The idea of the Media Agenda Talks is to get leading media practitioners to spend an hour outlining what they see as the key issues in their field as well as aspects of their personal experiences. This year we have a series of interesting speakers from all areas of media and journalism coming weekly to discuss variety of topics and issues. The events are held almost every Tuesday in the fall, from 500-600pm in the New Theatre, East Building. The events are free and open to all and are first-come first-serve.
2014 Media Agenda Talks Programme
Mainstream Media Is Meaningless Nostalgia
October 7th, 5:00-6:00pm, New Theatre, East Building
Ben Hammersley, Internet technologist and author
Chair: Professor Charlie Beckett
Your perception of The Media is probably entirely wrong. This is ok, because everyone’s is. But we’re all wrong in interesting ways, and in this talk, I’ll discuss why, and why that’s important.
Ben Hammersley is an author, futurist and technologist, specialising in the effects of the internet and the ubiquitous digital network on the world’s political, cultural and social spheres. He enjoys an international career as a trends and digital guru, explaining complex technological and sociological topics to lay audiences, and as a high-level advisor on these matters to governments and business. Ben is the author of five books, including the acclaimed 64 Things You Need To Know Now For Then, which is a guide to the new concepts of the modern world. He is contributing editor of WIRED Magazine.
Hack Attack
October 14th, 5:00-6:00pm, New Theatre, East Building
Nick Davies, Author of Hack Attack, Investigative journalist
Chair: Dr Damian Tambini
Nick Davies is a freelance journalist, working regularly as special correspondent for the Guardian. In the last few years, he was centrally involved in the publication of secret US logs and cables obtained by Wikileaks and in exposing the phone-hacking scandal in Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper empire. His book ‘Hack Attack’, which exposes Rupert Murdoch’s use of power as well as the crime in his newsrooms, was published in the summer of 2014 in the UK, US, Canada and Australia.
Global News Media: The Next Horizon
October 23rd, 6:30-8:00pm, Sheikh Zayed Theatre, NAB
Andrew Miller, CEO of the Guardian Media Group
Chair: Professor Charlie Beckett
Twenty years after the first digital newspaper editions appeared, news publishers are becoming more global, while their readership and route to market has become more fragmented. Publishers are experimenting with different digital formats and new distribution models. Some famous titles have disappeared. Others have become successful multi-media franchises – among them The Guardian. Andrew Miller, Chief Executive Officer of Guardian Media Group (GMG), will address the challenges facing the news-media amid continued technological upheaval, changing consumption habits and the emergence of new competitors. After a year in which The Guardian won a Pulitzer Prize and GMG declared record profits, Miller will outline how newspapers must make smart investments, control costs and innovate to survive in a fast-changing media environment.
Andrew Miller was appointed chief executive officer of Guardian Media Group (GMG) in July 2010, having joined the Group in August 2009 as chief financial officer. Prior to GMG, Andrew was chief financial officer of Trader Media Group (TMG) for six years. Andrew has previously worked at PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay division, Bass PLC and Procter & Gamble. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, having gained his accountancy qualification with Price Waterhouse.
The Dark Net: what happens under the conditions of anonymity?
October 28th, 5:00-6:00pm, New Theatre, East Building
Jamie Bartlett, Director of The Centre for the Analysis of Social Media
Chair: Dr Damian Tambini
Jamie Bartlett will talk about his new book The Dark Net, an exploration of some of the net’s most shocking and unexplored subcultures. This includes the worlds of uncensored drugs markets; internet trolling; neo-Nazis, child pornography, bitcoin and crypto-anarchy. He will examine how people behave under the conditions of real or perceived anonymity online, and what it means for society today.
Jamie Bartlett is the Director of The Centre for the Analysis of Social Media, a collaboration between Demos and the University of Sussex. This work focuses on the ways in which social media and modern communications and technology are changing political and social movements, with a special emphasis on terrorism and radical political movements. Jamie’s recent book ‘The Dark Net’ about internet subcultures was published in August 2014 by William Heinemann. He is also a writer for the Daily Telegraph on technology.
Communicating for Leaders
November 4th, 5:00-6:00pm, New Theatre, East Building
Zaki Cooper, Group Public Affairs at Standard Chartered Bank
Chair: Professor Charlie Beckett
Drawing on the speaker’s experiences in a range of public service and corporate leadership environments, the session will explore case studies of effective leadership communications, examine the evolution of this field and propose some golden rules for leaders who wish to communicate successfully.
Zaki Cooper worked in the Buckingham Palace press office from 2009 until 2012 with a special focus on the Diamond Jubilee. A communications professional, he has worked in a range of corporate and public service environments, including a spell in the Chief Rabbi’s office from 2004 to 2006 and working for T-Mobile and Tesco. He has a BA in Politics and Parliamentary Studies from Leeds University and an M Phil from Cambridge University.
London Cultural Week
November 11th, 5:00-6:00pm, New Theatre, East Building
Panel: Gabrielle Smith, Vinay Patel and Sutapa Biswas
Chair: Dr Myria Georgiou
Vinay Patel, writer
Vinay is a writer, born and raised in South East London. He studied for an MA at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, graduating with distinction in 2011. His play, True Brits, written during his attachment to HighTide Festival Theatre premiered at the Edinburgh Festival and will transfer to the Bush Theatre this November. He is currently developing projects for Channel 4 and the BBC.
