The ‘creativity challenge’: fears and opportunities

One of the privileges of working as part of the Institute for Screen Industries Research (ISIR) is to witness first hand one of the most dramatic shifts of power in the history of the film industry, namely the growth in influence and importance of China as a film market. Since we have been lucky enough …

Where the Governmental and the Avant-Garde meet

The following post by Kiki Yu was originally published on the blog of the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies at UNNC. If the charm of Berlin lies in the confrontation of different ideologies demonstrated through architecture and the closeness between history and present, the beauty of Shanghai is highlighted through the harmonious mix of all …

Pulling Back the Screen: Creative Student Internships

In 2009 the Creative Student Network sent its first interns to work at Fox Studios in Los Angeles. Thanks to the assistance of Nottingham alumnus Peter Rice (now Chairman of Fox Broadcasting) we had the unique chance to give three of our students real world experience of working in Hollywood and see some of the …

Social media and democracy: events in the Centre for Critical Theory

In recent years, big claims have been made about the political potential of new media and social networking, from Obama’s use of Facebook in his 2008 election campaign to the alleged role of smartphones in the so-called ‘Arab Spring’. We hear constantly about the ‘digital revolution’ and the ‘democratizing’ effects it can have. But can …