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Veronica Coatham and Lisa Martinali outline how by the early 1990s there was ‘an identified need to develop a long-term strategy for Castle Vale encompassing the key priorities of a regeneration initiative’ (Coatham and Martinali 2010: 91). The solution was the development of a Housing Action Trust (HAT), of which there were only six in the UK (see Evans and Long 2000 for an overview of the HATs). These trusts were a policy of the 1980s Conservative government, designed to deal with problematic estates by providing investment but taking them out of local government control into the hands of a non-departmental public body. Tenants in estates where a HAT was proposed were given a vote on whether to leave the control of the council. As well as new funds, the HAT promised a more holistic approach that saw social problems as related and encouraged partnership working with police, education and other parties (Mornement 2005: 15). In 1993, Castle Vale residents voted overwhelmingly in favour of joining the HAT: ‘The residents of a 1960s experiment in social housing had voted to be part of a social engineering experiment in the 1990s. It was a leap of faith’ (ibid: 14). RESEARCH PAPER Local media and improving the image of Castle Vale The Castle Vale Housing Action Trust saw its role, as did the other HATs, to be the ‘redevelopment of the social infrastructure and combating social exclusion from the outset’ (Evans and Long 2000: 309). The importance of emphasising citizen participation was central to how the HAT began to regenerate the area. The 1995 Master Plan for the area made clear that the future for the estate would mark a move away from central control and towards a more significant role for citizens: A revitalised Castle Vale … must engender a greater pride of place and community spirit than at present. In turn this may lead to the residents assuming greater responsibility for setting standards and taking wider responsibility and authority for the future management and maintenance of the new Castle Vale (Castle Vale Housing Action Trust 1995: 2). While improving local social capital was seen as a central part of the regeneration process, it was also clear that the external perception of the area needed addressing. Adam Mornement (2005: 82-93) describes the role that public relations and art played in helping shift the ‘story’ of ‘The Vale’ to something other than crime and depravation from the mid-1990s onwards. The area, however, also developed its own media outlets. Firstly, a community radio station, Vale FM, was established in 1995. Its manager at the time, Neil Hollins (interviewed in 2013), describes its early development: ‘Vale FM was borne out of an idea by local residents who were maybe involved in pirate radio or who were maybe mobile DJs and believed that a community radio station would be good for Castle Vale.’ Copyright 2016-2/3. Ethical Space: The International Journal of Communication Ethics. All rights reserved. Vol 13, No 2/3 2016 37
Dave Harte Hollins became the station’s first employee in 1996 and was employed directly by the HAT. The station broadcast on the basis of applying for ‘restricted service’ licences, which confined its output to a 28-day period at any one time (this was the most common way for community radio stations to legally operate at this time). Whilst the station might have initially been developed out of concerns to address wider public perceptions of the area and to give voice to residents, it also provided training and development for individuals who might then go on to fulfil educational or creative ambitions: ‘[From 1998] we began running training courses under franchise contract radio courses for unemployed people to use it as a way of developing skills, confidence, employability’ (Hollins 2013). By the time it was applying for one of the new community radio licences in 2004 its role in supporting Castle Vale’s transformation was recognised by a local councillor in the licence application: ‘CVCR has been an important player in the regeneration of Castle Vale since the mid-1990s’ (Castle Vale Community Radio 2004: 24). In 2001, a community newspaper was developed (with just four pages at that stage and called Vale Mail), again, directly linked to the HAT. Hollins argues that there was initial distrust about the impartiality of the newspaper: ‘It was still under the control of the HAT, so wasn’t particularly trusted, it was seen a bit of a propaganda sheet, and it was rather disorganised and didn’t look very nice really’ (Hollins 2013). There was little citizen participation in the newspaper which, in 2004, took on a trained journalist, Clive Edwards, as editor. Edwards describes