Always Keep in Control: The Pattern of TV Policy Changes in China

This event is organised as part of the King's College London Asian Cultural Policy Seminar Series. Professor Kanghua Li and Shuan Jian (Shanghai Jiao Tong University) explain the recent trends of China's TV drama policy. China is a country with a distinct cultural system. The CCP is the central factor for everything, which naturally includes culture. There…

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Online Interviewing Tips for Researchers

Nina Vindum Rasmussen The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the need to carry out qualitative interviews online. In my PhD project, I’ve used both in-person and online interviews. I’ve been surprised to learn that online interviews can produce equally rich and sometimes superior data. They can be cost-effective, convenient, and quick. But there are also specific…

New article published on MCS Journal: Responses to health risk and suffering: ‘China’ in the Italian media discourses during the early stage of the Covid-19 pandemic

Maria Paola Pofi I am delighted to announce that the article I wrote with my supervisor Dr Wing-Fai Leung has been published in the Media, Culture & Society (MCS) Journal and is available to download for free here (link: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/01634437211053770). Media, Culture & Society The opportunity to start this research project arose during my PhD fieldwork in…

CMCI in the News -Again.

CMCI’s academic staff continue to be in demand as expert commentators on worldwide news and current affairs. Our Head of Department, Professor Anna Reading, gave two filmed interviews on the media witnessing, news framing and impact of the “Charlie Hebdo” shootings in Paris. One was for the Associated Press and will be circulated globally, the…

CMCI Expert Comments on Rolf Harris Case on Sky TV and LBC

CMCI’s Dr Richard Howells was called to give instant expert live reaction to Sky TV News about family entertainer Rolf Harris’ conviction on 12 counts of indecent assault between 1968 and 1986. Dr Howells said that in addition to the effect it obviously had on his victims and indeed Harris himself, there was a “collective…

Higher Love

Our Reader in Culture, Media and Creative Industries, Dr Richard Howells, contributed the double-page Culture section to this week’s Times Higher Education magazine. His feature article: “Faking Cats and Dogs: Shades of Grey Among the eBay ‘Lowrys’” marks the closure of Tate Britain’s blockbuster “L.S. Lowry and the Painting of Modern Life” this month. Howells’…

BoB’s Your Uncle

CMCI’s Reader in Culture, Media and Creative Industries Dr Richard Howells has accepted an invitation to serve on the British Universities Film and Video Council Research Education Space (RES) Academic Working Group. This is a new initiative with the BBC and Jisc (the UK universities’ digital technology champion), which will result in additional access to…

Guten Abend, Herr Bond

CMCI’s Dr Richard Howells has been interviewed by ZDF (Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen), Germany's national public service television station, about the 50th anniversary of James Bond on film. The interviewers were keen to know how Bond had changed over the years, especially in the films’ representations of Britishness and women since the first picture (“Dr No”)…

CMCI on American Network TV News

Our Reader in Culture, Media and Cretaive Industries Dr Richard Howells was interviewed by ABC network television news in the USA for a feature “Titanic Folklore Exposed”. See: http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/titanic-folklore-exposed-nick-schifrin-busts-myths-famous-shipwreck-entertainment-16145404 (but apologies for the annoying commercial that precedes it). You can also hear him talk about the Titanic and its myths on an iKing's podcast: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/newsevents/Podcasts.aspx

Women and Children First!

It’s been a very busy period for CMCI’s resident Titanic expert Dr Richard Howells. First, the Centenary Edition of his monograph The Myth of the Titanic has just been published by Palgrave Macmillan’s scholarly division. This is an updated and expanded version of the 1999 original, and is available for the first time in paperback.…

Colonel Gaddafi’s Hat

They were sitting in the aisles for CMCI’s event with Sky News war correspondent Alex Crawford. Alex, who was the first journalist into Tripoli with the rebel forces last year, was in conversation with CMCI’s Reader in Culture, Media and Creative Industries, Dr Richard Howells. Alex vividly shared her experiences about reporting war in both…

Sky News War Correspondent to Speak at CMCI

Sky News war correspondent Alex Crawford will be speaking at CMCI on Thursday 29 March. Alex was the first journalist into Tripoli with the rebel forces last year and was awarded the OBE in recognition of her services to journalism. The “Arab Spring” continues to reverberate, as does the plight of war correspondents, especially women,…

The British Universities Film and Video Council

CMCI's Dr Richard Howells has been re-appointed to the Advisory Board of the British Universities Film amd Video Council. The British Universities Film and Video Council (BUFVC) is a representative body for universities and colleges in the UK. It supports the advancement of education by promoting the production, study and use of moving image, sound…

Toys Story

CMCI's Dr Richard Howells made two television appearances over the festive period. He turned up as an expert cultural sociologist on two programmes about toys, both presented by James May. In the first he talked about soldier dolls including Action Man, while in the second he opined on the differences between toys marketed to girls…

Are we all cultural workers now?

