On 15th February OCGH hosted a half-day Workshop on 'International Broadcasting and Decolonization' at the History Faculty. The Workshop explored the relationship between the appearance of mass broadcast media in the global south and decolonisation, and brought together scholars from various disciplines to discuss media history, neo-colonial soft power, audiences, and colonial liberation.
Simon Potter (Bristol) spoke about the BBC Empire Service in the inter-war years, and Stephen Hocking (Oxford) looked at Christmas Day empire broadcasts in the same period. Kristin Roth-Ey (UCL) spoke about Soviet broadcasting and audience research in the global south, while Katharina Oke (KCL) gave a paper on radio and newspapers in post-war Nigeria. David Clayton (York) presented on BBC post-war colonial broadcasting and radio ownership, and the afternoon finished with a paper by Massoumeh Torfeh (SOAS) on the impact of the BBC Persian Service on Iranian politics, 1953-1980.
The event was convened by Dr Peter Brooke.