the role of the newspaper before he arrived: [It was] closely edited and controlled by the Housing Action Trust entirely as promotional material. No indication of any bad news or anything. Its function was to improve its reputation … All the work that the Housing Action Trust did to regenerate Castle Vale in terms of its buildings and its organisations, they thought would be well served by a monthly newspaper. The newspaper under Edwards expanded in size (to 24 pages eventually), in area (to cover nearby council wards outside Castle Vale to increase revenue from advertising) and in editorial confidence in subsequent years. Edwards is clear that the newspaper’s role is to provide critical commentary on the on-gong regeneration of the estate: ‘Our independence is crucial to providing a sensible and level-headed critique of the progress that is or isn’t being made.’ Whilst there is a reliance on local residents as paid door-to-door distributors of the monthly newspaper, it has only occasional written contributions from citizens who sometimes write column pieces on fashion, music, history and suchlike. Although Tyburn Mail’s digital outlets (website, Facebook page, Twitter account) prove useful both for newsgathering and for gaining a sense of 38 Copyright 2016-2/3. Ethical Space: The International Journal of Communication Ethics. All rights reserved. Vol 13, No 2/3 2016
Page 1 and 2: Beyond clickbait and commerce The e
Page 4 and 5: Contents Editorial Looking beyond t
Page 6 and 7: EDITORIAL Looking beyond the tradit
Page 8 and 9: These questions of independence are
Page 10 and 11: of the work produced by foundation-
Page 12 and 13: Crisis Center, for example, has a g
Page 14 and 15: library that spotlights progress in
Page 16 and 17: journalists working on the developm
Page 18 and 19: Note on the contributor Dr Mel Bunc
Page 20 and 21: 2014). One response has been to par
Page 22 and 23: and/or distributed by ENGOs to mobi
Page 24 and 25: democratic dissent’, while DeLuca
Page 26 and 27: ecording the interviews, I engaged
Page 28 and 29: spent two weeks collecting images a
Page 30 and 31: Although photographs of spirit bear
Page 32 and 33: up the article ‘Pipeline through
Page 34 and 35: Alexandra Garcia, iLCP communicatio
Page 36 and 37: killed/, accessed on 27 December 20
Page 38 and 39: Dave Harte ‘Tell it like it is’
Page 42 and 43: which content its audience is most
Page 44 and 45: in the 1990s and early 2000s. Borge
Page 46 and 47: in Leeds, he notes the valuable rol
Page 48 and 49: Yet the nature of the journalism at
Page 50 and 51: Foucault, Michel (1980) Power/Knowl
Page 52 and 53: Unitec research colleagues; media p
Page 54 and 55: voice in seven unique contexts was
Page 56 and 57: therefore, challenging to strike th
Page 58 and 59: 7 The Pacifica Mamas, ‘matriarchs
Page 60 and 61: sharing approach to collaboration,
Page 62 and 63: programme, and they wanted the spot
Page 64 and 65: and that I was entrusting myself to
Page 66 and 67: ecosystem (Cooren 2015b). In a 2015
Page 68 and 69: Saifoloi, Malama, Stowers-Ama, Jarc
Page 70 and 71: informed citizenry. Most see journa
Page 72 and 73: While there is no universally accep
Page 74 and 75: news organisation are decisions to
Page 76 and 77: is largely seen as unethical to ask
Page 78 and 79: open to paying for content. Others
Page 80 and 81: Conclusions Overall, oppositional n
Page 82 and 83: Foster, Michelle (2012) Calling the
Page 84 and 85: Judith Townend ‘Charitable journa
Page 86 and 87: In the second category, where the r
Page 88 and 89: Among the issues is the Charity Com
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House of Lords (2012) House of Lord
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press in a democracy to campaign, l
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The tribunal’s decision For the p
Page 96 and 97:
charitable journalism may be recogn
Page 98 and 99:
Denis Muller Conflict of interest:
Page 100 and 101:
Tanner et al. (2005: 187) identify
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to its audiences. To engage in jour
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creating a commercial climate in wh
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that a sponsor would have no role i
Page 108 and 109:
Items about Dove not labelled as sp
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their public-interest responsibilit
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Murtha, Jack and Gourarie, Chava (2
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Recognising the shadow elements of
Page 116 and 117:
admits that ‘systematic’ may be
Page 118 and 119:
Rather than ethics being an issue t
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