As part of our project to explore and open up the British Council Film archive, Al Robertson took a trip to the National Archives to trawl through the relevant documents. In the first of three posts relating to his research here he analyses a selection of reviews of individual films from British Council staff worldwide, written in 1945 and 1946: “The review questionnaires give very rich insight into what the films were intended to achieve, who watched them, and how they were received”.
The second part of Al Robertson's research into the British Council documentary film output of the 30s, 40s and 50s: British Council films of this period were designed to reach very specific audiences; and those audiences come out very clearly in the 1946 reports on British Council films.
In the third part of his research at the National Archives into British Council film production in the 30s through 50s, Al Robertson here details what he found concerning the crucial handover of responsibility from the British Council film department to the Central Office of Information in 1946. A brief, snapshot history of a turning point in the British Council's engagement with film.
Earlier this summer TED hosted a fascinating talk by Clay Shirky on how social media networks enable citizens to bypass government censorship in certain countries. He argues the top-down nature of news control is finished, revolutionising the nature of political discourse.
Us Now is a thought-provoking documentary by Ivo Gormley, which explores the impact and potential that social media plays in all aspects of our lives today. It features contributions from Clay Shirky, Charles Leadbeater, George Osborne and Ed Miliband.
Catherine Fieschi and Ari Magnusson of Counterpoint interviewed David Held in October 2009. They discussed how the current process of globalisation is affecting cultures around the world and whether the world is witnessing the emergence of cosmopolitanism.
Evgeny Morozov gave a talk on the role of the internet as a tool of government suppression at the Royal Society for the Arts earlier last September. In contrast to Clay Shirky’s optimistic analysis of social media, which advocates the power of the internet to challenge government censorship. He argues it is increasingly being used more effectively as a tool of propaganda and suppression by governments around the world.
The global village is a worn out cliché -- conventional wisdom suggests the world is shrinking at an ever-faster rate and with it, creating an emerging homogenous global culture. Certain voices go as far as too say that this globalisation is merely thinly veiled American cultural imperialism. This is a widespread, but ultimately simplistic notion. For scholars such as Joseph Nye it is simply misguided: although globalisation is US-centric, reflecting existing global power structures, he argues that it should be viewed as a modernising force, which creates distinct cultures through a reciprocal process of exchange between individuals, groups or even nation states.
Yet in cities across the world we see the same uniform retailers, banks, fast food outlets and fashions lending fuel to the homogeneity argument. Does this really mean we are witnessing the erosion and extinction of national identities across the world? Not according to David Held of the London School of Economics, who instead suggests that globalisation makes us all aware of cultural differences between different groups and our own individual identities.
The term global civil society has come to mean all things to all people. But what does it *really* mean and why is it important for cultural relations? Since the early 1990s the world has witnessed the emergence of transnational groups of citizens, social movements and individuals engaging in dialogue and debate over globally important issues. From large international organisations like the United Nations to small grass roots movements, they all play a role in this emerging process
Dr. Catherine Fieschi and Ari Magnusson of Counterpoint interviewed Professor Mary Kaldor of the London School of Economics. They discussed issues around the broad topics of global civil society and intercultural dialogue.
