Andrew Marr has just written a very good piece about the changing nature of news and journalism. His main thrust is that the changing technology and number of authors/voices out there has meant that during any crisis he is personally merging professional news sources with comment. For me, this was best seen during the election and budget a couple of weeks ago when I was watching the BBC for the official footage and some instant comment but supplementing this with twitter and blogs to provide comment. Now, we're all aware that this is partisan comment but as readers' we are able to differentiate between a variety of news sources and voices. Marr's argument goes onto say that rather than being focused on a variety of spikes (news bulletins, newspaper editions), news now permeates. This requires a new way of reading news and a new of interacting with information which academia could learn from.
I remember when doing the MA in Broadcast Journalism, they justified the level of the degree by saying that good academia is like good news: based on thorough, honest, thoughtful research which is well targeted and challenging for its audience. As part of this I wrote a list in 2005 called My Rucksack and Beliefs saying what I thought I needed to my job. Five years on and my career has changed from researching news to researching as an academic. The list in 2005 was as follows:
1. My Notebook
2. My Contacts Book
3. Pens and Pencils
4. A Diary
5. An Umbrella, hat and gloves
6. A lunch box
7. Mini-Disks
8. Pen Knife, Tissues and Condoms
9. CD/Radio Player
10. A Book
11. Spare Batteries
12. Me?
As an academic researcher, I still need numbers 1 to 4 to keep records and make sure interviews with participants take place. Increasingly electronic varieties are common but pen and paper does not run out of power! Numbers 5 and 6 are still important as keeping warm and fed is just as important for the academic in a drafty library as the door-stepping journalist. Mini-disks are now outdated but I still use a little digital recorder to record interviews. Number 8 lists tools for maintaining recording equipment (the condom was to stop wind on the mic) and I still carry most of the stuff but for different reasons: packed lunches, a cold nose and ... um ... The CD/Radio has been replaced by a digital radio but along with the books and batteries provide the latest info for my research as well as entertainment. So the list needed to be a good researcher has not changed that much though perhaps a little more high-tech: a lap top along with a mobile would probably feature.
Yet, I have a feeling I am unusual in my research; the fact I keep this blog and twitter is often derided by the academic community. For me, it is a way of sharing and testing my theories, for exchanging ideas and forming a larger debate. The changing technology has opened news to a new audience and yet many (though not all) in academia remain aloof and not engaging with the technology or the potential audience. Personally, I think academia - like news - should become a rolling dialogue with official voices (academics at universities) and commentators (those from the wider community).
What is universal to both the 2005 and 2010 lists and in common with Andrew Marr's article is the importance of the individual. The ability to tell a story, to identify key issues and ask the questions is necessary to both trades, yesterday, today and tomorrow. This will not be lost in a changed academia - indeed the value of the individual could be enhanced and, as Marr concludes, thus making it an exciting world to be involved in.
Friday 16 July 2010
HE Making the News
My sector has made the news a couple of times in the last few days: firstly as the discussions over its future funding continues and secondly as the assessment of research has been postponed.
Since joint the coalition, Dr. Cable has been given some of the trickier jobs to do and moving away from his party's aims to scrap tuition fees to one where he is looking at the options for a graduate tax must be tough. It seems so different from the Lib Dems that the students voted for. It seems so far from the Lib Dems I profiled in the lead up to the general election. But, once again, the focus of the funding discussions looks at undergraduate students, particularly those aged 18. They form but a part of what we do. A significant part but it misses out on all the postgraduate, doctoral, research and knowledge transfer activities that take place. These may form a smaller part of a university's income but in many ways are more significant to do with the culture of learning. A recession hits postgraduate study hard as it can be easily cut and the amount of spare money for research is going to be halved. So, whilst it is important that we look at the life-changing opportunities we offer those on Bachelor degrees, we must not forget the wider activities of a university which still need income to survive.
But it is not just on financial numbers alone that we survive. The assessment and ranking of our research is important. So the good news is that the timeline for the submission to REF (the Research Excellence Framework) has been pushed back to the end of 2013 which means I may (just) be able to submit in my own right. This means that there will be a longer period over which work can have been prepared and I think this is going to be important to give us the time to get our house in order (both personally and professionally). Though a delay is good, more is going to be expected at the end of it so it could be a double-edged sword.
Since joint the coalition, Dr. Cable has been given some of the trickier jobs to do and moving away from his party's aims to scrap tuition fees to one where he is looking at the options for a graduate tax must be tough. It seems so different from the Lib Dems that the students voted for. It seems so far from the Lib Dems I profiled in the lead up to the general election. But, once again, the focus of the funding discussions looks at undergraduate students, particularly those aged 18. They form but a part of what we do. A significant part but it misses out on all the postgraduate, doctoral, research and knowledge transfer activities that take place. These may form a smaller part of a university's income but in many ways are more significant to do with the culture of learning. A recession hits postgraduate study hard as it can be easily cut and the amount of spare money for research is going to be halved. So, whilst it is important that we look at the life-changing opportunities we offer those on Bachelor degrees, we must not forget the wider activities of a university which still need income to survive.
