Ice Buckets & Motor Neurone Disease

Mal Fletcher on BBC Radio


Undoubtedly the ice bucket challenge has raised huge amounts of money for charity, in particular for research into the as yet little understood Motor Neurone Disease.

But is the challenge, driven by social media, at times distracting from the cause? How central is social media to challenges like this one and what impact do social media have on the way we think and behave?

Mal Fletcher discussed these questions in this discussion hosted by BBC Radio's Bill Heine.

This interview is part of a longer discussion (Sun Aug 31, 2014) involving fellow guests Mark Stone, trustee of the Motor Neurone Disease Association, and Councillor Ian Hudspeth, Leader of Oxfordshire County Council. The full interview is on the BBC Oxford "listen again" site for a short time only.

Note in the interests of accuracy: Mal is introduced as a "sociologist". He is, in fact, a social commentator ....