That is the provocative question asked at a forthcoming workshop in Sydney , Australia at which CMCI’s Rosalind Gill will be giving the opening keynote. The talk will review “what we know” about the features of cultural and creative work, discussing issues such as precariousness, bulimic patterns of working, and the intensification and extensification of…

Homage to Catalonia

Fresh off the plane from Vancouver, CMCI’s Rosalind Gill turned up in Barcelona to give the inaugural address to the Catalunyan Insitute for Women on the topic of ‘The representation of women in the media.” Examining the sexualisation of women in the media and the rise and increasing acceptability of sexism, Professor Gill addressed several…

CMCI at the Vancouver International Film Festival

Professor Rosalind Gill gave the opening keynote address to Women in View’s SEXMEDIAMONEY conference last month – attended by film-makers, academics, policy-makers and festival goers. Rosalind’s speech, entitled Unveiling the New Normal, examined the persistence of inequalities in the film and media industries, discussing the latest research from Skillset, Women in Film and Television, The…

Harry Potter and the Deathly Howells (Part One)

Now that the cast have trodden a rather rain-sodden red carpet in Leicester Square, CMCI’s Dr Richard Howells is able to reveal his thoughts on “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” Part One) which premiered on November 11. Howells has so far been keeping deliberately quiet as he actually saw the film at a cast…

New Reviews for “Duke Ellington’s America”

Several reviews have come in recently for CMCI Lecturer Dr. Harvey G. Cohen's new book Duke Ellington's America (University of Chicago Press). In their 28 October issue, the New York Review of Books devoted 4,000 words to the book, including: "Of many artists it can be said that deep cultural currents can be read through…

Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway Autumn Events in Los Angeles and London

CMCI Lecturer Harvey G. Cohen will be appearing at several public events in the next month. On Wednesday 10 November, he will be offering a multi-media presentation entitled "Duke Ellington in his Own Words" at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). The event is hosted by jazz guitar legend Kenny Burrell, director of…

Recent MA CCI Student Ichtertz Scores Gig With Sundance Film Festival

Katie Ichtertz, who just finished the MA CCI programme last month, has passed on the word to Lost In CCI that she has been hired to work from November to February as the coordinator of the World Documentary and New Frontier categories for the world-famous Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, in the United…

A busy time for Dr. Ruth Adams…

Dr Ruth Adams has had a busy couple of weeks, squeezing in a conference paper and two publications either side of the start of the academic year. On 10 September 2010 she gave a presentation at the 9th International Colloquium on Arts, Heritage, Nonprofit and Social Marketing, which was organized by colleagues in the Department…

“Duke Ellington’s America” Heads to the London Jazz Festival and Guildhall School

Duke Ellington's America, CMCI Lecturer Dr. Harvey G. Cohen's new book, now in its 2nd printing from the University of Chicago Press, will be the focus of two major free events in the next two months. First, on 27 October 2010 at 7:00PM, Cohen will be featured with the Guildhall Jazz Band and their leader/conductor…

London Fashion week

If you are wondering what is going on at Somerset House next to Kings, it is London Fashion Week. No doubt you will see plenty of references to the stars, models and fashions in the popular press. However, there is a significant Cultural Industries agenda here. First, London Fashion Week, like other fashion weeks around…

‘Ellington’s America’ Resonates in London

Tomorrow, Friday 3 September at 2:00PM, CMCI Lecturer Dr. Harvey G. Cohen will be discussing his new book Duke Ellington's America (University of Chicago Press) live on Carole Chant's Sound Out programme on Resonance FM Radio 104.4 here in London, and on their website. The programme will not be archived, so if you want to…

“Duke Ellington’s America” Airs Across America

CMCI Lecturer Dr. Harvey G. Cohen's new book Duke Ellington's America (University of Chicago Press), currently in its second printing, has been receiving attention lately on the airwaves in the United States, from coast to coast. This Friday, 20 August 2010, at 6PM London time, Cohen will be interviewed about his book on "Metro Connection,"…

