How do we create the tipping point for digital collaboration?

How do we create the tipping point for digital collaboration?

by | Nov 11, 2012 | NHS stuff | 4 comments

So how do we create the tipping point for digital collaboration – in Leeds, or anywhere else for that matter? Participating in the recent digital festival, conference and then follow up discussions about the potential for a digital body in Leeds, I’m struck by how far we’ve come and where we might go next… More than just a hobby – social media is quickly shifting from hobby status to an essential part of the communications mix in many public sector organisations. However, it is by no means universal Finding the point – the conversation is moving on rapidly from ‘let’s get on Twitter ‘cos they are’ to ‘what’s the purpose and what are we trying to achieve?’ So what? – identifying a purpose inevitably lends itself to asking questions about how we measure whether we’ve achieved what we set out to do. We’re not even being properly held to account for the time and energy we are putting in to our digital presence; or fully understanding for ourselves if the time we’re investing is worthwhile. We need to work out which tools help us to assess our impact both quantitatively and qualitatively Dispersing the social – it’s not just about the corporate account any more. More individual services are developing their own social media presence. This raises all sorts of fascinating questions about central control versus local autonomy; consistency versus variety –there is a balance to be struck and we’ll work it out collectively as we go Digital identity – professional guidelines and other social media rules seem to appear on an almost daily basis and we’re thinking more...
Mental health stigma – thinking it through in the classroom

Mental health stigma – thinking it through in the classroom

by | Nov 1, 2012 | mental health, PhD | 0 comments

As a PhD student I get to do some teaching within the Institute of Communications. I recently did my first ever session with Masters Degree students undertaking a module on The Politics of Personal Performance with Professor Stephen Coleman, who is also my supervisor. The module explores ‘the ways in which interpersonal communication is based upon a series of performances in which we play ourselves and come to recognise others through their performances’. It is based upon the theories of Goffman and Garfinkel. My session was on the topic of ‘stigma’ and drew on Stigma: Notes of the Management of a Spoiled Identity by Erving Goffman (1963). In my literature review I’ve found that most subsequent academic work on the topic refers back to this seminal work. You can find the slides I used for the session here. I used the official trailer for the film Asylum (2005) as a prompt for discussion about how mental health stigma is often perpetuated in popular culture. You can find a useful critique of the role movies play in reinforcing mental health stigma by Dr Peter Byrne in Screening Madness. By way of contrast I showed the fantastic film made by johnjusthuman which has been shortlisted for a 2012 Mind Media award. The film employs all the characteristics of what empirical research has shown to be most effective in challenging mental health stigma – a personal story which shows a recovery journey in the context of a diagnosis (schizophrenia) which is commonly associated with being a life-long condition in the popular imagination. It is told from a first person perspective, with emotion and...