Picture © Bristol Museums Galleries and Archives
Young people in Bristol are to learn about about media representations of conflict by becoming the media themselves, in an innovative new project funded by the Their Past Your Future programme.
Conflict and the Media - a Bristol Perspective, organised by Bristol Museums Galleries and Archives, will see children taking on the role of documentary filmmakers researching how the media spotlight impacts on the often delicate issues of identity and cohesion that exist within local communities.
“Young people are not very media literate – they accept what the media tells them fairly unquestioningly,” said Sandra Stancliffe, Museum Learning Manager at Bristol Museums and Art Gallery. “The point is to help them be media savvy and to look at the wider impacts that that has.”
“For example, we’ll be looking at how the media coverage of the Gaza conflict impacted on community cohesion, and how that has been replicated and changed across time. We’ll be using old archives, either film or paper, and front-page headlines of newspapers.
"We will also be working with veterans of conflicts past and present, as well as civilians who have been affected by these events – like refugee and migrant communities.”
Picture © Bristol Museums Galleries and Archives
Participants will make five documentary films that will eventually go on show at the new Museum of Bristol when it is completed in 2011. While the research is wide ranging, the focus will remain firmly on Bristol, exploring how conflict coverage in both local and national media could affect its diverse populace.
The project will involve partnerships with organisations within the city, including media organisation Firstborn Creatives, Community Resolve - who look at local community conflicts, in particular inter-cultural conflicts - and a local freelance worker who uses participatory drama to explore difficult and sensitive history.
While participants will benefit from developing their research skills as they get to grips with the technicalities of documentary making and visitors to the Museum of Bristol will be educated by the fruits of their labours, the project is not without an element of uncertainty, as Sandra explained:
“There are some really active, engaging activities they will be doing, but also reasonably high risk! We’ve never addressed these kinds of issues before, particularly in this area of difficult and sensitive histories, and we don’t know what backgrounds the young people will be from that take part in this project.”
Conflict and the Media - a Bristol Perspective will commence in June, to be finished in March 2010.
Launched in 2004, Their Past Your Future is funded by the Big Lottery Fund and administered by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council and uses historical sources, sites, museums, veterans and eyewitnesses of war to increase young people's understanding of history, commemoration, national identity and civic participation today. Find out more at www.culture24.org.uk/tpyf
