Each Autumn Polis invites media practitioners to discuss the latest trends as part of our Media and Communications in Action series.
The talks take place Tuesdays 5-6pm in the Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House, LSE. They are open to LSE students and the public, no registration or ticket required.
Tuesday 2nd October
Alan Rusbridger
Breaking News: The Remaking of Journalism, and Why it Matters Now
Chair: Charlie Beckett
Alan Rusbridger was Editor-in-Chief of Guardian News & Media from 1995 to 2015. He launched the Guardian in the US and Australia as well as building a website which today attracts more than 100 million unique browsers a month. The paper’s coverage of phone-hacking led to the Leveson Inquiry into press standards and ethics. Guardian US won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for public service for its leading global coverage of the Snowden revelations.
Reflecting on his twenty years as editor of the Guardian; and his experience of breaking some of the most significant news stories of our time, including the Edward Snowden revelations, phone-hacking, Wikileaks and the Keep it in the Ground campaign, Rusbridger will outline his defence of why quality journalism matters now more than ever.
@arusbridger
Tuesday 9th October
Tom Baldwin
Ctl, Alt, Delete: How Politics and the Media Crashed Our Democracy
Chair: Nick Anstead
Tom Baldwin has spent the best part of three decades in the thick of politics and the media. He has worked as communications director for the Labour Party, political editor of The Sunday Telegraph, assistant editor of The Times, and The Times’ Washington bureau chief.
His latest book Ctl, Alt, Delete suggests the current problems in modern politics are all symptoms of an abusive thirty-year relationship between politics, the media, and a new information age. Interviewing everyone from Tony Blair to Michael Gove, top journalists to Russian bloggers, and tech giant execs to online activists, Tom Baldwin describes a vicious battle for control of the news agenda, at the expense of public trust and the value of truth.
@TomBaldwin66
Tuesday 16th October
Jamie Bartlett
The People vs Tech: How the internet is killing democracy (and how we can save it).
Chair: Robin Mansell
Jamie Bartlett is the bestselling author of The Dark Net, an examination of the hidden corners of the internet, and Radicals Chasing Utopia: Inside the Rogue Movements Trying to Change the World. He is the Director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at the think-tank Demos. He also writes on technology for the Spectator,the Telegraph and for several other publications on how the internet is changing politics and society. In 2017 Jamie presented the two-part BBC TWO documentary series The Secrets of Silicon Valley.
@JamieJBartlett
Tuesday 23rd October
Knowing and growing your audience: Social media success stories from PinkNews and LADbible
Benjamin Cohen, CEO of PinkNews and Peter Heneghan, Head of Comms at LADbible
Chair: Charlie Beckett
Benjamin Cohen is the founder and CEO of PinkNews, the world’s most read LGBT+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans) digital media publisher. Cohen became the UK’s first teenage dotcom millionaire aged just 17 and was technology correspondent for Channel 4 News from 2006-12. Aside from campaigning for LGBT+ rights, Benjamin is a non-executive director of Handicap International, the Nobel Peace Prize winning global development charity for vulnerable and disabled people. @benjamincohen
Peter Heneghan is Head of Communications for LADBible, the largest social publisher in the world. He is responsible for developing the company’s media reputation and has significant experience in in fast paced news and long form investigative journalism, having led communications at the BBC and Channel 4’s flagship news and current affairs strands Dispatches, Panorama and Newsnight. @PeterHeneghan
Tuesday 30th October
Navigating Change
Rachel Friend, UK CEO of Weber Shandwick
Chair: Lee Edwards
Nikesh Shukla
Chair: Charlie Beckett
Nikesh Shukla is the author of four novels. His latest ones are The One Who Wrote Destiny and Run Riot which is on the YA shortlist for the National Book Awards . His debut novel, Coconut Unlimited, was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award 2010. Nikesh has written for The Guardian, Observer, Independent, Esquire, Buzzfeed, Vice and BBC2, LitHub, Guernica and BBC Radio 4. Nikesh is also the editor the bestselling essay collection, The Good Immigrant which won the reader’s choice at the Books Are MyBag Awards. Nikesh was one of Foreign Policy magazine’s 100 Global Thinkers and The Bookseller’s 100 most influential people in publishing in 2016 and in 2017. He is the co-founder of the literary journal, The Good Journal and The Good Literary Agency.
