Research programmes Media, Culture and Creative Technologies Research Group

Members of the Media, Culture and Creative Technologies Research Group are involved in several long-term research projects: 

• Worker Writers and Community Publishers (lead: Professor Jenny Harding) 
• Lost Trades of Islington (lead: Professor Jenny Harding) 
• Musical MC2 (lead: Dr Karen McNally) 
• ACI Lab (lead: Fiona French)

These programmes involve partnerships with academics from other universities in the UK, EU and US, as well as community-based organisations. They span several areas of interest: radio, community media, life histories, digital culture and community engagement.  

Currently we are supervising six PhD students. 

Pilot work: BAME voices in audio spaces

We are currently conducting a four-month pilot study, financed by the University’s Rescaling Fund, to explore the presence and absence of BAME (Black, Asian and minority ethnic) opinion and voice in speech radio programming. Two students, Wally Mbassi and Bukky Fadipe, are working with us on a sample of audio spaces to examine: 

• the extent of BAME presence and absence on air; obstacles to the inclusion of BAME voices on air (in front of and behind the mic)
• where and how are BAME voices are included
• whether and how pigeonholing or stereotyping might occur

This research provides a platform for the development of a larger project by Jenny Harding, Peter Lewis and Anne Karpf on The Production of Ordinary Voices on Air under the auspices of the Centre for Life Writing and Oral History (CLiOH).