CALL FOR PAPERS 

International Broadcasting, Public Diplomacy and Cultural Exchange 

An international conference to evaluate 75 years of the BBC World Service 

Brunei Gallery, School of Oriental and African Studies, London W.1 

18-19 December 2007 

This conference brings together academics, broadcasters and policy makers 
to debate the past legacy and future direction of international 
broadcasting. Through the prism of the BBC World Service and similar 
international broadcasters we address questions of 
objectivity/impartiality, freedom of expression, public and cultural 
diplomacy, national interest and cosmopolitan identities, cultural exchange 
and translation, transnational and diasporic media practices, publics and 
politics. 

We invite contributions from both historical and contemporary perspectives 
that address the following questions: 

                        To what extent do international broadcasters like 
the BBC World Service function as agents of public diplomacy, acting in the 
interests of their sponsoring governments, or are they better conceived as 
relatively autonomous inter-cultural brokers? 

                        How do they mediate conflicts and debates over 
cultural, ethnic, religious and political identities and, with what 
consequences? 

                        In what ways might they connect transnational and 
diasporic groups, mobilise identities and mediate issues of migration, 
mobility and displacement? 

                        How do choices of language and translation in 
broadcasts affect the meanings of texts, and how are texts translated and 
transformed by audiences in the process of interpretation? 



Deadline for abstracts: Friday 5th November 2007 

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The conference is based on a collaborative research project funded by The 
Arts and Humanities Research Council Diasporas, Migration and Identities 
Research Programme. For details of research and researcher collaborators 
please see http://www.open.ac.uk/socialsciences/diasporas/ 

We will be presenting ‘work in progress’ papers from the above project. 

The conference is supported by the Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural 
Change www.cresc.ac.uk , The Open University and the Centre for Media and 
Film Studies, SOAS