MEDIA MAGAZINE CONFERENCE - 26/01/17 notes - FRIENDS HOUSE

How to be creative- 7 tips from the front line by Tim Clague 

1. Volunteer - You'll always be rewarded
2. Circles - in the creative industry the task is given and you must do it in a set time, therefore its always about the approach. 
3. Beachcombing -always note down your ideas, keep them safe, explore them further, but never force it, be ready for when you get the idea in full, share it then use it
4. No one comes from nowhere - you will need your contacts 
5. Put everything into everything (but life isn't a meritocracy - luck is also involved)
6. Don't wait to be invited to the dance (but beware the Doppler effect) - do what you want and do it your own way
7. The day after you finish, what do you do? - you live in the now but remember "your career has already started"

Contact:

www.timclague.com 

An interview with Cucklefish Games by Rosie Ball 

• "create whole worlds"
• "tell stories about anything" 
• audience knowledge is important - what do they want, find it out 
• studyvally game example 
• colour pallet 
• characters 
• mock-ups
• logo 
• idea and acceptance 
• theme
• coding 
• producer - organisation and structure work 

Sports Journalism by Leon Mann 

About him:

• casual dress whilst still being cautious to the environment 
• "welcome to the future" 
• doing things differently 
• respecting structure but also respectfully challenging it too (slowly) 
• tell story in own way 

Tips: 

• Seek new information - 3 pieces 
• Be prepared
• Be yourself 
• Believe in yourself  

Diversity: 

• Ethnicity and women 
• "sports media has a lack of diversity" 
• Positionally and perspective similarly limits perspective of storytelling 
• Diversity offers a better range of opinions and perspectives

BCOMS:

• Black collective of media in sports 
• networking, mentoring, lobbying, support network 
• D word conferences 
• "if we don't have a conversation, things wont change" 
• organic change will be too slow 
• influence the decision makers like the bosses and CEOs

Main messages:

• Be the change 
• value diversity 
• challenge respectfully 
• stay true to your own values
• an accent is a good thing
• don't change the way you speak - only clarity 
• wants to explore mixed race identity 

Contact:

leon@leonmann.co.uk 

Young Filmmakes panel 

• Florence winter Hill - Sway (THE MOST AESTHETICALLY PLEASING THING EVER)
• Rebecca Gosnell 
• Nathan Wilkes - Disney - promotions team assistant 
• NFTS

Lessons/Tips: 

• do the best you can
• but don't be a perfectionist 
• dedicate as much time possible 
• failure and mistakes are okay and part of the process 
• your learning - "shutup and make it" 

Young people, media and democracy by Shakuntala Banaji 

Key words 

• trust 
• good or bad 
• voting 
• brexit 
• digital generation 

Theoretical questions 

• 15-25 year olds 
• dont vote, apathetic, addicted to phones and games, disaffection from all civil sciences 
• doing it a different way, radicalization, extremism, websites 
• 'crisis' of participation and democratic 

sociopolitical context 

• increasing control of all media by a few corporations with political interests
• method: gaining news, 'free' newspapers 

economic crisis 

• vicious spending cuts 
• media narratives of scarcity and nationalism 

social, cultural, economic and institutional racism 

• EU - institutional strategies of appeasement 
• right wing media take on refugees 

educational exclusion

young people 

• use media to start democracy 
• campaigns 
• activism 
• are the digital generation 
• young people prefer offline and face to face contact when it comes to poitics 

how does anyone become political? (sites of socialization 

• childhood and youth 
• family (ways decisions are made) 
• media and school/college 
• gets you to think politically about a particular subject 

communication method: 

• style 
• non tolerant of diverse viewpoints 
• passive, conformist, and confident authoritarian citizens, no desire to debate/discuss 
• encourage wide range of media consumption and democratic citizens 

civil web: issue engaging youth include: 

• religion 
• jobs
• media stereotyping 
• social discrimination 
• youth justice 
• war
• children rights
• critical identity 
• violence 
• few activists amoungst youth- not always active 

all equally included citizens? 

