About

Whose Voice? Whose Story? explores the language of race using the digitised collection of over 160,000 radio news scripts, produced for the BBC Home Service and its successor, Radio Four.

Through our Theme Pages you can explore the evolution of language used to report on Black and Black-British migration and experience in the UK from 1945 to the early1990s. Our Clapping Back podcasts invite different generations of the public from African and Caribbean backgrounds to speak back to the BBC's reporting.

Research for this project was conducted between 2022-24 and the podcasts were recorded between February and April 2024.

Project Team

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Eleni Liarou

Senior Lecturer and Project Coordinator

Biography

Eleni Liarou has been the principal coordinator and researcher on this project. Born in Athens (Greece), Eleni came to the UK in 2000 to study. Since then, she's been researching and writing about British film and broadcast media and their relationship with histories of ethnic diversity, migration, and with legacies of imperialism. She is a Senior Lecturer in Film and Media at Birkbeck and passionate about research that is widely accessible and can engage a broader audience. For a fuller academic biography and publications, see here.

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Sylvie Carlos

Research Assistant and Podcast Producer

Biography

Sylvie Carlos has been the Research Assistant and Podcast Lead on the BBC Radio Archive project. She is also an established podcast and radio producer. In her work and everyday life, she is unapologetic about amplifying Black British voices and stories. Sylvie is also a PhD candidate at King's College London, where her research explores how the contemporary British audio industry engages with Black audiences. Born and raised in London, she is of Nigerian and Seychellois heritage.

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Stephen Walkes

Podcast Editor

Biography

Stephen Walkes is Audio-Visual and Digital Support Coordinator at Birkbeck, University of London. Stephen has been the main editor of the project's Clapping Back podcasts.



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Matt Green

Designer and Developer

Biography

Matt Green studied History at the University of Cambridge. Since then, he has worked as an educational technologist at City St George's, and Kings College London. Whilst working, he completed a Masters in Digital Design at Birkbeck College, graduating in 2024. He has an interest in digital design and education, especially design justice. He has built and designed the website for the project Whose Story? Whose Voice?

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Helena Wee

Developer

Biography

Helena Wee is an artist, writer, curator, creative coder, educator and PhD researcher at Birkbeck, University of London. She utilises science and technology to investigate algorithmic paradigms through speculative worlds. She has exhibited at The Courtauld Institute of Art, QUAD, V&A, Waterman's Arts Centre, Tate Modern and internationally; and her work is in the BFI National Archive.

BBC Archive Editorial Team: A massive thank you to staff of the BBC Archive's Editorial Team who supported the project from the start and facilitated access to the BBC news scripts database.

Podcast Participants: We are hugely grateful to everyone who participated in the podcasts and we have anonymised their contributions where requested. The podcast conversations have the power to re-evaluate histories for the young and old, and to record a People's History of the BBC from the bottom up, asking the fundamental questions of Who, Why and to What Effect. Their Voices Matter.

Collaboration with individuals and organisations working in relevant areas is at the heart of this project. Our aim is to support and build on the work others have been doing in this hugely significant field. To this end, we have had conversations and have held feedback sessions, sharing our initial findings, with members of the Black Cultural Archives, Institute of Race Relations, Migrant Rights Network, Stuart Hall Foundation, Black Miners Museum (Nottingham), Recognize Black Heritage and Culture (Birmingham), Serendipity: Institute for Black Arts and Heritage (Leicester), MeCCSA Radio Studies Network, the project team members' of AHRC's Connected Histories of the BBC and Dr. Aasiya Lodhi's project on Reclaiming a Lost Past: Black British Women, Visibility and the BBC, as well as several researchers, historians, community groups and activists. Special thanks go to Professor Hakim Adi who supported the project from the start and agreed to be the referee for our funding application to the British Academy.

Huge thanks to everyone involved in this project for your time, feedback and support.