UNTV essay - done & dusted
I owe a big round of 'thank you' 's to all my friends and colleagues who responded to my pleas from help through this blog, but submitting comments and e-mailing me with ideas for this UNTV essay project.
My essay has now been submitted and assessed by my tutors - I was awarded 72% for the piece, so I am naturallly pretty chipper about the result. If you are interested in having a read, then please download the essay by clicking on the PDF icon link at the bottom of this post.
Because UNTV has receive so little scholarly attention ("still hasn't" I hear some of you wags chortling), I am hoping to submit a version of the essay to some academic journal or other at some point. If this happens I will make some minor revisions as suggested by my tutor Dr Claire Monk at De Montfort University, but for now this version is the full "warts and all" piece submitted for the assessment.
Time now to move on to my next subject area. I am hoping to look more closely at how technology and social media have advanced to the point where audiences and people appear to be able to set the agenda in development. Nearly every BBC report from the current situation in Syria is peppered with footage submitted via mobile phone, with the reporter hastily adding that the broadcaster 'cannot independently verify the authenticity of this material' - but the material still gets screened. How can more formal producers of documentary film complete with that? Or is documentary just a vital component of these changes, a component which is being adapted to fit a new medium? How are or how could these approaches be adapted to drive change in other areas of international development such as health or water and sanitation?