Sutapa Biswas, artist
“Sutapa Biswas makes an art of caustic beauty. Her sharp eye and sure hand have worked hard to bring together the political and the aesthetic,” Sandy Nairne, Director National Portrait Gallery, London (2002 – 2014). Biswas came to prominence in the mid 1980s with large-scale paintings and collage works which provocatively and humorously explored the tensions and power plays of racial and gendered relations. Her work engages with historical narratives relating particularly to the European colonial occupation of India, the consequences and repercussions of this occupancy and ways in which this affected readings of the Indian subject – female and male. Biswas was born in Santinekethan, India, in 1962. Educated in England, she currently lives and works in London. She has taken part in a variety of collaborative projects and exhibitions internationally.
Gabrielle Smith, creative activist
Gabrielle Smith is a young creative with a passion for innovation and collaboration. She currently works as a motion graphic designer for ITN, a world-leading news and multimedia content company, where for over five years, she has created images to enhance the storytelling of global news events.
Gabrielle is also the founder of The:nublk – an award-winning blog, which after six years, continues to engage its audience through curated and created content by informing, educating and connecting them to the often untold and inspiring stories of creatives from Africa and the Diaspora.
Gabrielle’s passion for social media led her to attend Africa’s first Social Media Week in Lagos, Nigeria where she was a panelist and also a content producer. She since gone on to host events during Social Media Week London and in 2013 she addressed an audience at Google’s London headquarters as part of their Top Black Talent initiative. She has a keen eye for spotting trends and identifying movements that need more attention in the world at large.
We expected jet packs, but we got 140 characters – the unfulfilled promise of the information revolution
November 18th, 5:00-6:00pm, New Theatre, East Building
Norman Lewis, writer for Futures Diagnosis and Innovation Specialist, PriceWaterhouseCoopers
I aim to explore the gap between the potential of information communication technologies and the narrow narcissistic focus which dominates society’s obsession with the technology today. The contrast between the productive potential of Big Data, cloud computing and billions of connected people across the planet on the one hand, versus our obsession with narrow narcissistic consumption and our lowered expectations about what this technology can deliver, is startling. We may have Big Data but we have small ambitions. We may have ‘smart’ devices in our pockets with more computing power than the Lunar module that put man on the Moon but we have a diminished view of human beings and the knowledge developed to create this in the first place. There is no app for low expectations, only apps’. Discuss….
Dr Norman Lewis is recognised as an expert on future trends and user behaviours with regard to technology innovation and adoption. He has spoken on these topics at events all over the world. Norman is currently a Director at PwC responsible for running their crowd sourced innovation service. He is a co-author of Big Potatoes: the London manifesto for innovation. Prior to joining PwC he was Chief Innovation Officer and Partner at Open-Knowledge – a global consultancy on enterprise social software. He was the Chief Strategy Officer of Wireless Grids Corporation, USA and the Director of Technology Research for Orange UK, formerly the Home Division of France Telecom. He was also previously an Executive Board member of the MIT Communications Futures Programme and a former chairman of the ITU TELECOM Forum Programme Committee.
Chair: Dr Sally Broughton-Micova
Data journalism for social change
November 25th, 5:00-6:00pm, New Theatre, East Building
Monique Villa, CEO Thomson Reuters Foundation
Chair: Dr Damian Tambini
We all need stories to make sense of the world. And very powerful stories sometimes are hidden behind data. When data is crunched to expose realities often ignored by mainstream media, the impact is global. From fighting human trafficking to empowering women, Monique Villa, CEO of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, highlights the potential of data and smart storytelling to create lasting social change.
Monique Villa is CEO of the Thomson Reuters Foundation. She has been ranked among the world’s 100 most influential people in Business Ethics by Ethisphere. Since her appointment in 2008, she has transformed the Foundation, launching a number of groundbreaking programmes that leverage the expertise of Thomson Reuters to trigger change and empower people across the world. Among them, TrustLaw, an award-winning service created in 2010 to spread the practice of pro bono worldwide by connecting the best law firms with NGOs and social enterprises in need of free legal assistance; and Trust Women, a fast growing global movement to put the rule of law behind women’s rights through concrete action. Under Villa, the Foundation’s award-winning editorial team covers issues that mainstream media often forget: from women’s rights abuses to the human impact of climate change.
World Service and global journalism – a perfect fit?
December 2nd, 5:00-6:00pm, New Theatre, East Building
Liliane Landor, Controller, Languages, BBC Global News
As Controller, Languages, World Service Group, Liliane Landor is editorially and managerially responsible for all 28 language services on radio, TV and online and 1400 staff in the UK and internationally. She started at the BBC as a producer/presenter in the French service. She was appointed Head of BBC World Service News and Current Affairs in 2006 responsible for all the daily and weekly journalism of the WS in English. Under her leadership in 2008 her department won 10 Sony Awards – a singular achievement recognising the breadth and excellence of its journalism. She was born in Lebanon, educated in France and Switzerland. She speaks five languages.
Dachshunds, dukes and obligatory fancy dress…working life at Tatler
December 9th, 5:00-6:00pm, New Theatre, East Building
Sophia Money-Coutts, Features Editor, Tatler Magazine
Sophia Money-Coutts is a former LSE student and has been the features editor on Tatler for two years. Prior to that, she worked on various newspapers, including the the Daily Mail, the Evening Standard, and The National in Abu Dhabi.
Details of events are subject to change.
For more information contact polis@lse.ac.uk
