I remember the vague and brief puzzlement when my mother told me there were no words, in our mother tongue (which is Tiv, a Nigerian language, of which, incidentally, there are several hundred), for ‘he’ or ‘she’. It was hard for me then – kind of still is – to get that to sit right. I mean,… Continue reading Why Media Diversity Matters
Tag: culture
Why is Good News No News?
So here’s the thing. Charlie Beckett is a former news editor with more than 20 years’ experience of international journalism. He’s worked in established mainstream outlets including the BBC and ITN’s Channel 4 News. He is also a professor at the London School of Economics and the founding director of POLIS; a think-tank for researching the… Continue reading Why is Good News No News?
Festivals and the Future
There’s nothing quite like hearing a full brass band play Daft Punk’s Get Lucky is there. Just one of many strange thoughts I found idling through my mind as I sat in Manchester’s Albert Square, or should I say Thwaites Festival Square. That’s one of the fun quirks of Manchester’s Jazz Festival, not only do popular songs get… Continue reading Festivals and the Future
‘Popular Culture is No Longer a Marketplace of ideas’: An Interview with American Novelist, Bill Campbell
Bill Campbell is the author of several science-fiction novels and the founder of Rosarium Publishing. I had the chance recently to interview him for online magazine, Media Diversified, which, for me, was just all kinds of fun. We talk everything from writing, to creativity, to his thoughts on science-fiction, afrofuturism, popular culture and the media. It was a great conversation… Continue reading ‘Popular Culture is No Longer a Marketplace of ideas’: An Interview with American Novelist, Bill Campbell
What is Afrofuturism
You need only cast a quick glance over the considerable career of someone like Isaac Asimov to note the prescient and directive power of science-fiction. The man who popularised the idea of robotics in his classic I, Robot and, in his 1964 article, Visit to the World’s Fair of 2014, foresaw everything from kitchen top coffee makers and microwave meals… Continue reading What is Afrofuturism
Doing the Right Thing: Film & TV in a Biased World
‘You know, where I come from, there are a lot of different ways of being black.’ ‘Well, then you one lucky black man. But see, blood, ‘bout now, where you come from ain’t where you at… Roun’ here, they only got the one way of being black, and sooner or later that’s the black you… Continue reading Doing the Right Thing: Film & TV in a Biased World
Why Does Art Matter?
Cue the credits, then the music, and our numbed seats rise slowly in unison, and a room of strangers together arch their spines, stretch their legs, and spread their arms, as though for flight, as the cosy dimness finally lifts and ushers us back to reality with the sated sigh of having been, for a… Continue reading Why Does Art Matter?
Micah Yongo 