Radio Days and the Page 99 Test for “Ellington’s America”

CMCI Lecturer Dr. Harvey G. Cohen's new book Duke Ellington's America (University of Chicago Press) has been appearing on the airwaves lately and on one literary website. For more info, read on... Cohen has a one-hour guest slot discussing his book on the latest edition of the Radio Open Source programme. Some Ellington music will…

Beryl Bainbridge

The death of British novelist Beryl Bainbridge (1932-2010) this month was particularly resonant with CMCI’s Dr Richard Howells. Beryl was the first person Richard interviewed in his former career as a radio producer. She was recording a television series re-creating JB Priestley’s English Journey, and Richard’s interview was itself filmed and became part of the…

Burrell, TLS and NY Times weigh in on “Ellington’s America”

More reviews are filtering in for CMCI Lecturer Harvey G. Cohen's new book Duke Ellington's America (University of Chicago Press). Jazz guitar legend Kenny Burrell, who also serves as the Director for Jazz Studies at UCLA, will assign the book in his classes during the forthcoming school year. He had this to say: "Harvey G.…

Duke Ellington’s America out front in the TLS

Duke Ellington's America, the new book by CMCI Lecturer Dr. Harvey G. Cohen, is the cover story in the current issue of the Times Literary Supplement. Unfortunately, it is not online, so you'll have to go out to your local newsstand if you'd like to sneak a look.

Ellington’s early years spotlighted on BBC Radio 3’s Jazz Library

On Saturday afternoon, 5 June 2010, CMCI Lecturer Harvey G. Cohen guested on Jazz Library for an hour on BBC Radio 3, hosted by Alyn Shipton, who was recently named Jazz Broadcaster of the Year at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards. From the Cotton Club to national icon, Cohen traces Ellington's finest output from the decade…

Ros Gill awarded International Gender and Language Association Prize

Professor Rosalind Gill in the Centre for Culture, Media and Creative Industries Research has just been awarded the International Gender and Language Association’s 2010 prize for her book Gender and the Media (Polity Press). This is a a bi-annual prize that recognises ‘the most outstanding scholarship on gender, language and communication’. It will be awarded…

Duke Ellington and Modernism on BBC Radio 3

CMCI Lecturer Harvey G. Cohen appeared last night on BBC Radio 3's Nightwaves programme, discussing his new book Duke Ellington's America (University of Chicago Press) with a panel that included musician/journalist Kevin LeGendre and novelist John Harvey. Nightwaves host Philip Dodd wanted to focus on Ellington's connection to modernism, so Cohen discussed how Ellington fit…

Lena Horne, vocalist and activist

Yesterday on the BBC World Service's Newshour, CMCI Lecturer Dr. Harvey G. Cohen provided commentary on the significance of African American performer Lena Horne, who died on Sunday 9 May at the age of 92. Though she enjoyed worldwide success as a jazz vocalist, film and TV star, recording artist, and Broadway performer, she is…

THE’s Book of the Week

CMCI Lecturer Dr. Harvey G. Cohen's new book "Duke Ellington's America" (University of Chicago Press) has been named Book of the Week in the current issue of the Times Higher Education. For the full review, consult here.

UK events announced for “Duke Ellington’s America”

In the next few months, several public events will focus on "Duke Ellington's America", the forthcoming book by CMCI Lecturer Dr. Harvey G. Cohen, which will be released in Europe in mid-June and in the US in mid-May on the University of Chicago Press. Using extensive new research, the book offers a new look at…

Debates on both sides of the Atlantic

Yesterday morning, on the Breakfast Show on BBC London radio, CMCI Lecturer Dr. Harvey G. Cohen commented on the history of American presidential campaign debates, in light of the first British Prime Minister debates taking place this week. He spoke about how such debates have served to focus the electorate on the campaigns, and have…

CCI joins UNCTAD network

CMCI has just been invited to join the UN Conference on Trade and Development's (UNCTAD) Creative Economy Academic Network. CMCI staff are involved in knowledge exchange and policy advice for UNCTAD and other UN family agencies. In particular, Prof. Pratt has recently helped to draft the UNCTAD "Creative economy report", and gave a presentation at…

International Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures

2010 is the International Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures. This initiative is headed up by UNESCO, as part of their mandate to build "the defences of peace in the minds of men", through international cooperation in the fields of its competence (with an emphasis on education, sciences, culture and communication).Find out more...