But it is not just on financial numbers alone that we survive. The assessment and ranking of our research is important. So the good news is that the timeline for the submission to REF (the Research Excellence Framework) has been pushed back to the end of 2013 which means I may (just) be able to submit in my own right. This means that there will be a longer period over which work can have been prepared and I think this is going to be important to give us the time to get our house in order (both personally and professionally). Though a delay is good, more is going to be expected at the end of it so it could be a double-edged sword.
Thursday 15 July 2010
Tutorial Day Revisited
OK, it has been a week but have been thrown somewhat into a spin after the tutorial and have sort of been running away from doing anything with it since. The summary of the tutorial which I wrote for the supervision report was as follows:
Main topics/issues discussed and action points agreed:
o Work was rushed, not what expected and failed to sit comfortably in any section of the final thesis. Work failed to reflect nuance or discussion and its style could be more in line with academic writing.
o A broader literature needs to take place, covering a number of areas including the Europe, Student Experience, Policy Formation and Coopeartion etc.
o Specific issues to do with issues raised and language used were discussed.
Basically, they wanted a draft of the lit review chapter. I did a paper on internationalisation. They did not want me analysing the documents and stats I had found. I analysed away. They did not want me drawing conclusions about new models of international relations. I came up with (I thought) an interesting new model. They did not like my attempt to be informal and witty. I did.
So, as with all tutorials, I went into a spin and felt that I was not getting anywhere. Each time I do this I feel like it is one step forward and two back and one just has to be positive.
Therefore in the last week I have broken my own rule of doing an hour's research daily. I need to produce a chapter for the autumn but first there is an article which needs re-editing and an essay to be written so I might distract myself with that for a few days so I can write them on holiday.
Instead of research reading on the train, I have read two books which I will review else where but have felt a little better for that; both relate to the play 'Holding the Man' which I saw a couple of weeks ago but that can feature in another blog.
I feel a little better for writing this, I have to say, and have got it all off my chest. Still feel a little lost, as do many of my colleagues after a tutorial, but I will get there.
Main topics/issues discussed and action points agreed:
o Work was rushed, not what expected and failed to sit comfortably in any section of the final thesis. Work failed to reflect nuance or discussion and its style could be more in line with academic writing.
o A broader literature needs to take place, covering a number of areas including the Europe, Student Experience, Policy Formation and Coopeartion etc.
o Specific issues to do with issues raised and language used were discussed.
Basically, they wanted a draft of the lit review chapter. I did a paper on internationalisation. They did not want me analysing the documents and stats I had found. I analysed away. They did not want me drawing conclusions about new models of international relations. I came up with (I thought) an interesting new model. They did not like my attempt to be informal and witty. I did.
So, as with all tutorials, I went into a spin and felt that I was not getting anywhere. Each time I do this I feel like it is one step forward and two back and one just has to be positive.
Therefore in the last week I have broken my own rule of doing an hour's research daily. I need to produce a chapter for the autumn but first there is an article which needs re-editing and an essay to be written so I might distract myself with that for a few days so I can write them on holiday.
Instead of research reading on the train, I have read two books which I will review else where but have felt a little better for that; both relate to the play 'Holding the Man' which I saw a couple of weeks ago but that can feature in another blog.
I feel a little better for writing this, I have to say, and have got it all off my chest. Still feel a little lost, as do many of my colleagues after a tutorial, but I will get there.
Monday 5 July 2010
Tutorial Day
It hardly seems like 2 minutes since the last tutorial but today’s the most recent one. I think I will be told off for not getting work done soon enough. There are a variety of issues to discuss including the paper I submitted on Internationalisation, my questionnaires which have been submitted and planning for the year ahead. Quite an involved meeting. And there’s a problem with my registration at the moment that my paperwork for the fee waver has been lost and I may end up paying for the year.
Sunday 4 July 2010
A little bit of Culture
There are things (a few but they do exist) which interest me outside my research and work. That makes me sound like a workaholic. In reality, it is just that the PhD seems to suck any life out of other parts of my existence and come all encompassing. Well, this week I have seen a fair bit of both high and low culture (though putting values of high/low on culture tells me more about the value holder than the quality of the items viewed).
On Saturday I went to a good concert by the New London Singers and their Orchestra. From the opening anthem of ‘Zadok the Priest’ to the final notes of Music for the Royal Fireworks which was excellent. Very good summer music and a good prelude to the other summer tradition: the house student days when you talked into the early hours about everything from the stars above us to gardening, from difficult work colleagues to the latest holiday destinations. All good stuff and an evening which was relaxing as well as reminding me the variety of experiences which make up human life and culture.
