Creative Activism: an open class for media creators and change makers

I came across this website recently - Creative Activism: an open class for media creators and change makers - it is the website of a course that was run at the Coventry University in the UK. I was particularly interested to listen to the lecture given by Chris Jury from Agitpop, a community radio show on political music. You can listen to it here: Guest Lecture: Agitpop – Protest and Social Change in Popular Music – Chris Jury the power point slides and the list of songs played on the radio show are also available, as are the shows themselves - on the Agitpop Blog. The lecture was given on 7th February 2012 and in it Jury states that in his opinion, political music can and does change the world. He suggests that there is a theory of dialogical cultural transmission in which people, political ideas and culture interact in a perpetual cycle. Jury states that culture can never be content neutral and that political songs have an honesty to them because they are commonly clear about the ideology and ideas they seek to promote. For Jury, protest songs both create and change the world. He makes reference to Dorian Lynskey's book 33 Revolution Per Minute (which I have written about here) and goes on to discuss some of the political songs he has played on his radio show and their background. This is well worth the listen - it goes for an hour - it is very interesting and canvasses the intersection between pop and political activism.