• youth voices 
• little connection to decisions made by those in power 
• chat/retoric - not reality 
• exclusion 
• most socio-eonomically disadvantaged 
• geographically immobile youth 
• carving responsibility, learning difficulties 
• 'too hard to reach' 
• lower-middle class youth do just enough 

UK media doing democracy 

• debates
• identities - fiction and non fiction 
• photos on sc
• graffiti etc

Research 

• mainstream- good for media 
• vs. negative stereotypes 
• misinformation 
• if you trust it all = fake news
• mixed
• imagination and difference 
• vs negative 
• 80% negative 
• victims, vulnerable, excluded (15-25)
• 1 or 2 - good 
• wealth/footballers 
• internet is great for those who are already active 
• information 
• // doesn't teach you to protest about it 
• long-term campaigning is tough 
• 2012-2014
• 20% young people - exclusively from web
• skills/digital divide 
• 20-30% - never active fully - clueless about privacy 

Traditional media 

• very big tool 
• free newspapers- immigration stereotypes 
• mainstream youtube 
• bumper sticker messages on politics - shared most "make america great again" 
• adults in powerful positions 
• believe they are in favor of democracy but not young people 
• doing less for the country
• don't help young people to get involved in politics 
• freetime= discuses 

managed citizens 

• challenge - not wanted by those in power 
• all parts of the UK
• nobody wants first place participation eg. of hackers 
• citizen duty 
• "not all participation is democratic" 

Final words:

• refusal to vote/ low levels of trust in the government - aren't either democratic or not
• 20 year old - critical citizen vs conformity - think we can make a change
• "wait for them to just grow up" 

contact:

s.banaji@ise.ac.uk

LSE

An audience with Tony Garnett 

His films 

• At the junction - optimism of young people, society tremples on youth
• backstreet abortion during blitz 
• general strict 1926 - capital vs labour 
• money vs work 
• capital profit 
• hanger - rape and guns 
• victims need for revenge 
• system injustice 
• state ife 
• growing industry of drugs 
• even in the most riches countries in the world 
• "own integrity over nation" 
• loving respectfully 

His focus 

• Himself as a person 
• Ordinary working people like himself - in all their dignity, integrity, faults and all - reflecting people back to themselves
• each film tells the truth - My truth not THEE truth 
• political
• controversial 
• political propaganda vs 9'0clock news which was known as fact  

"for a fact to have meaning it must be contextualized" 

News

• man - not news
• man dead - happens everyday 
• mystery Russian man  found poisoned - news
• started a narrative - you want to know the story 
• exactly like a film  
• "how do you tell fact from truth. Political belief is so embedded we can't help bias" 
• eg. alzazeria, russia today, BBC
• all think its the other that is bis - we are objective and factual 
• cover stories come in 24/7 
• you have an hour to decide 
• what order, what, context and spin
• what you think is important and ratings 
• is it news? being yourself? 
• both conscious and unconscious prejudices - what they call their 'news sense' 
• audience and self might come in conflict 
• eg. 18th century - stock market vs profit of slave trade 
• good for economy vs Africans offended 
• good news for some would be enraging insult to some

Advice 

• any news- must be skeptical  
• wont be THE news but someones IDEA of the news 
• whose behind the news? 
• e.g. like voice overs - nudging emotions to take sides 
• its not objective/ fact 
• those telling the news are making it up 
• we cant do anything else - we humans live through stories 
• sense of world, selves - ourselves in the world through narratives
• 'HIS' story in religion 
• past - different narratives and meanings 
• family stories are important as they are contexts in which we define ourselves 
• we ask for bedtime stories but we don't realise we ask for these stories for the rest of our lives 

Digital revolution 

• has only just begun
• you are a part of it 
• changing news 
• bbc check news within efforts 
• post truth era- twitter 
• spread conscious lies
• "internet is full of tricks?" 
• generation be warned
• start with selves 
• check facts against primary sources 
• "be honest with what you tell yourselves and why" 
• world was different then 
• cultural climates depend on political climates 
• 60/70s - bbc - national debate to allow more creative freedom 
• one idea - the market 
• not just useful but scarce too 
• its like a religious doctorate  
• "bbc has, like everything else, been marketised" 
• reluctance to take creative risks 
• Flower growing in the cracks 
• my show was smuggled inside the show management wanted 
• "democratized film making" 
• NDM
• enjoy seeing your freedom 
• "memories are treacherous" 
• book 
• its not so you think better of me 
• resist the temptation - but how? 
• sacrifice everything to make it successful 
• editor of the news struggles with everyday 
• "try to make fiction in order to tell the truth" 

Final points 

• creativity vs craft 
• only a few have creativity - that's what they want you to believe 
• we are all creative 
• it is challenged, disciplined, discouraged imagination 
• re-discover your inner child