I think Martin has expressed with great eloquence and clarity the
process I alluded to in my much briefer contribution yesterday. My
own view is that fragmentation in the broad field of media/cultural
studies/screen studies would be an unfortunate development. But we
should also, I believe, avoid getting into a flame war over this.
Is it practical at this late stage for the MECCSA exec to send a
comradely appeal to those organising the forthcoming BAFTSS event,
that they give careful consideration to the idea of working within
MECCSA and avoiding fragmentation. ?
I do believe it is important that those involved fully understand the
history outlined below, in order to place a full value on how
difficult it was to achieve a fragile unity, recognise the work
involved in building MECCSA., and consider the dangers inherent in
fragmentation
best wishes
Garry Whannel
On 23 Jun 2011, at 11:24, Martin Barker wrote:
> Dear colleagues
>
> I’ve hesitated about saying anything in the current debate over
> BAFTSS,
> because I am clearly very much an “interested party”, having been
> involved
> in helping set up MeCCSA over a decade ago, and having served on its
> Executive Committee for some years. But I thought it worth saying
> something more about the history, because I think it is important.
> I was
> actually reminded of all this by attending the memorial gathering for
> Michael Green that happened a few weeks ago. Why? Because Michael
> was one
> of the people who, along with a few of us, made the very first
> attempt to
> create a national network of people broadly in “our field” – and of
> course
> exactly what “our field” is, is the issue now. The first attempt at
> it
> came in around 1974 (forgive me if my date recollection is not
> perfect on
> this), with the Cultural Studies Network. It was small,
> fragmentary, but
> very important in beginning dialogue, sharing experiences, and –
> importantly – on occasion speaking up on behalf of colleagues in
> public
> controversies. After a few years, the CSN transmogrified into the
> Association for Cultural Studies and thence, as people realised the
> artificiality of various lines of distinction, into the Association
> for
> Media and Cultural Studies.
>
> During those early years, a good deal of film studies stood apart,
> letting
> a lot of the speaking be done for it through the BFI and Screen
> Education.
> Of course that was important, and the BFI did particularly valuable
> work
> in getting various aspects of the media incorporated into school
> curricula, but it did mean that the field was always divided. But
> national events were pushing us, and the impulse for field unity
> came as a
> result of national agencies warning us that if we didn’t get
> organised,
> and unified, we would lose out.
>
> This came to a head, as I recall it, in the late 1990s. Out of those
> warnings came the wonderfully named Standing Conference for Cultural,
> Communication, and Media Studies in Higher Education. (Andy Medhurst
> must
> have hated the name, although we did our best to make it sayable by
> referring to with deep irony as ‘Schisms’ …) Where AMCS was based on
> individual membership/participation, SCCMSHE took on the format of
> institutional membership – because it was essential that we could
> speak in
> organised fashion on behalf of the field. SCCMSHE in its relatively
> short life opened doors to agencies, got it accepted that the field
> should
> be represented in debates, won a Panel in the RAE, dealt with the QAA.
>
> When it merged with ACMS, after a year or so of debates and
> discussions
> between the two organisations, to become MeCCSA, that brought
> together for
> the first time into one organisation a commitment to discuss and
> debate
> academic issues and also public/policy issues in our field, and a
> capacity
> to speak out on all kinds of issues affecting us. For instance, who
> now
> remembers the threat that production courses within our sector would
> be
> graded at the lowest level for funding? It was SCCMSHE and then
> MeCCSA
> that took on that battle and defended a higher Band funding for our
> field.
> That is one example of something that simply could not have been
> achieved
> without a single national voice for the field. When Benchmarking was
> being
> done, it was SCCMSHE/MeCCSA (I forget if it was before or after the
> merger) that ensured that the field definitions were broad,
> inclusive, and
> protected the wide range of approaches and interests in our field.
> And so
> on.
>
> I have been involved in all these attempts since the early 1970s.
> It’s
> never been easy, and I would never say that the record is
> unblemished –
> who could? But the long struggle to create a national organisation
> for
> our field is one that people should not forget – nor what we are in
> danger
> of losing if we split now.
>
> So, to the issue on which I do have a personal view? The “field”.
> What I
> am sensing in some of what is lying behind the creation of BAFTSS is a
> sense of separateness, indeed specialness, of film studies. There
> is a
> long intellectual tradition behind this. ‘Film theory’ has long
> claimed a
> strange ontological status for itself. OK, the title is stretched to
> television and screen studies. But it’s ironic that this should be
> happening just at the time that the specificities of cinema are being
> stretched and strained as never before with the wide and large
> emergence
> of ‘Alternative Content’ – that is, the beaming of all kinds of other
> cultural forms (theatre, opera, ballet, music, sports) into
> cinemas. I’m
> not saying that there aren’t some questions and topics specific to
> film
> and television, but the same can of course be said of radio, press,
> journalism, new media, magazines, etc, etc. What I am sensing is a
> weird
> re-run of the 1970s. It will be sad beyond measure if colleagues in
> film
> studies (which is surely where the motive force for this development
> is
> coming from) think that they can secure themselves by pleading
> ‘specialness’.
>
> I’m near the end of my career now, although I hope and intend to stay
> involved while I can with MeCCSA because it has been invaluable. I
> have
> always strongly encouraged my doctoral students to become involved in
> MeCCSA and to go to its Conferences – and to follow my practice of
> attending at least one Panel entirely outside their own studies,
> because
> it reminds just how wide and interconnected are the issues which
> colleagues in our field deal with. The MeCCSA AGM isn’t everyone’s
> favourite way to spend 2 hours, but it is open and democratic as it is
> possible to conceive. I will also continue to go to specialist
> conferences on topics and areas that particularly engage with my own
> research interests. But I don’t kid myself that these can somehow
> substitute for having a broad unifying organisation that links and
> speaks
> for all of us.
>
> Martin Barker
>
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> -------------------------------------------------------
> MeCCSA is the subject association for the field of media,
> communication and cultural studies in UK Higher Education.
> Membership is open to all who teach and research these subjects in
> HE institutions, via either institutional or individual membership.
> The field includes film and TV production, journalism, radio,
> photography, creative writing, publishing, interactive media and the
> web; and it includes higher education for media practice as well as
> for media studies.
>
> This mailing list is a free service from MeCCSA and is not
> restricted to members.
>
> For further information, please visit: http://www.meccsa.org.uk/
> --------------------------------------------------------
Garry Whannel
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MeCCSA is the subject association for the field of media, communication and cultural studies in UK Higher Education. Membership is open to all who teach and research these subjects in HE institutions, via either institutional or individual membership. The field includes film and TV production, journalism, radio, photography, creative writing, publishing, interactive media and the web; and it includes higher education for media practice as well as for media studies.
This mailing list is a free service from MeCCSA and is not restricted to members.
For further information, please visit: http://www.meccsa.org.uk/
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