We’ve all be coping in different ways with the Covid-19 lockdown. Many of us have changed our use of media as a way of coping with the information overload. What’s helped is that we have an additional dimension of social media that been able to provide information and support connections. Where would we be without Zoom meetings and mutual aid networks based on WhatsApp groups? Many of us now search for our news beyond the corporate and mainstream bubbles of national political reporting. In chatting with Cormac Lawler from the University of Salford, and Paul Reilly from the University of Sheffield, we started to wonder what comes next as we come out of the first phase of the lockdown? Will it really make a difference to our health and well-being if we aren’t talk about and share our concerns about what is expected of us in the new normal? Furthermore, how can we change our patterns of behaviour if we aren’t able to use our media to foster a more inclusive, creative and local set of discussion and conversations about social well-being, and the partnerships and ideas that they will have to be based on?

Apologies for the terrible image. I forgot to ask for separate photos, and with my limited design skills this is what I came up with.

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In a report this week from the UK media regulator Ofcom, there is evidence that people are turning away from seeking news related to the Covid-19 pandemic. The report points out that “more than a third of respondents (38%) say they ‘find it hard to know what is true and what is false about Coronavirus’, in line with results from week one (40%).” Part of the challenge in ensuring that people have access to trusted, reliable and consistent sources of information, but as social media and online media has exploded in use, it has brought about pressures that are testing the trust and reliability of the sources that we choose to follow.

This podcast brings together four academics from the University of Leicester, to discuss the multidimensionality of disinformation. Professor Paul Baines has a focus on political marketing, public opinion and propaganda. Professor Reiko Heckel has a focus on model-based development, reengineering and testing, model transformations and the semantics of modelling languages. Dr. Athina Karatzogianni has a focus on different aspects of cyberconflict theory and how civic activism meets with information technology. Dr Robert Dover is concerned with issues of intelligence and international security, with an interest in how defence policy and reform is played out in a globalised security setting.

Thanks to Tobias Gould for connecting us.

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What are we going to do when we move out of the Covid-19 lockdown, and start to socially interact more? Earlier I was chatting with Gail Brown, owner of Leicester Coffee House, and Simon Jenner, the director of BID Leicester. We chatted about the importance of supporting businesses that are pro-social, and what the challenges will be for trading and engaging with customers and clients in a socially responsible way. While there are many challenges, we discussed how it is important that we communicate and include people in engaging conversations that show how we are thinking creatively about the new normal that comes from the lockdown.

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Kieran is the CEO of Leicestershire Cares, a charity that focusses on bringing together networks of support between business, civic groups and public authorities in the city of Leicester and across the county of Leicestershire and Rutland. We had a chat about how Leicestershire Cares has responded to the pandemic as an organisation, and we discussed what the lessons might be that will help us to create a new normal in the future.

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During the Covid-19 lockdown many issues have been identified about the difficulty of managing public communications, and the way that all members of our communities are served and engaged by our public and civic services. The options that communications managers now have to consider when they make choices about communicating with the public have multiplied and seem to keep multiplying as new platforms become available. What are the right approaches that we might make to get critical messages into a public domain which as increasingly complex and multi-dimensional. In this podcast, Isla Dixon of Leicestershire Police shares her experience of working with Jal Kang and James Fairhead of Shrinker Digital as they developed a hate crime initiative that sought to engage people in meaningful ways based on the media platforms that they have most to hand. We discussed how the use of multiple media platforms is increasingly essential if public services, charities and government is going to reach all members of our communities, not just at times of crisis, but in normal times as well.

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The coronavirus lockdown has seen a spontaneous and heartfelt response from ordinary members of the public who want to help and make a difference in their communities. Here in Leicester, the Covid-19 Mutual Aid Group has been working to support, connect and make sure that volunteers across the city are working with the public authorities, universities and businesses to ensure that everyone in the city is safe, feels connected, and has someone to turn to if they need help. We recorded this conversation over Skype, and were joined by Indrani Lahiri, Barbara Turner, Jennie Jordan, Raj Gill-Harrison and Kamla Pattni. We discussed how the mutual aid group came together, what has been achieved so far. We asked what still needs to be done, and we considered what positive stories we will remember as we continue to find ways to support the role of volunteers across the city and beyond.

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As we pause and stop our normal activities because of the coronavirus lockdown, many of us are thinking about the sustainability and resilience of our social habits. Tim Graham is the CEO of Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust, and we chatted about the need to reposition and think again about the importance of protecting and managing our nature and wildlife in ways that are going to enrich and strengthen our world and not cause more harm. We explored how this will change the way we enlist volunteers into the role of environmental stewardship, and we asked how our communications approaches need to adapt to a world focussed on caring rather than getting.

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How community radio stations cope with the coronavirus lockdown often depends on their attitude to technology, the role of volunteers, and how they view the need for the service they are providing. Ian Chambers is one of the founders and directors of East London Radio, and he shared with me his experience of running an online community radio station, and how he thinks East London Radio will weather the storm during lockdown.

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The massive outpouring of support by community volunteers during the coronavirus lockdown has been a reminder that people value their social and community connections. It tells us that the vast majority of people are still prepared to roll their sleeves up and help out where they can. But what can community radio do to help share the stories about volunteering at a local level? How can community media facilitate the conversations that will help people, in otherwise hard-to reach parts of society, understand what’s happening in their local neighbourhood or community? What is the social value of community reporting? This is the question I put to Dr Siobhan Stevenson, an oral history producer based in Birmingham, and Richard Berry, senior lecturer at the University of Sunderland, as we attempt to figure out what the additional dimension is that community media offers in response to the lockdown.

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