative, sociology, media, democracy, secrecy
This paper investigates the role of unauthorised disclosures from within the British Intelligence and Security agencies and analyses their impact on the public interest and democracy. By interviewing National Security whistleblowers, and the journalists who broke their stories, this research provides a deep and holistic perspective on several case studies. Bourdieu’s theory of Habitus is used to examine the differing priorities of both parties and explore both sides of the journalist/ source relationship.
This research finds that there exists in British Government an over-zealous reflex of secrecy that is corrosive to the public interest and damaging to democracy. In such an environment whistleblowers serve as an essential check and balance on the actions of Government by providing information essential to public debate and voter choice that would otherwise be unavailable.
The qualitative data upon which this research was founded was gathered from a series of open-ended face-to-face interviews with journalists and ex-employees of MI5, GCHQ and other branches of Military Intelligence. This research project was undertaken as a dissertation project for the MRes in Social Research at the University of Strathclyde in 2006.
Politicians interacting with citizens - An interpersonal perspective for democracy
Minna Finstad, University of Tampere (Finland)
politician-citizen interaction, interaction competence, interpersonal interaction, democracy
Democracy and the relationships between politicians and citizens are much studied subjects. Anyhow, rather little attention is given to the perspective of interpersonal interaction in this context. The purpose of this paper is to discuss this relationship from the interaction perspective in the context of Finnish representative democracy. The politicians’ viewpoint is the special interest of this study.
In many studies, which deal with the quality of modern democracy, the lack of interaction between citizens and their representatives is undoubtedly regarded as a threat, but in most cases practical means to support the interaction are not discussed carefully. Communication and interaction competence of politicians is an important but unstudied subject relevant to this theme. The central goal of this paper is hereby to introduce and debate what kind of interaction competence politicians consider relevant when interacting with citizens, and how do politicians themselves reflect and evaluate their personal performance. Interaction competence is here seen as politicians’ ability to stimulate dialogue and create a productive environment for democratic deliberation and citizen participation. Therefore another central goal is to scrutinize what actually are the motives, motivation and abilities of politicians to interact with citizens
This paper is related to my PhD study. The findings are based on theoretical analysis of literature and qualitative interviews of 12 Finnish municipal politicians and representatives. The politicians’ viewpoint is the special interest of this study.
Panel 1: Imperialism and Globalisation
Panel 2: Online Citizens and Democracy
Panel 3: Television Audiences
Panel 4: Mediating Identity 1
Panel 5: Reporting the Conflict
Panel 6: Journalism and Social Responsibility
Panel 7: Sexual Representations in Cinema
Panel 8: Popular Culture
Panel 9: Still Image
Panel 10: Branding, Advertising and Corporate Cultures
Panel 11: Film and Theatre
Panel 12: Alternative Film
Panel 13: Feminism, Gender and Identity
Panel 14: Fan Culture and Online Audiences
Panel 15: Public Service Broadcasting and Radio
Panel 16: Design for Screen
Panel 17: Uses of Music and Sound in Film
Panel 18: Mediating Identity 2
Panel 19: Citizens, Interaction and the Public Interest
Note: Please be aware that the programme might be subject to changes. Please refer back to this page for a final programme overview nearer the conference. The final programme will also be communicated to delegates via email.
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