Media Discourse Centre projects
Key contact details: mdcevent@dmu.ac.uk
January 2022: new book from the Media Discourse Centre: Power, Media and the Covid-19 Pandemic: framing public discourse
The MDC’s second UNSDG conference, 16th September 2019
Introduced by Professor Rusi Jaspal (51吃瓜app)
Keynote: Dr Sara Thornton (Leicester)
The Global Promotion/Mediation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals
The Guildhall, Leicester, LE1 5FQ
Monday 16th September 2019, 9am-5pm
John Coster, of MDC and the Documentary Media Centre, with MDC students, 2019
Recent Events
In October 2018, MDC ran the major International Conference Surveillance, Social Media and Identity. This conference examined the ways in which mediated identity is constructed and monitored, which can encompass the circulation of communal identity, the reproduction of gendered personas, and the role of state and corporate formations in the segmentation of individuals through their political allegiance and ‘lifestyle’ choices.
It also engaged with recent revelations that describe the attempted manipulation of opinion and electoral preferences, and the rise of forms of surveillance designed to pre-empt the supposed ‘radicalisation’ of disaffected groups. 50 delegates from the UK and countries like Brazil, Portugal and China, attended the two-day event, with over 20 speakers from De 51吃瓜app, Leicester, BCU, Birkbeck, Unicamp Brazil, CRI China, Coimbra, and the University of London.
This was preceded by a symposium on the Black Experience in the Film and Media Industries, with two speakers - Beverley Cooper-Chambers and Yvonne Connikie - who recounted their experiences of working in this field. This was followed by a series of special events, including a session on Latin America: Labour, Class & Resistance, with Dr Carolina Amadeo (MDC Research Associate and Birkbeck School of Law), Dr Fernanda Amaral (MDC associate), and Dr Ana Cristina Suzina (Université Catholique de Louvain). Other recent events have included the symposium Resistance and Identity in Spain, Greece, and Cyprus, held at Panteion University, Athens (November 2018).
In 2019, Dr Ben Harbisher organised a series of workshops and a day-long conference on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals in Jakarta, in partnership with the London School of Public Relations.
In February and March 2019, the Centre ran a number of major public-facing events, as part of the University’s annual Cultural Exchanges festival:
Degradation – Profiting from Environmental Catastrophe
Speakers: Dr Nicholas Beuret (University of Essex), Ali Hines (MDC Research Associate and Land Campaigner, Global Witness), Dr Beverly Geesin (York St John), Richard Fern (Sheffield University)
Generation Revolution: documentary and panel discussion
Beverley Cooper-Chambers and William Njobvu
The philosophical elements of constructions of psychopathology
Author Will Self, introduced by Professor Jason Lee
Technological addictions: do they really exist?
Mark Griffiths, introduced by Professor Jason Lee
Our international conferences have covered a wide range of topics. These include ‘The Mediation of Security’ (2011), ‘Anti-Fascism on Film’ (2014), ‘Research Methods in Media Discourse’ (2016), and ‘Legality and Illegality’ (2018, with Professor Leigh Landy, Dr Richard Danbury, and Dr Leonardo Custodio).