I finally watched the final episodes of Dr. Who on Monday and Tuesday. Mixed feelings as you can see in my replies to this blog. It was a relief to talk to other members of the family yesterday and find it was not me that found it a little clever-clever for TV and there can be depth in programmes (look at some of Pinter’s TV dramas) without being so pretentious. I think rather than being able to work at multiple levels, many would have been lost or ostracised by it.
Wednesday came and after lectures I watched ‘Reunion’, a drama about a group of friends meeting up for the first time since leaving university 8 years previously. It’s five years almost exactly this week that I graduated from Warwick and two of my good friends are considering a reunion in September 2011 as it will be 10 years since we met. It summarised my feelings of having moved on from University but still being left with some ‘what if’ questions. It was aimed at those of us in our late 20s who feel very much part of that generation which has moved into adulthood and are now realising how formative those days of freedom at university were. See my earlier blog on Auberge Espagnole which reflects my feelings on that. It isn’t great drama but the gentle humour and makes me want to see it turned into a fool series, even if the official reviews were a little more mixed.
And, as you can tell, I do sometimes disagree with reviews, as was the case with the final bit of culture this week. ‘Holding the Man’ had its last night yesterday at the Trafalgar studios so my comments are a little late in the day. The play traced the story of a young gay couple from the school and universities in the 70s, through their rocky though loving relationship in the 80s leading to their death from AIDs in the early 90s. The Play’s semi-autobiographic, with the lead character telling his story from his perspective as half of the couple. Originally, the story was recorded in a book which came out a little after their death and was converted to a play in 2006. I was close to walking out of the first half as the jokes were either simplistically crude or overly repeated so lost their impact. At the start of the second half, starting in 1982, it was clear this was going to be an HIV story so it was slightly predictable. The play felt, for me, like it lacked any of the nuances and variations in gay politics and discussions which have come out over the last few years. I’ve discussed this with the friend I was seeing the play with. My feeling is that if weren’t for the stories told widely, like in the original book, then this narrative of tracking gay liberation in the 70s and 80s coupled with the heart-breaking losses and stories of AIDS, wouldn’t be so common and so understood. But the failure of the play is to keep this discussion moving forward and, as my friend pointed out, a play from 2006 could have a little more depth and insight into the current situation without losing the importance or power of the original tale. The author of the original book (aka the lead character in the play) was also a gay-activist and very much aware of the changes in gay politics in the 70s and 80s. He was involved in gay activism and HIV awareness so I think would have no problems with his working reflecting the current debates whilst still showing his original story.
You see, I can’t criticise the play too much as during the scenes tracking the gradual death of the first of the pair, I was saddened thinking of the loss of my Mother which I am witnerssing. There was something to empathise with – not the gay story line but the simple human story of losing someone he cared about. At the end when the ‘hero’ talks of sending his love into a black hole because his partner was no longer there to receive it, I knew what he meant.
And, whatever the faults of the play, it shared much in common with my cultural week the fundamental power of culture – high or low – to stimulate reflection and tap into the shared emotions of all humans. And that's why a little bit of culture is a good - and necessary - part of life.
On Saturday I went to a good concert by the New London Singers and their Orchestra. From the opening anthem of ‘Zadok the Priest’ to the final notes of Music for the Royal Fireworks which was excellent. Very good summer music and a good prelude to the other summer tradition: the house student days when you talked into the early hours about everything from the stars above us to gardening, from difficult work colleagues to the latest holiday destinations. All good stuff and an evening which was relaxing as well as reminding me the variety of experiences which make up human life and culture.
I finally watched the final episodes of Dr. Who on Monday and Tuesday. Mixed feelings as you can see in my replies to this blog. It was a relief to talk to other members of the family yesterday and find it was not me that found it a little clever-clever for TV and there can be depth in programmes (look at some of Pinter’s TV dramas) without being so pretentious. I think rather than being able to work at multiple levels, many would have been lost or ostracised by it.
Wednesday came and after lectures I watched ‘Reunion’, a drama about a group of friends meeting up for the first time since leaving university 8 years previously. It’s five years almost exactly this week that I graduated from Warwick and two of my good friends are considering a reunion in September 2011 as it will be 10 years since we met. It summarised my feelings of having moved on from University but still being left with some ‘what if’ questions. It was aimed at those of us in our late 20s who feel very much part of that generation which has moved into adulthood and are now realising how formative those days of freedom at university were. See my earlier blog on Auberge Espagnole which reflects my feelings on that. It isn’t great drama but the gentle humour and makes me want to see it turned into a fool series, even if the official reviews were a little more mixed.
