UWS recently hosted an event at its Ayr Campus to celebrate the success of its Digital Commonwealth project.
The event, which took place on Thursday 8 October, saw a number of short speeches by key players involved in the Digital Commonwealth project, culminating in a special screening of a documentary which chronicles the success of the project.
The University’s Digital Commonwealth project was funded by The Big Lottery Fund and ran from September 2013 to June 2015. It was established before the Glasgow Commonwealth Games to develop, support and curate a Scotland-wide creative and community-led response in the lead up to, during and after Glasgow 2014.
The documentary – which is available to view via
youtube – covers the four key elements of the Digital Commonwealth project: schools, community media, creative voices and the #citizen2014 alternative media centre. It was produced and edited by Peter Murray, Community Outreach Manager for the Media Trust in Scotland.
The ambition of the Digital Commonwealth project was to enhance the capacity of individuals and groups to use freely available mobile digital (and social) media tools and techniques to ensure their voices are heard in a saturated media landscape. The Digital Commonwealth project focused on lowering the threshold for involvement for individuals and groups so that they could be empowered to exploit creative tools and technologies to tell their stories, digitally.
The Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games provided a unique opportunity to enable (and support) individuals and communities to explore and articulate their own stories. The Games brought attention to issues of global citizenship and identity as a focal point and the project provided a space for a conversation to take place (and be recorded) that included individuals and communities less well represented in mainstream media narratives.
Professor David McGillivray of University of the West of Scotland’s School of Media, Culture and Society was the project lead on the Digital Commonwealth project.
Professor McGillivray said: “We are delighted to have hosted this showcase event which celebrated the success of our Digital Commonwealth project.
“The documentary which was screened at this event is the culmination of our successful project, reflecting powerful stories produced by our project participants and partners.
“The project has met its key aim of enhancing the capacity of individuals and groups to use digital media tools and techniques to ensure their voices are heard even without access to mainstream media platforms. Alongside a digital storytelling handbook, a creative writing anthology and an album of co-produced songs, this documentary acts as a fitting finale to this successful project.”
For more information regarding the Digital Commonwealth project visit www.digitalcommonwealth.co.uk
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