[Air-L] Small Media Initiative: Rethinking small media at SOAS, University of London on 6-7 October 2012

[Klara Chlupata]

*Dear All,

The Centre for Media and Film Studies, School of Arts at the School of
Oriental and African Studies invites you to join the Small Media Initiative
for its second conference, Rethinking small media, to take place at the
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London on 6-7 October
2012.

Much has been happening in the terrain of small media and political change,
from the Arab Spring to the Occupy movements and more, and much has already
been written and discussed. We want to use this event to think with, and
through, unanswered questions and perhaps pose some more.

In the debates about the potential for digital connectivity and new media
to enhance or alter politics, the debates appear frozen around immovable
binaries, such as:

theory versus practice
small versus big media
space versus place
change versus continuity
old/new social movements versus new/old social movements
control versus circumvention

Given their longevity, perhaps these binaries are significant, but we
neither expect to erase nor to resolve them. Instead we aim to explore why
they are so intractable and focus on the issues they raise, helping us to
define and perhaps better answer the important questions of the day:


­‐ What are the specific affordances of face-to-face politics and of new
media politics and how/when can they complement each other?

­‐ What are the characteristics of old social movements and the new; what
might each learn from the other and which are most successful at achieving
their aims?

­‐ How are small media echoed and elaborated by big media, and how can
their inter-relationships be fostered?

­‐ What kinds of regimes of control are currently operative and how can and
do activists and publics circumvent the circumvenors?

Each of these four issues will be addressed by a pair of speakers who come
from different regimes of practice (academe, journalism, activism,
technology) and their papers further interrogated by a third.

Confirmed panelists include:

Jérémie Bédard-Wien (Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante,
Québec)
Paolo Gerbaudo (King’s College London)
Pooneh Ghoddoosi (BBC)
Joss Hands (Anglia Ruskin University)
Gus Hosein (Privacy International)
Timothy Jordan (King’s College London)
Anastasia Kavada (University of Westminster)
Oliver Leistert (University Paderborn/Central European University)
Sameer Padania (Open Society Foundation-London)
Federico Prando (Autistici/Inventati)
Annabelle Sreberny (SOAS, University of London)
Gillian Youngs (University of Brighton)

Tickets: £30 at rethinkingsmallmedia.eventbrite.co.uk from 10 September 2012
(Tickets include conference materials, breakfasts, lunches and a drinks
reception)

In partnership with Index on Censorship, the International Association for
Media and Communication Research and Internet Sans Frontieres.

For more information about the Small Media Initiative and this event,
please visit www.smallmediainitiative.com.


All best,

Klara Chlupata
on behalf of the Small Media Initiative*