October 2011
2 posts
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Highlight of today's interview with Benjamin...
Highlight of today”s interview with Benjamin Francis-Leftwich for @scratchradio… more to come soon! (mp3)
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My sort-lived appearance on @BBCLeicester with...
My sort-lived appearance on @BBCLeicester with @RupalR today… #barrywhite (mp3)
August 2011
4 posts
1 tag
Lutterworth Town Mayor on 2011 Carnival
Lutterworth Town Mayor on 2011 Carnival (mp3)
Hi Tumblr. Long time no see. I’ll start posting things on here again soon, honest.
5 tags
Benjamin Francis-leftwich at Summer Sundae
Benjamin Francis-leftwich at Summer Sundae (mp3)
June 2011
1 post
4 tags
My favourite clip from @jlampon this week!
My favourite clip from @jlampon this week! (mp3)
May 2011
1 post
5 tags
A case study of celebrity: @ElderRon and the TOWIE...
The term celebrity is commonplace. People refer to themselves as a celebrity and others connote celebrity status with well-known or revered individuals; but what defines a celebrity? Here I will examine the notion of the term and apply these ideas to the Twitter user @ElderRon and a pig.
The dictionary definition of the term celebrity is as follows: “the state of being well known”.
To some, the...
April 2011
4 posts
How to embed Soundcloud (and other nice things)...
No doubt you’re as stressed out trying to use Mahara as I am, and the thing that was annoying me the most was the fact that I couldn’t embed any sort of audio into my “view”. Mahara wasn’t having anything - native support for mp3 files or embedding a lovely Soundcloud player. I was resigned to the fact that I would have to just put mp3 files onto Mahara for people to...
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Radio Demo 2011
In a couple of weeks it’s the Student Radio Conference over in Hartforshire, this year sees the return of the Demo Factor to the conference so guess who’s entering his brand spanking, all new, sparkley radio-type demo thinger… yes, me!
Have a listen and I’d love to know what you think. You can leave comments on the Soundcloud player or Tweet me @BennSt…
March 2011
9 posts
2 tags
What's next for 3D cinema? Are we destined to an... →
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Bham #trainFAIL - Evaluation
This time last week we were on the eve of the epic advancement in awareness of Birmingham’s humongous train fails. Tasked with starting an online activist campaign in the three hours of #mc539 last Tuesday, we launched the Bham #trainFAIL project.
The first post on the Posterous blog explains the key objectives of the campaign and our reasons for venting our anger at Birmingham’s...
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Birmingham Social Media Cafe - March '11 →
My second blog post for @ClustaLabs - this morning, along with some of the other MC538 BCU-types, I headed to the Birmingham Social Media Cafe to see what it was all about! Will definitely be going back next month, hopefully with a few more BCUers?
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You're so new sincerity...
Do you ever go into Topman, see the adverts and models they use, and come away thinking - is it just me, or does everything look like it’s out of the 80s? Retro is still “in” so I’m told, which apparently means that development of fashion has somewhat ceased whilst we regenerate the styles of former years - ironic some would say.
Ironic? Or more new sincerity… the...
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Mistakes of the Past?
This is a reading response to David Parker and Paul Long’s “‘The Mistakes of the Past’? Visual Narratives of Urban Decline and Regeneration”.
Tim Berners-Lee is credited with ‘inventing the internet’. Revolutions in the last few years have seen the rise of what is commonly coined ‘Web 2.0’ - for the guy who came up with the idea for what was essentially...
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What's next for Social Media? →
My very first blog for @ClustaLabs - the innovation side of advertising agency Clusta. Based in Birmingham, I’ll be working on the next big things in social media for the next few months…
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The ever popular Stuart Hall...
This is a Media Culture reading response to Stuart Hall’s “Notes on Deconstructing ‘The Popular’”.
The ever-changing nature of popular, according to Hall, makes the term highly difficult to define - equally difficult is the notion of culture. This chapter looks at defining popular culture and how different definitions take into consideration different areas of both...
