Uckfield FM was conceived in 2002 when the four founders, Mike Skinner, Gary King, Paddy Rea and Alan French were members of a local hospital radio station. They were attending the Uckfield Festival when Mike said 'what this town needs is a radio station' One year later it was broadcasting for one month at the Uckfield Festival and did so every year until Ofcom awarded the group a full time licence to start broadcasting on 1st July 2010. Since that time it has thrived in this area.
BBC AND CITIZENS' EYE TO OPEN FIRST COMMUNITY MEDIA HUB IN LEICESTER
Citizens' Eye Community News Agency to be based at BBC Radio Leicester, providing media training and state-of-the-art production facilities for new generation of
citizen journalists
Citizens' Eye Community News Agency has signed an exclusive agreement with the BBC to open the first dedicated community media hub in the country at BBC Radio Leicester. The opening of the new facilities will coincide with national Volunteers' Week from 1-7 June 2013 and will provide state-of-the-art production and broadcasting facilities for local community news agencies, third sector groups and citizen journalists.
From its new base at BBC Radio Leicester, Citizens' Eye will run a range of activities including a regular weekly Community Media Training School and the Young Reporters' Saturday Club. The Training School will use the on-site facilities shared by the College of Journalism, part of the BBC Academy, which oversees training for the BBC’s entire editorial staff. The Saturday Club will build on the success of the existing BBC News School Report which gives 11-16 year-old students in the UK the chance to make their own news reports for a real audience.
Jane Hill, Managing Editor at BBC Radio Leicester commented: “BBC Radio Leicester was the first local BBC station in the country and with this new agreement, we will continue to be a pioneering broadcaster. We are committed to delivering a vital resource for the Leicester and Leicestershire community and by working with Citizens' Eye, we will increase our engagement with the local community as a base for Citizens' Eye's innovative projects.”
Citizens’ Eye was named by the Media Trust as the first beacon hub for citizen journalism in the UK in 2011. Caroline Diehl MBE , Chief Executive of Media Trust added: "Media Trust is thrilled to support this innovative partnership between the BBC and Citizens' Eye. Citizens' Eye has a fantastic model of community journalism and gives voice to a wide range of communities and citizens across the area, as well as providing inspiration as a Media Trust Beacon Hub, to communities across the UK.”
John Coster, Founder and Managing Editor at Citizens' Eye said: “In the five years since we founded Citizens' Eye, community news gathering has built a deserved positive reputation and now plays an increasingly prominent role in the ever-changing national media landscape. We're honoured that the BBC has embraced this concept and for the first time across its network, is working with us to provide dedicated facilities for a new generation of community news reporters.”
Volunteers’ Week is an annual campaign which takes place on 1-7 June and celebrates the fantastic contribution millions of volunteers make across the UK. To find out more and to get involved, visit www.volunteersweek.org
About Citizens' Eye:
Founded in 2008, the Citizens’ Eye Community News Agency was established to enable community people in Leicester and Leicestershire to become ‘Citizen Reporters’ and provide a news gathering platform for current and relevant news to the third sector. Citizens' Eye now boasts more than 20 volunteer run Community News Agencies covering areas from mental health and green issues to a news agency for ex-offenders. For more information, visit www.citizenseye.org
Artbox London a charity which supports artists with learning difficulties has teamed up with Nati Gallery and Say Media to put on an exhibition in central London this Tuesday. Encounter: Artbox London Spring 2013 Exhibiton 5pm to 9pm Tuesday 14 May at Nati Gallery, 22 Warren Street London W1T 5LU. Fitzrovia News our community newspaper has more information.
A special one-day conference is being hosted by the Citizen journalism Educational Trust and the-Latest.Com, and builds on the success of their Media and the Riots conference that brought young people and journalists face to face. The Leveson Inquiry accepted the conference report as evidence.
Top bloggers, campaigners for greater press regulation, including Hacked Off, those opposed to it, citizen journalists, scholars, students and members of the public will be at the one-day conference.
In the wake of the outcry from Fleet Street’s finest about them not wanting to be regulated by law, the debate has turned to online news and comment. Will bloggers, and sites like our, face draconian fines if lawyers are set loose on them? Or, should they be excluded from new regulation?
After the 2011 summer riots, some police and politicians, aware that young people share a lot of news using social media, urged the closing down of internet services including Twitter and BlackBerry Messenger, during times of civil unrest. Yet the post Leveson Inquiry debate seems to have by-passed discussion that the way forward may not be with “big media”, whose circulations are tumbling, but with alternative reporting by the people for the people in the shape of citizen journalism.
Can newspapers recapture the vast space now occupied by a growing army of online bloggers and other members of the public publishing news, views and images unhindered by the demands of rich, powerful and partisan proprietors? Then again, maybe “big media” need not fear citizen journalism because it is a passing fad unable to uphold professional standards in an unaccountable wild west that is the World Wide Web.
These important questions and more will be discussed in a lively debate by key figures in the media industry. We hope you will be able to join us.