@nikeshshukla
Tuesday 20th November
How to make it in the Creative Industries
Imriel Morgan, Sherry Collins and Swarzy Macaly
Imriel Morgan is the CEO of the ShoutOut Network– the UK’s diverse podcast network and host of the Wanna Be podcast. She has several years of experience in content production, marketing , PR and product development and has had her work featured in The Guardian, Time Out, BuzzFeed, Elle Magazine, Ebony, Refinery29, The Debrief, CBS, The New Statesman and the BBC. @ImiMorgan
Sherry Collins is the founder, editor and creative director of The Pitch Fanzine. A movement to challenge inequality, discrimination and the lack of diversity in the creative industry, whilst simultaneously showcasing outstanding contemporary talent in its publication Pitch. In 2017, Collins launched the Pitch 100 Superwomen initiative, the yearly list of women working behind the scenes in the creative industry making things happen. Collins also launched Pitch Futures in 2017 to inspire and educate primary school children about the opportunities available to them in the creative industry. @thepitchfanzine
Swarzy Macaly is a radio presenter at KISS FM with her own show on KISS Fresh every Monday to Thursday from 11pm-Midnight, and Saturdays from 11am-3pm. Swarzy is also the official young voice of BBC Sounds, a contributor to Dotun Adebayo’s BBC Radio 5 Live show every third Sunday of the month, and hosts many events with various brands including o2 Go Think Big, DICE, and LevileTV.
Tuesday 27th November
Artificial Intelligence for Social Good
Kriti Sharma, VP Artificial Intelligence at Sage
Chair: Funda Ustek-Spilda
Kriti Sharma is an Artificial Intelligence technologist and a leading global voice on AI ethics and its impact on society. In addition to advising global businesses on AI, she focuses on AI for Social Good. She built her first robot at the age of 15 in India and has been building AI technologies to solve global issues ever since, from productivity to education to domestic violence. Kriti was recently named in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for advancements in AI and was included in the Recode 100 list of key influencers in technology in 2017. She was invited as a Civic Leader by the Obama Foundation Summit for her work in ethical technology. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Google Grace Hopper Scholar and recently gave expert testimony on AI Policy to the UK Parliament in the House of Lords. Earlier this year, Kriti spearheaded the launch of the Sage Future Makers Lab, a forum that will equip young people around the world with hands-on learning for entering a career in Artificial Intelligence.
@sharma_kriti
Tuesday 4th December
Write to the Point: How to be Clear, Correct and Persuasive on the Page
Sam Leith, Literary Editor, The Spectator
Chair: Charlie Beckett
Sam Leith is literary editor at the Spectator, contributes columns to the Financial Times, the Evening Standard and Prospect, and his work appears regularly in the Guardian, The Times and the TLS among others. His broadcasting work has included appearances on The Culture Show, The Review Show, Front Row, the News Quiz, Fry’s English Delightand a regular slot on the Sky Arts Book Programme. His books include Dead Pets, Sod’s Law and You Talkin’ to Me? Rhetoric from Aristotle to Obama. The Coincidence Engine, his first novel, was published in April 2011 and was included in the “Waterstone’s 11” list of the best first novels of that year.
@questingvole
Tuesday 11th December
Cutting through: making international documentaries for the YouTube generation
Ben Zand is an award-winning British-Iranian journalist and filmmaker for the BBC from Liverpool. He makes current affairs documentaries from around the world and is currently the presenter and series producer for ‘World’s Most Dangerous Cities with Ben Zand.’ Ben was named Young Talent of the Year at the RTS Television Journalism Awards 2016.
