Alison Hilton Section name
©University of Reading 2011 Wednesday 11 May 2011 Page 1
Media and the countryside MERL Symposium, 12 May, 2011, 10.00 – 17.30
This one-day Symposium coincides with the launch of a new exhibition on the intertwining
histories of The Archers and the Museum of English Rural Life. This event will explore the impact
of print, broadcast, and other journalistic and creative media on rural life. Discursive panels and
individual speakers will together examine how television, radio, and the agricultural and
countryside press have influenced farming practice, rural trends, and come to shape popular
perceptions of the countryside. This workshop is intended to provide greater focus to future
scholarly exploration of countryside media, to encourage and foster research programmes
centred on its historical and contemporary roles, and to help shape the Museum’s attempts to
better represent these important aspects of rural life through its collections and programmes.
Publicity photograph showing the Archers dining together in 1951 Image © BBC
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Programme
09.15 Arrival, coffee, and registration
10.00 Kate Arnold-Forster
Welcoming remarks
10.15 Dr Ollie Douglas and Isabel Hughes
Collecting Cultures: Issues in archiving and representing rural media
This short introduction will highlight a major twentieth-century collecting project and
explore how this Symposium will help shape future directions at the Museum of English
Rural Life
10.30 Professor Lyn Thomas
The Archers: nostalgia, rural radio, and urbane listeners
Drawn from research funded jointly by the AHRC and BBC, this paper will consider
contemporary interest in The Archers, exploring online discussion groups and urban
listeners
Chair: Mark Mason
11.30 Refreshments
12.00 Professor Michael Winter, Dr Paul Brassley, Dr Matt Lobley, and Dr David Harvey
Rural media and farming: The Archers in historical context
Stemming from a major ESRC-funded research project into agricultural innovation, this
panel session seeks to understand the value of The Archers and other rural media as
historical sources
Chair: Professor Andrew Godley
13.00 Lunch
14.00 Dr Clare Griffiths, Kitty Corrigan, and Tim Relf
Words, pictures, and the countryside experience
Clare Griffiths will introduce the historical value of the mid-twentieth-century farming press
as a research resource and together with contemporary journalists explore more recent
trends
Chair: Dr Jeremy Burchardt
15.00 Vanessa Whitburn, Graham Harvey, Andrew Wincott, and Steve Peacock
Producing The Archers: an 'everyday story’ of modern folk
Introduced by Vanessa Whitburn, this panel will explore the The Archers’ role in relation to
countryside issues, and the degree to which the series fulfils the original goals behind its
creation
Chair: Dr Graham Saunders
16.00 Refreshments
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16.30 Isabel Hughes, Robert Seatter, and others
Plenary session: Researching media and the countryside – future directions
Open discussion concerning potential avenues of investigation into the history of rural,
agricultural, and countryside media, as well as of potential partnerships between
contemporary rural media outlets and academic work in relevant fields
Chair: Dr Ollie Douglas
17.30 Finish
Participants
Kate Arnold-Forster Director of the Museum of English Rural Life and the
University Museums and Special Collections Service, University of Reading
Paul Brassley Senior Research Fellow, Department of Politics, University of Exeter
Jeremy Burchardt Lecturer, Department of History, University of Reading
Kitty Corrigan Deputy Editor and Eco Editor, Country Living Magazine
Ollie Douglas Assistant Curator, Museum of English Rural Life, University of Reading
Andrew Godley Professor of Management, School of Management, University of Reading
Clare Griffiths Senior Lecturer, Department of History, University of Sheffield
David Harvey Associate Professor in Historical Cultural Geography, Department of Geography,
University of Exeter
Graham Harvey Scriptwriter and Former Agricultural Story Advisor (The Archers),
Journalist, and Author
Isabel Hughes Curator Collections and Engagement, Museum of English Rural Life,
University of Reading
Mark Mason External Guest Curator, Museum of English Rural Life
Matt Lobley Senior Research Fellow and Assistant Director of Centre for Rural Policy Research,
Department of Politics, University of Exeter
Steve Peacock Agricultural Story Advisor (The Archers) and Former Editor of Farming Today
Tim Relf Community and Rural Living Editor, Farmers Weekly Magazine
Graham Saunders Lecturer in Theatre, Department of Film Theatre and Television,
University of Reading
Robert Seatter Head of History, BBC
Lyn Thomas Professor of Cultural Studies and Deputy Director, Institute for the
Study of European Transformations, London Metropolitan University
Michael Winter Professor and Director of the Centre for Rural Policy Research,
Department of Politics, University of Exeter
Vanessa Whitburn Editor (The Archers), BBC
Andrew Wincott Actor and Cast Member (The Archers)