Salford Media Festival

This year’s Nations and Regions Media Conference will take place in Salford on Thursday 19 April. Under the strapline ‘Radio for the 21st Century’, it will be hosted by radio presenters Katie Thistleton and Darryl Morris.

The Conference, started by legendary Chairman of Granada Television, David Plowright and the University of Salford in the early 1990s as a platform for the media industry in the nations and regions, has become a regular fixture in the media calendar, consistently attracting key industry figures and creative minds nationally and internationally.

This year’s conference, in its 24th year, will focus primarily on radio and audio production which is produced outside of London.

The conference will be a full day of showcases, discussions and debates covering music, docs, drama, comedy, children’s and other genres.

Broadcasters already signed up for the event include BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2, Radio 5 Live, the BBC World Service and the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.

The Casino-Media Synergy in the UK

Global media development in the UK has received unexpected impulse from the casino industry. The online gaming sector has been able to successfully market several ground-breaking products – no deposit casinos, fast payout casino UK sites and much more. In the case of fast payout casinos, the synergy extended to big payment companies, especially e-wallets such as PayPal.

The reason is simple, casinos with fast payouts need to partner up with payment solutions that allow for instant withdrawals and cashouts. In this case, the casino and payment operators can join forces to create strong media marketing campaigns to boost the product’s popularity and appeal towards potential customers.

Several top-level creative media agencies are constantly at work on campaigns and marketing strategies that can help fast paying casinos and new payment solutions – imagine Zimpler, Trustly nad the London-based Boku – acquire an ever-growing base of loyal customers.

Challenging Media Landscapes Conference: Access, Participation

In a world replete with media networks, content and services delivered through traditional and newer wired and wireless environments, the opportunities for access to, and participation in, media are seemingly proliferative. The accessible and inclusive nature of media is often emphasised and celebrated strongly by commercial players and governmental interests, as well as a considerable number of academic voices. Others, hailing from academia and civil society quarters, whilst recognising the accessibility and participative affordances of media environments, also point to serious deficiencies.

Whilst some endorse strongly the ease of access and participation in media environments driven by commerciality, others point to a perceived devaluation of public service media of various kinds. Whilst some herald the existence of diversity of supply of content and point to a plurality of voices engaged in rich, vibrant and challenging exchange, others are concerned by a lack of variety of content beyond the mainstream, as well as the latter’s marginalisation despite network expansion.

Whilst some are enthused by the increased creative agency that the digital landscape affords media users, others are critical of the imbalanced power structures within participatory cultures that typically result in media corporations exploiting users’ labour. The increased technological sophistication and capability of easily accessible media environments celebrated by some, stands in contrast to concerns over network security, including covert intrusion into, and surveillance of, online mediatised environments leading to concerns over the quality of participatory life in a mediatised world.

Yet again, the activism of a wealth of civil society groups and other alternative voices to the ‘mainstream’ arts organisations, those campaigning for participative rights of various kinds; and media industry reform campaigners to mention but a few, points to uneasiness with the idea of a fully accessible and participative media system, as well the role and potential of these voices as agents for change.

Radio for the 21st Century – Hosted by Katie and Jordan

A forum for media professionals, from content creators to commissioners, to examine the prevalent issues presented by industry and policy making stakeholders.

Entries are now open for the inaugural Ray Fitzwalter Award, recognising outstanding investigative journalism outside London with a £4,000 cash prize.