OXFORD MEDIA SOCIETY
COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS: WEEK 3 // MT21
We hope you’ve had an amazing first few weeks of term. While the days grow shorter, we’ve been busy. Media Society has already hosted events with content creator Max Fosh and award-winning filmmaker Salma Zulfiqar. To be the first to hear about future events, you can sign up to our mailing list here. While you’re waiting for our talk with Aubrey Whitlock and Dr Jess Hamlet of the Hurly Burly Shakespeare Show, or our discussion with Judy Smith and Kristen Walkom of Smith and Company, here are our recommendations to read, watch and listen to over the next week.
We hope you’ve had an amazing first few weeks of term. While the days grow shorter, we’ve been busy. Media Society has already hosted events with content creator Max Fosh and award-winning filmmaker Salma Zulfiqar. To be the first to hear about future events, you can sign up to our mailing list here. While you’re waiting for our talk with Aubrey Whitlock and Dr Jess Hamlet of the Hurly Burly Shakespeare Show, or our discussion with Judy Smith and Kristen Walkom of Smith and Company, here are our recommendations to read, watch and listen to over the next week.
LONG READS
‘I wouldn’t wish it upon any parent’: living on the frontline of global heating
Amidst COP26, this article grounds the climate crisis by highlighting the stories of people whose lives have been impacted by the rapidly changing world. The story of Vanessa from Samoa is devastating – especially in the light of news from the conference.
Sussex University supports ‘gender critics’ while sexual violence festers
Katie Tobin’s feature explores ‘free speech wars’ on campus to ask whose voices are protected and who is silenced. Balancing personal experience with case studies to highlight a schism which goes beyond the University of Sussex, this is a must-read.
IN THE NEWS
English Faculty says Professor Andy Orchard not currently undertaking teaching
Following Al-Jazeera’s investigative piece, this follow-up from Cherwell has been suggested by Lottie, the Media Society’s President: “This article is a good summary of the recent exposé of Andy Orchard, the English Literature professor who is accused of sexual harassment. Well before Aljazeera’s work, this had been a long-known hushed up problem; I remember warnings whispered about it when I had to attend a lecture by Orchard. It will be interesting to see how the English Faculty respond in the coming weeks. Thus far, he has just been suspended from teaching Undergraduates and Master’s students.”
So this is Brexit, folks, where we fight over chickens and the provenance of salt and pepper
Sean O’Grady’s commentary following uproar over a Morrison’s British chicken containing “non-EU salt and pepper” explores the way in which cultural divisions following Brexit have been showcased on our supermarket shelves.
A BIT OF LISTENING
A Geochemical History of Life on Earth
This BBC World Service production is now available on BBC Sounds. Rhiannon, our Social Secretary, describes this as “an articulate and uncomfortable walk-through of earth’s past, present, and possible future geochemical history. Hosted with boysish enthusiasm, expertly produced with deftly chosen, unsettling musical interludes, the series remains accessible despite its often technical content, and leaves you only teetering on the edge of desolate from the reality of its climate message.”
This podcast is presented as a radio show for the fictional town of Night Vale, where strange and supernatural occurrences – glow clouds, a cat hoovering over the radio station bathroom’s sink, or mysterious hooded figures in a dog park no one is allowed to acknowledge – are presented as mundane. It’s equal parts touching, haunting and comedic. Following the news of Welcome to Night Vale’s 2022 world tour – with UK and Europe dates expected to be announced soon – there’s no better time to catch up on this hugely popular podcast. And, with just under 200 episodes, there’s a lot of catching up to do.
THE WATCH LIST
Britain’s ‘Virginity’ Clinics Uncovered
This ITV documentary explores ‘virginity testing’ and ‘hymen repair surgery’, especially due to the impact of lockdown – the number of women seeking help because of fears about virginity testing has risen by 40%. Undercover reporters have found that dozens of clinics, private hospitals and pharmacies are still offering these procedures, even when the women seem unwilling. Meanwhile, the government is moving closer to banning virginity testing.
The eighth series of Ambulance is the second to have been filmed following the coronavirus. Traversing the country (previous series have covered Merseyside, Lancashire, London, and Manchester) and sympathetically narrated by Christopher Eccleston, this show highlights the efforts of paramedics and emergency phone line operators who must make life and death decisions on the front lines.