And, as you can tell, I do sometimes disagree with reviews, as was the case with the final bit of culture this week. ‘Holding the Man’ had its last night yesterday at the Trafalgar studios so my comments are a little late in the day. The play traced the story of a young gay couple from the school and universities in the 70s, through their rocky though loving relationship in the 80s leading to their death from AIDs in the early 90s. The Play’s semi-autobiographic, with the lead character telling his story from his perspective as half of the couple. Originally, the story was recorded in a book which came out a little after their death and was converted to a play in 2006. I was close to walking out of the first half as the jokes were either simplistically crude or overly repeated so lost their impact. At the start of the second half, starting in 1982, it was clear this was going to be an HIV story so it was slightly predictable. The play felt, for me, like it lacked any of the nuances and variations in gay politics and discussions which have come out over the last few years. I’ve discussed this with the friend I was seeing the play with. My feeling is that if weren’t for the stories told widely, like in the original book, then this narrative of tracking gay liberation in the 70s and 80s coupled with the heart-breaking losses and stories of AIDS, wouldn’t be so common and so understood. But the failure of the play is to keep this discussion moving forward and, as my friend pointed out, a play from 2006 could have a little more depth and insight into the current situation without losing the importance or power of the original tale. The author of the original book (aka the lead character in the play) was also a gay-activist and very much aware of the changes in gay politics in the 70s and 80s. He was involved in gay activism and HIV awareness so I think would have no problems with his working reflecting the current debates whilst still showing his original story.
You see, I can’t criticise the play too much as during the scenes tracking the gradual death of the first of the pair, I was saddened thinking of the loss of my Mother which I am witnerssing. There was something to empathise with – not the gay story line but the simple human story of losing someone he cared about. At the end when the ‘hero’ talks of sending his love into a black hole because his partner was no longer there to receive it, I knew what he meant.
And, whatever the faults of the play, it shared much in common with my cultural week the fundamental power of culture – high or low – to stimulate reflection and tap into the shared emotions of all humans. And that's why a little bit of culture is a good - and necessary - part of life.
Saturday 3 July 2010
A Heck of a Week
Just on the train home after quite a frantic week with two huge bids submitted (totalling £2m) and also the reports submitted for the Research Excellence Framework internal review today. I have to admit this was revealing from my perspective of bidding; some of them really lack focus and ideas. Some are very badly structured and written. And the (self-defined) more professional bidders were not always the best.
Anyway, almost home for wine and a celebration of Daddy’s Birthday. I have Nigel Hess on the MP3 player (a new habit’s developing) and the sunshine is gleaming as I come through Gressford bank. Welcome home and a happy weekend all.
Anyway, almost home for wine and a celebration of Daddy’s Birthday. I have Nigel Hess on the MP3 player (a new habit’s developing) and the sunshine is gleaming as I come through Gressford bank. Welcome home and a happy weekend all.
Thursday 1 July 2010
Trips Across Europe
Just been thinking about my research and how useful it was to meet with the students face to face and question them about their feelings towards inclusive education. Now the alumni are spread around the world so the only way I am going to approach them is via telephone. Now I am trained as a radio interviewer so I should be able to get them to do a reveal some interesting things about their experiences but it is not as easy as face to face.
The last chance I can speak to students is just after the vivas (it would not be fair to disturb them when preparing for them) which take place in Tilburg (Netherlands), Prague (Czech Republic) and Roehampton (UK). This is also a week I have off on leave. So I have just thought I could do a quick whizz across Europe so I can interview them face to face but the window of opportunity is small. It would mean flying out to Eindhoven for Tilburg on Monday night, interviewing all day Tuesday, flying Amsterdam to Prague Wednesday morning before interviewing Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning before flying back to the UK and interviewing the UK cohort on the Friday. Intensive but I would then have a three day weekend to recover and some excellent data. And the flights would cost me about £120. Tempting. Just need to check the students are available and the academics willing. Time for a bit of arranging. I also need to start working on getting myself an invite to the Erasmus Mundus co-ordinators conference in November so I can interview both the staff their and network. A busy few months travelling coming up. Researching international education has its benefits!
The last chance I can speak to students is just after the vivas (it would not be fair to disturb them when preparing for them) which take place in Tilburg (Netherlands), Prague (Czech Republic) and Roehampton (UK). This is also a week I have off on leave. So I have just thought I could do a quick whizz across Europe so I can interview them face to face but the window of opportunity is small. It would mean flying out to Eindhoven for Tilburg on Monday night, interviewing all day Tuesday, flying Amsterdam to Prague Wednesday morning before interviewing Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning before flying back to the UK and interviewing the UK cohort on the Friday. Intensive but I would then have a three day weekend to recover and some excellent data. And the flights would cost me about £120. Tempting. Just need to check the students are available and the academics willing. Time for a bit of arranging. I also need to start working on getting myself an invite to the Erasmus Mundus co-ordinators conference in November so I can interview both the staff their and network. A busy few months travelling coming up. Researching international education has its benefits!
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