I’m a university academic, but also a former BBC producer who still occasionally gets involved in production. My job title is Reader in Media at the Communication and Media Research Institute in the University of Westminster. Before joining the University in 1993, I spent six years working for the BBC as a radio producer, working on programmes such as The World Tonight and Analysis, both on Radio 4. Before that I’d been studying history, teaching video in adult education, ghostwriting, and getting deeply involved in student journalism and film-making.
I’ve published two books: Radio in the Global Age (2000), a general introduction to the role of radio in late-twentieth century society, and Life on Air: a History of Radio Four (2007), the title of which is self-explanatory – except that I would say it tries to be a history of society and culture as much as a history of a radio station. My main area of interest is in the broader field of cultural history. So the fascination with radio is really to do with its place in the evolving human experience, as viewed historically over the longer-term.
This ‘place in the evolving human experience’ draws me towards questions of sense, perception, consciousness, and the relationship between evolution and culture. Much of my work looks backwards in time – where else can I look if I’m a historian? – but I’m also interested in how we can begin to think of new media in properly historical terms: to put it simply, what is the historical significance of current developments? This, and other questions, I intend to explore in 2008-9, when I will be a Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Cambridge. There, I’ll be investigating the broader relationship between radio, imagination and intellectual life.
My university web page is:
http://www.wmin.ac.uk/mad/page-1670