<div dir="ltr"><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/feb/15/john-hoppy-hopkins" title="" class="">John “Hoppy” Hopkins</a>
made an important contribution to community video in Britain. After
pioneering work in Notting Hill, west London, he drew on Canadian
experience in a report for the Home Office, Video in Community
Development (1972). Keen to learn more of the possibilities, I took a
tutorial with Hoppy at the New Arts Lab and wrote an article for New
Society about the opportunity that small-scale video presented to the
experimental cable licences then on offer from the Heath government.
Certainly Bristol Channel, <a href="http://www.swindonviewpoint.com/history" title="" class="">Swindon Viewpoint</a> and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23906703" title="" class="">Channel 40 in Milton Keynes</a> were influenced by Hoppy’s ideas.
<p>He continued to promote the idea of community media when, after most
of the cable stations closed, Comcom (the Community Communications
Group, the forerunner of the present day <a href="http://www.commedia.org.uk/what-we-do/" title="" class="">Community Media Association</a>)
was formed. His publication JCATS, the Journal of the Centre for
Advanced TV Studies, produced from the Fantasy Factory base in central
London, carried articles on the topic from around the world.</p><p>By Peter Lewis, London Metropolitan University<br></p><p>Source: <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/mar/26/letter-john-hoppy-hopkins-obituary">http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/mar/26/letter-john-hoppy-hopkins-obituary</a><br></p><div><div class="gmail_signature">\\<br><br>Community Media Association<br>-- <br><a href="http://www.commedia.org.uk/" target="_blank">http://www.commedia.org.uk/</a><br><a href="http://twitter.com/community_media" target="_blank">http://twitter.com/community_media</a><br><a href="https://www.facebook.com/CommunityMediaAssociation" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/CommunityMediaAssociation</a><br><br>Canstream Internet Radio & Video<br><a href="http://www.canstream.co.uk/" target="_blank">http://www.canstream.co.uk/</a><br><a href="https://twitter.com/canstream" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/canstream</a></div></div>
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