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

©University of Reading 2011 Wednesday, 11 May 2011 Page 2

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)