CMCI professor to address Council of Europe

On Monday, March 8, as part of an event to celebrate International Women’s Day, Prof Rosalind Gill from the Centre for Culture, Media and Creative Industries at King’s College, will give a keynote address to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg on representations of women in the media. The event is part of a number…

Creatives, academics and workplace stress

According to CMCI's Prof Rosalind Gill we should look in an unlikely place to get a barometer of what the contemporary workplace is really like: the greetings card industry. 'Happiness is an empty inbox' declares one card Gill has noticed. 'Nothing beats the satisfaction of crossing things off lists', remarks another, and (Ros's particular favourite,…

Animation sympoium reported internationally

CMCI's recent symposium on animation has been discussed in an article on the Taipei Film Commission's website. The symposium was organised by Dr Hye-Kyung Lee. The article can be accessed here.

Chinese MA CCI students win BBC quiz

Congratulations to the team of 13 Chinese MA Cultural and Creative Industries students, pictured left, who won a BBC Chinese Service quiz on Friday 30 October, beating stiff competition from Imperial College, the Cass Business School, the University of Westminster and City University. The quiz, which featured questions about life in the UK, was filmed,…

Doctor Who in Korea

Dr Ruth Adams was recently filmed for a programme about public service broadcasting in the UK by KBS, the leading public broadcast company in Korea. KBS stated that it wished to learn from the example of the BBC, which, they say, is known to be the public broadcaster to maintain the highest standards in the…

A Sound Research Resource

The British Library have launched their spoken word and music sound archive on line. They tell us that they are putting "thousands of rare, unpublished and out-of-print recordings" on line for UK academic and researchers. The archive includes fine art, photography and design interviews in addition to ICA talks from luminaries including Salman Rushie, John…

End of the world is near… on screen

CMCI lecturer Dr. Harvey G. Cohen appeared last Saturday morning on SkyNews, discussing the rash of apocalyptic-themed movies arriving from America in the last couple of years (Cloverfield, Wall-E, and the upcoming 2012, Book of Ely and The Road). He argued that anxiety over 9/11 and global warming plays a part in this trend, just…

You Are Not Watching Big Brother

Centre director Dr Richard Howells was quoted in the Daily Mail over the demise of the once popular TV "reality" show Big Brother. Chanel 4 have announced that the series is to be axed after one final outing next year. The show began in the year 2000, but ratings have fallen from a peak of…

Radio discussion on Cultural Decline

Dr Ruth Adams made a guest appearance on the BBC Radio programme Good Morning Wales on Friday 14 August 2009. Dr Adams and Peter Finch, poet and Chief Executive of Academi, the Welsh National Literature Promotion Agency and Society of Writers, were asked to comment on some controversial statements made by Jonathan Mills, the director…

Doctor in a Spin

Our friends and collaborators at the Radio Academy have announced a special event on spin doctors that should appeal to our more media savvy students. Looking ahead to a general election, and mindful of cuts in newsroom numbers, the academy wonder how we as listeners will be able to “sort the puff from the policy”.…

Signs of the Times

We are fully into the internship season for the MA in CCI, with students all over London and beyond. This also means that CMCI staff have been visiting students at their places of work -and finding out how they, their companies and their bosses have been getting on with each other! We have students at…

A License to Inform…

CMCI Director Dr Richard Howells has been interviewed by Finnish national public service broadcasting service YLE. Like the BBC, YLE is funded by a license fee and carries no advertising. Appropriately, Richard’s interview was about the license fee system in the UK, which is a topical issue in Finland due to proposed changes in the…

Manga scanlation interview

CMCI's Dr Hye-Kyung Lee recently gave an interview to a Japanese news agency about the scanlation of manga (comic books), on which she has been doing some research. Scanlation is defined by Wikipedia as 'the unauthorised scanning, translation, editing and distribution of comics from a foreign language into the language of the distributors'. An article…

Goody Goody

CMCI Director Dr Richard Howells was a live guest on Sky Television News following the furore over Sir Michael Parkinson’s remarks about Jade Goody in next week’s Radio Times. Parkinson, the veteran journalist and former chat show host, said that reality TV star Goody, who died recently of cancer aged 27, represented “all that's paltry…

Obama visit: BBC interview

This morning CMCI lecturer Dr. Harvey G. Cohen appeared on the BBC World News TV channel with presenter Jonathan Charles, and offered commentary before and after Prime Minister Gordon Brown and President Barack Obama's press conference at the Foreign Office. Cohen discussed the historical and political importance of the G20 summit, and the significance of…

