A presentation given to colleagues in the School of Media, Culture and Society at University of the West of Scotland in Dec 2014

1. DIGITAL
COMMONWEALTH
SCHOOL OF MEDIA, CULTURE AND SOCIETY, UNIVERSITY OF
THE WEST OF SCOTLAND
Jennifer M Jones, Project Coordinator
Prof. David McGillivray, Project Lead
Alison McCandlish, Education Coordinator
Prof. Gayle McPherson, Co-investigator

2. Creative response to the Commonwealth (Games)
from across Scotland, involving a diverse range of
individuals/communities/partners

3. MEDIA LANDSCAPE OF MAJOR
EVENTS
Accredited media Sponsors
Strict media guidelines
Unaccredited media
Independent media
Citizen/community media
Narrative control
Alternative narratives

4. EVENTS AS CATALYST FOR MEDIA
DEMOCRATISATION

5. ubiquitous mobile devices, freely available and shareable web
platforms and DIY ethos now deployed to create as much as
passively consume media
flattened hierarchies, enabling citizens to subvert corporate-
media narratives and create alternative, localised readings and
have them heard
exploiting networked publics (boyd, 2014) restructured by
networked technologies
PARTICIPATORY MEDIA CULTURES

6. G U I D I N G
P R I N C I P L E S
P O S I T I O N I N G

7. T H E M A T I C
F O C U S
focus:
F R A M I N G

8. www.digitalcommonwealth.co.uk

9. P R O J E C T S
• Schools Programme (32 local authorities)
• Community Media Programme, 4 clusters (North-
East, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Ayrshire)
• Creative Voices (Songwriting, Creative Writing &
Documentary), 4 campus areas of University of the
West of Scotland

10. Interactive Map: http://bit.ly/digCW2014_Map

11. S C H O O L S
P R O G R A M M E
• 57 schools, 23 out of 32 local
authorities, 585 participated
• transition initiatives (primary &
secondary working together)
• cascading skills (learners becoming
digital leaders)
• 'creative citizenship' responding to
the themes of project
• developed a Digital Storytelling
handbook (available free online
here: http://bit.ly/digCW2014_HB)

12. H A N D B O O K O F
D I G I T A L
S T O R Y T E L L I N G
R E C O G N I S I N G I N F O R M A L
L E A R N I N G

13. C O M M U N I T Y
M E D I A C A F E S
• 4 regions (Aberdeen,
Glasgow, Edinburgh,
Ayrshire)
• 16 Cafes, offering tasters
in blogging, video, audio
and social media
• Informal, awareness
raising, access to project
AWARENESS RAISING

14. C O M M U N I T Y M E D I A S Y M P O S I U M :
C O M M U N I T Y S T O R Y T E L L I N G I N D I G I T A L A G E
CAPACITY BUILDING

15. O R K N E Y , N O R T H
H I G H L A N D S ,
E D I N B U R G H ,
G L A S G O W A N D
A Y R S H I R E
DIGITAL STORYTELLING
WORKSHOPS
CAPACITY BUILDING

16. Worked with
62 organisations

17. C R E A T I V E
V O I C E S
• 3 creative practices (creative writing,
community songwriting &
documentary) supported by UWS
lecturers and post-graduate students
• community engagement across 4
campus areas (Dumfries, South
Lanarkshire, Ayrshire and
Renfrewshire)
• 80 page anthology, 12 original songs
and 6 films produced

19. N E X T S T E P S
• Practice: National Libraries of Scotland: Archiving
community-generated digital content
• Practice: Project documentary & printed materials
• Policy: Digital media literacy in education and
community settings
• Academic: Monitoring and evaluation, publications,
research bids