public sphere

As documented by local media organisation South-Blessed Community Channel

If the video does not embed properly, see the video direct here – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7qeY3tEeKk ... read more »

The following is a reply I sent to Rachel MacPherson, a journalism student from University of the West of Scotland.  She was writing her dissertation on the media’s representation of victims of crime, in particular missing person cases, and read my post about Serena Beakhurst and wanted my opinion.  I provided answers to her questions, as shown below.  The topic i ... read more »

Photographs taken during the first student & lecturer march against the ConDem rise in tuition fees, November 10th 2010.  A one stop shop for all your student placard slogan needs.

All photography by me – Shawn Sobers
Music by Musical Youth – original copyright remains
All messages by The People ... read more »

Over the next year I’m going to go back to my roots and make more pictures, both still and moving, as well as writing words (which I may do less).  As a political (small ‘p’) animal at heart, it is work that has something to say, or maybe more importantly work that asks questions, that inspires me most in terms of my own creative practice.  (I don’t force this upon my students, although they do at least have to have a focused idea they are pursuing!) ... read more »

Message from my activist colleague Corine Dhondee about the heavy-handed tactics she witnessed by the police when secretly filming protests at the council building.  We might look at what is happening in Libya today and say we are lucky and have nothing to complain about, but I feel we must protect the freedoms that we have today, as if we take them for granted and let our freedoms erode and don’t defend them, then tomorrow if they are all gone, it will be too late to complain.

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Message from   Corine:  ... read more »

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Just the other day I wrote about how the  punk scene of the 70s, and the hip hop scene of the 80s and early 90s, both drew on DIY culture and the principle of creating your own noise if you were being ignored.  Punk lost its’ pioneer Malcolm Mclaren a couple of weeks ago, and this week Hip Hop lost one its’ own pioneers, Guru from the group Gang Starr, who lost his battle with cancer. ... read more »

If you are an American reading this, then please understand that in the UK yesterday we have just had our first ever televised political leaders debate in an election campaign, broadcast on ITV in a 90 minutes live transmission.  As you know, you’ve had yours since 1960 with the Kennedy/Nixon debate – we are only 50 years behind you!  There’s no turning back now…… ... read more »

Now with the General Election less than a month away in England, all talk is on how many votes the three main parties will get.  The figures I am more interested in, especially long-term, is how many members will each party have?  The only talk of party membership in the media has been about the far-right British National Party (BNP).  There have been stories about their leaked membership list,  the legal challenge to their ... read more »

From being the first (non-engineer) person to make a long distance phone call without an operator in 1958, I wondered how up to date Beth II keeps with new technologies. 

1. Is she a PC or a Mac? ... read more »