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February 2011
5 posts
4 tags
I went to see the X Factor and liked it...
On Sunday night I ashamedly bought into the consumer culture and went to see X Factor Live at the NEC in Birmingham. Whilst I’m not afraid to admit that I actually enjoyed it - albeit apart from Wagner’s hip-shaking - I couldn’t help but observe it from a Leavisite perspective. (If you’re reading and wondering who on earth this Leavis guy is, in short he is a highly...
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Loose #MC539 Ep1: Emma Watson
Listen!
Following on from my Media Culture posts, this is a small experiment for MC539 - otherwise known as Web & Alternative Media Production. Using AudioBoo we were tasked with creating a short piece of audio which can be shared online easily, in response to a contemporary news story.
Instead of a vox or clip from someone involved in the story, we decided to create a one-off podcast...
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#MC513 Reading Response - Raymond Williams 'The...
This post is for @BCUMedia module MC513 and is a response to the reading ‘The Analysis of Culture’ by Raymond Williams.
Williams initially outlines three key definitions of culture:
the ‘ideal’: “culture is a state or process of human perfection”
the ‘documentary’: “culture is the body of intellectual and imaginative work”
the...
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"solitary purveyor of information..."
First off, let me explain, from today you’ll start to see a load of posts tagged with mc513 or media culture - as part of my undergraduate course at BCU, tagged posts relate to media culture theory seminars.
When this question was posed, any number of things popped into my head. With such an enormous range of media consumption everyday it appears as though this question is the hardest thing...
January 2011
2 posts
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@ConorFitzhenry is a ledge
Listen!
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Cheese Vox
Listen!
November 2010
1 post
4 tags
June 2010
1 post
April 2010
4 posts
My very first live student radio show... and I...
Brum Music Month Interview with Lucy Hird on Ben Stones on Scratch Radio by BennSt
What a complete and utter idiot. On the flip side, it went reasonably well and everyone that listened said they enjoyed it. Loving the features on the show, next week including the new Popular Panpipe Pick and revisiting Stu’s Reviews and the Eileen Loves Music Track of the Week. All seemed to go down...
News...
It’s been time since my last post and since then there’s been quite a lot of exciting things happening. So, lets start with the most exciting…
I’m on Scratch Radio every Wednesday 4-6pm starting from April 21st!
Yes, starting after Easter I will be hosting my own show on BCU’s student radio station, Scratch Radio. We’ve got lots of exciting features and stuff...
March 2010
5 posts
I'm off to London...
…to dance on King’s Cross station and break into song on the tube.
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Bargains for your Home
Home Bargains, Britain’s favourite cut-price you-can-get-anything-in-the-world-here store so it seems, has featured quite highly in this week’s events. It’s proving to be quite popular to procure numerous household items - sponges, cleaning stuffs, etc - as well as confectionary and drinks.
Firstly, real actual Jaffa Cakes for more than half price. That went down well. Secondly...
February 2010
10 posts
2 tags
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Radio: Traffic Report
Traffic Report Demo by BennSt
In an attempt to try out a different style of radio, I had a go at recording a traffic bullitin last night. What do we think?
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“Darling, I don’t know how to tell you this, but there appears to be a...”
– P.s. the Ikea bit is my fave. Thanks.
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“…Benjamin was not the only one to express ambivalence about the camera, of...”
– A short quote for this week’s Web & Photography Theory lecture.
W.J.T. Mitchell: Benjamin and the Polictical Economy of the Photograph
“…it’s the spork of the electronic consumer goods world.”
– Ah yes, the musings of Charlie Brooker of course. But, his account of the iPad is spot on.
iGenius if you will.
January 2010
12 posts
first day on placement, i break the boss' desk...
…but other than that it went really well! I’m on placement working on community websites/ICT in Leicestershire and my first chat with the guy overseeing all the projects and websites I manage to pull his desk apart. He didn’t seem to mind :/
It’s proving really interesting how many community websites and digital services are workign together to provide a single point of...