Birmingham City University and the Centre for Printing History and Culture invite applications for a doctoral studentship on 'British News after Empire'. The successful candidate will require a first or high 2:1 in a related degree and an MA or equivalent.
PROJECT SUMMARY
The project examines the adaptation of British information and news services to the end of empire. It does so through Gemini News, a small news agency established in London in 1967 and a pioneer of communications structures and information policies that can be identified as ‘post-colonial’. Gemini was unique in that it comprised a network of correspondents who were indigenous to the region from which they reported and in that it sought to produce news that promoted ‘Commonwealth’ and ‘third world’ identities and values.
Gemini was known for its pioneering graphics and alternative news values.
This project will seek to locate Gemini within the broader history of the upheaval in British information and news services in the late 1960s and 70s. By drawing upon archives relating to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the BBC and Reuters, it will explore how ‘information imperialism’ survived the British Empire and became a feature of globalisation. Gemini is positioned against these dominant tendencies in the run up to debates over a New World Information and Communications Order that ultimately led to the departure of Britain and the United States from UNESCO in 1985.
APPLICATION PROCESS
For further details, feel free to contact Christopher.Hill@bcu.ac.uk. Information about the application process can be found here. The deadline in 30 June, 2016, and no applications will be considered beyond this date.