Movie star tantrums

On Wednesday afternoon, CMCI lecturer Harvey G. Cohen appeared on BBC Radio Wales to comment upon the recent release of a recording of movie star Christian "The Dark Knight" Bale cursing out his director of photography on the set of his new film "Terminator Salvation" for almost four minutes, using the f-word an average of…

Saturday Night’s Alright

Just as normal, decent people were enjoying a Saturday morning lie-in to celebrate the end of term, CMCI director Dr Richard Howells was appearing live on Sky Television News to talk about the renaissance of Saturday night TV in the United Kingdom. The item was put together in anticipation of the finals of The X-Factor…

(Hold the) Mayo

On Tuesday 28 October, Centre lecturer Dr Harvey Cohen appeared on the Simon Mayo show (with Phil Williams hosting) on BBC Radio 5 Live, chatting about the American election, the latest polls, and the so-called "Bradley Effect." It was one of those typical cases where the producer told Harvey about the 4-5 topics they wanted…

Media seminars

Lost in CCI is pleased to announce a series of media seminars at King's next month, hosted by the Centre for Cultural, Media, and Creative Industries Research. All are welcome. The seminars take place at 17.00 – 18.30 every Tuesday in November, in Room K3.11, Strand Campus. 4 November 2008 Independent Television Producers – Boom…

Harry in Afghanistan

This whole hullaballoo about Prince Harry serving in Afghanistan has been fascinating –not because of what he was or wasn’t doing there, but because of the way it was (or wasn’t) covered in the media. Watching the television news last night, you could have been excused for asking: if all this was such a secret,…

Richard Howells and the Half-Blood Prince

Centre Director Dr Richard Howells has been on set to watch the making of the forthcoming Harry Potter film: "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." This is the sixth in a series of seven films based on the hugely succesful books by J.K. Rowling. Unfortuantely for Lost In CCI... Richard was only allowed into the…

Christmas Turkey

Lost in CCI apologises for anyone whose Christmas celebrations were interrupted by the sight of Academic Director Dr Richard Howells on television. Richard was appearing as a popular cultural expert on “James May: My Sisters' Top Toys”, which was screened on BBC2 no less than three times (including Christmas Day) over the holiday period. Richard…

Intellectuals in the media

One of the year's major events in the MA Cultural and Creative Industries calendar took place on Friday 2 November - the conference I'm An Intellectual: Get Me Out Of Here!, jointly hosted by King's College London and the Radio Academy. The day-long conference, held in a plush BBC conference room overlooking Marylebone High Street,…

Scandalous TV

Dr Richard Howells was a guest on Sky News yesterday, being interviewed about the ITV telephone scandal. Howells commented this was far more about trust than money, and that serious errors had been made, albeit in a misguided attempt to make more entertaining programmes. It was a problem that spread across network boundaries. It was…

The Digital Divide

CCI's Dr Richard Howells was a live guest on BBC Radio 4’s “You and Yours” programme on August 1st. He was part of a discussion on the “digital divide” and social exclusion from the internet. He took the view that while of course campaigns for digital inclusivity were to be welcomed, we should at the…

Harry Potter and the Deathly Howells

Dr Richard Howells was live on Sky News this morning being interviewed about the Harry Potter phenomenon. He argued that there had been a hugely successful commercial synergy between the books, films and merchandising. JK Rowling’s strengths were in plot rather than character, dialogue or description. She was like Dan Brown for the younger generation:…

Just another industry?

Mark Lawson responds on the Guardian website to the Work Foundation's report on state funding of the cultural and creative industries. Many thanks to current MA CCI student Alison Parry for sending in this link.

La Cool Britannia

Dr Richard Howells gave an interview earlier this week to the French newspaper Liberation on Cool Britannia - the UK's alleged image makeover in the 1990s from culturally conservative to young, cool and creative. Howells discusses the use of term and the political forces behind it, and considers how cool the UK really is. Francophone…

The Diana industry

Dr Richard Howells was interviewed yesterday by Associated Press over the latest Princess Diana-related controversy, the broadcast by Channel Four of Diana: The Witnesses in the Tunnel, which had drawn protests from her sons. Howells commented: "I think it's important we all don't get too journalistically po-faced about this. Yes, there is legitimate public, journalistic…