Three-D Issue 22: MeCCSA 2014: Media and the Margins

Einar Thorsen, Daniel Jackson, Shelley Thompson & Hugh Chignell
MeCCSA 2014 Conference Comm.
Bournemouth University

 

 

The MeCCSA Annual Conference 2014 was hosted by Bournemouth University at its Talbot Campus, 8-10th January 2014. We would like to thank everyone who attended for making this such a great conference! Special thanks to those who were involved in presenting, chairing panels, and reviewing abstracts. This was a massive undertaking and we could not have done it without you!!

You can re-live highlights (photos, videos, live blogs, keynote sessions etc) from the conference via our website: https://meccsa2014.bournemouth.ac.uk

Don’t just take our word for it, here’s a brief video with reflections from delegates themselves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joyEIiON1nQ

If you have photographs or experiences you would like to share, you can still post them
on our Facebook event group (https://www.facebook.com/events/500155406711675/) or use the #MeCCSA Twitter hashtag.

Keynotes

Hugh Chignell was responsible for identifying keynotes with suggestions from others, whilst Kate Murphy acted as their main point of contact and liaison.

11 keynotes were invited to speak on themed keynote panels. In tune with the conference theme, of those invited nine were women and of the two men one was African and one African American. The relative novelty of all women panels was noted and complimented, for example by Professor Suzanne Franks in her keynote address. Feedback from delegates was extremely positive and this aspect of the conference was considered to be a success.

Two of the invited keynote speakers, Zizi Papacharissi and Zane Ibrahim, had to pull out due to illness. Since one was speaking on a panel of two it was considered necessary to invite a replacement to provide parity with the other keynote sessions. Professor Stuart Allan (at the time a member of staff at Bournemouth University) kindly stepped in at short notice and did an excellent job at pulling together the themes from the conference.

Looking forwards to future conferences the lesson of this part of the conference is that keynote panels provide a valuable buffer if individual keynote speakers drop out. All of those invited to speak had a particular interest in the conference theme or were able to respond to it effectively and this was an important part of the success of the plenary sessions.

Keynote sessions were as follows:

WELCOME ADDRESS
Tim McIntyre-Bhatty, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Bournemouth University

OPENING PLENARY (ONE):
‘Media and cultural studies – where we are now’
Sonia Livingstone, LSE
Suzanne Franks, City University
Roberta Pearson, University of Nottingham
Chair: Stephen Jukes

PLENARY TWO:
‘Media and the margins’
Daniela Berghahn, Royal Holloway, University of London
Darrell Newton, Salisbury University
Sarita Malik, Brunel University
Chair: Heather Savigny

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING & PLENARY ON OPEN ACCESS PUBLISHING
Jude England, Head of Social Sciences at the British Library

PLENARY THREE:
‘Community, local and alternative media’
Clemencia Rodriguez, University of Oklahoma
Monika Metykova, Sussex University
Chair: Stuart Allan

CLOSING PLENARY (FOUR):
‘Media and Cultural Studies, Where are we going?’
Karin Wahl-Jorgensen, Cardiff University
Stuart Allan, Bournemouth University
Chair: Iain MacRury