Images of Afghanistan

A welter of emotions and images led me to write this blog in the days before Christmas. Particularly the images of people crossing the English channel and the Mediterranean – and often dying in the attempt – desperately trying to reach a place of safety from Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Syria. Many people, myself included, know… Continue reading Images of Afghanistan

Italy is It

Italy has always been a country with a strong design tradition. In 1909, the poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti launched the Futurist movement, as this piece details. Futurism rejected the past and set out to celebrate a number of abstract concepts like speed, machinery, violence, youth and industry, as well as even more abstract ones like… Continue reading Italy is It

Life, the universe, and everything

Back on this blog after an embarassingly enormous hiatus… The 5-part documentary series ‘Universe’ with Professor Brian Cox, started its run last night on BBC2 in the UK, with an episode called The Sun: God Star. The whole series also landed on iPlayer. You can see a trailer of it here. I watched the film,… Continue reading Life, the universe, and everything

Documentaries at the border – the DMZ Festival

Coming to Korea you’re in a divided country, still at war. The split in 1949 has never healed. In mid-August, North Korea planted landmines outside a South Korean guardhouse in the mis-named Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) and two soldiers lost limbs. For two weeks there were hostile exchanges, with troop buildups and S Korea broadcasting The Voice of Freedom… Continue reading Documentaries at the border – the DMZ Festival

How Seoul’s Digital Media City matches up to Salford’s MediaCityUK

Korea has created a Digital Media City (DMC) on the outskirts of Seoul and houses nearly all its broadcasters there. Like MediaCity UK in Salford. But way bigger.   This is the enormous HQ for MBC, one of the three Korean public channels. Check out its OTT ‘window on  the world’ promotional video on the link above.… Continue reading How Seoul’s Digital Media City matches up to Salford’s MediaCityUK

Peoples Broadcasting in the age of the internet

When the British electorate voted for a Conservative government, to replace the previous Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition, there were a few predictions of doom for the funding of pubic services in the UK. For the BBC, the result confirmed that their role, size and funding will be firmly in the sights of the new administration – though I imagine… Continue reading Peoples Broadcasting in the age of the internet

Voting for Little Britain or the wider world

The UK General Election is tomorrow, May 7th. One of the issues in the Conservative manifesto is the pledge to hold a referendum about whether the UK stays in the European Union. But it’s barely featured in this election campaign. The London correspondent of German paper Die Welt has noticed this, but I haven’t seen much else.… Continue reading Voting for Little Britain or the wider world

MIP-TV: Yes We Cannes!

Long gap since my last post, apologies. But last week I went to the annual MIP-TV market in Cannes which gave me plenty to think (and write) about. Four days of meetings equated a big batch of ideas – though the word product seems more appropriate in such a marketplace. Fewer people were wandering the Palais this year –… Continue reading MIP-TV: Yes We Cannes!

From Hamlet to Richard III – history brought to life

I took part in a live-action role play a couple of weeks ago, called Inside Hamlet at Kronborg castle in Denmark. It was set in the 1930s, giving a whole new spin to Shakespeare’s tale. I learnt a massive amount about what history means by acting it out (as a Lutheran exorcist priest).   And… Continue reading From Hamlet to Richard III – history brought to life