Uncertain Vision: Birt, Dyke and the Reinvention of the BBC [Paperback]

Georgina Born (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 27, 2005

Based on the most extensive independent research ever conducted inside the BBC, this gripping history concentrates on the corporation during the late 1990s and the last years of the regime of the former director-general John Birt. Blending reportage and cultural history, it offers both a panorama of the BBC’s history and an intimate portrait of its people—producers, directors, editors, accountants, and managers. It also addresses the tumultuous recent events at the BBC and looks to the future challenges of satellite and digital broadcasting; the aftermath of the Hutton Inquiry; and to what might lie ahead for the new chairman and director-general. This is an engrossing, controversial, and definitive account of the greatest broadcasting organization in the world at the most fascinating period of its history.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"'Fascinating and vibrant...A brilliant analysis of one of the greatest cultural institutions in the world' Helena Kennedy"

About the Author

Georgina Born is an academic, anthropologist, and musician, and the author of Rationalizing Culture: IRCAM, Boulez, and the Institutionalization of the Musical Avant-Garde and Uncertain Vision: Birt, Dyke and the Reinvention of the BBC, and the coauthor of Western Music and Its Others: Difference, Representation, and Appropriation in Music.

Product Details

• Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: Random House UK (September 27, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0099428938
• ISBN-13: 978-0099428930
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.6 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,442,479 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant book, April 4, 2009

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Tim Hodgkinson - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Uncertain Vision: Birt, Dyke and the Reinvention of the BBC (Paperback)

Everyone remotely connected with the media and media policy should read it, and it should be on all college media studies reading lists.This is excellently written, alternating extracts from diaries with interviews and analysis, building up a vision of a complex field in which different interests interact. Watching television will never be quite the same after reading this: you get an idea of the kinds of decisions that lie behind what you see on your screen.