Venue:
London College of Communication,
Elephant and Castle,
London
SE1 6SB
The programme for our 6th Community Media Week 1st-8th November is going live next week. It will be followed by our 4th Docfilm Festival 8th-10th November - all details and links will be post on http://www.citizenseye.org
If any Local 360 Network member would like to participate by Skype, google hangout, live streaming via UStream or Bambuser please drop me an email editor@citizenseye.org as our volunteer Community Reporters would welcome the chance to engage with people across the UK. Also I would welcome submissions from members of any documentaries they have produced or can recommend. There is no charge for this just whizz me a DVD in the post and complete the submission details on http://www.docfilmfestival.co.uk
I've also set up the Community Media Training School and currently busy adding 'virtual campuses' across the world. It's looking good in Kenya for a partnership. Any recommendations of UK or global organisations gratefully received.
ThoughtOut Project's April #TOPtalks event at UEA London is on Tuesday. It features The Guardian's Ian Cobain and award-winning journalist Prof Heather Brooke discussing the history of torture in British history and the modern day implications. For more details and free tickets, register here.
Media Reform Coalition is running a consultation for bloggers on the new Crime and Courts Bill and seeks responses from small publishers, online news sites and bloggers. Visit their consultation page for more information.
Currently setting up a website suite of sites concerning community enterprise (mulifunction organisation) looking for help to create a video.
Uckfield FM was conceived in 2002 when the four founders, Mike Skinner, Gary King, Paddy Rea and Alan French were members of a local hospital radio station. They were attending the Uckfield Festival when Mike said 'what this town needs is a radio station' One year later it was broadcasting for one month at the Uckfield Festival and did so every year until Ofcom awarded the group a full time licence to start broadcasting on 1st July 2010. Since that time it has thrived in this area.
Artbox London a charity which supports artists with learning difficulties has teamed up with Nati Gallery and Say Media to put on an exhibition in central London this Tuesday.
Encounter: Artbox London Spring 2013 Exhibiton 5pm to 9pm Tuesday 14 May at Nati Gallery, 22 Warren Street London W1T 5LU.
Fitzrovia News our community newspaper has more information.
A special one-day conference is being hosted by the Citizen journalism Educational Trust and the-Latest.Com, and builds on the success of their Media and the Riots conference that brought young people and journalists face to face. The Leveson Inquiry accepted the conference report as evidence.
Top bloggers, campaigners for greater press regulation, including Hacked Off, those opposed to it, citizen journalists, scholars, students and members of the public will be at the one-day conference.
In the wake of the outcry from Fleet Street’s finest about them not wanting to be regulated by law, the debate has turned to online news and comment. Will bloggers, and sites like our, face draconian fines if lawyers are set loose on them? Or, should they be excluded from new regulation?
After the 2011 summer riots, some police and politicians, aware that young people share a lot of news using social media, urged the closing down of internet services including Twitter and BlackBerry Messenger, during times of civil unrest. Yet the post Leveson Inquiry debate seems to have by-passed discussion that the way forward may not be with “big media”, whose circulations are tumbling, but with alternative reporting by the people for the people in the shape of citizen journalism.
Can newspapers recapture the vast space now occupied by a growing army of online bloggers and other members of the public publishing news, views and images unhindered by the demands of rich, powerful and partisan proprietors? Then again, maybe “big media” need not fear citizen journalism because it is a passing fad unable to uphold professional standards in an unaccountable wild west that is the World Wide Web.
These important questions and more will be discussed in a lively debate by key figures in the media industry. We hope you will be able to join us.
Venue:
London College of Communication,
Elephant and Castle,
London
SE1 6SB
Tickets available here:
http://after-leveson-cj.eventbrite.co.uk
The programme for our 6th Community Media Week 1st-8th November is going live next week. It will be followed by our 4th Docfilm Festival 8th-10th November - all details and links will be post on http://www.citizenseye.org
If any Local 360 Network member would like to participate by Skype, google hangout, live streaming via UStream or Bambuser please drop me an email editor@citizenseye.org as our volunteer Community Reporters would welcome the chance to engage with people across the UK. Also I would welcome submissions from members of any documentaries they have produced or can recommend. There is no charge for this just whizz me a DVD in the post and complete the submission details on http://www.docfilmfestival.co.uk
I've also set up the Community Media Training School and currently busy adding 'virtual campuses' across the world. It's looking good in Kenya for a partnership. Any recommendations of UK or global organisations gratefully received.
ThoughtOut Project's April #TOPtalks event at UEA London is on Tuesday. It features The Guardian's Ian Cobain and award-winning journalist Prof Heather Brooke discussing the history of torture in British history and the modern day implications. For more details and free tickets, register here.
Media Reform Coalition is running a consultation for bloggers on the new Crime and Courts Bill and seeks responses from small publishers, online news sites and bloggers. Visit their consultation page for more information.
Looking forward to the Storytelling workshop at Media Trust's GoMobile Conference tomorrow. Featuring John Coster from Citizen's Eye and Simon Bucks from Sky News.
We have a media event and reception happening at The Bank Youth Project on Monday 25 March at 3pm. More details to follow.