Brian Winston

This work rewrites the history of documentary film to take account of technological change. Winston explores the role of such figures as Grierson, Flaherty and Dziga Vertov, and examines both the principles and practice of the major movements in documentary, such as "cinema verite."

The Griersonian Documentary and Its Legitimations

Claiming the Real

Leading expert Brian Winston's new book is one of the first to take the ethical issue seriously. Looking at the recent crises of confidence in public service broadcasting and the controversy surrounding docusoaps, his major new study provides a foundational study of ethics and the documentary. This accessible but comprehensive treatment will be an important contribution to academic debates over the role of the media and to the ongoing debates in the documentary community.

Lies, Damn Lies and Documentaries

The Documentary Film Revisited

Powerfully posing questions of ethics, ideology, authorship and form, documentary film has never been more popular than it is today. Edited by one of the leading British authorities in the field, The Documentary Film Book is an essential guide to current thinking on documentary film. In a series of fascinating essays, key international experts discuss the theory of documentary, outline current understandings of its history (from pre-Flaherty to the post-Griersonian world of digital 'i-Docs'), survey documentary production (from Africa to Europe, and from the Americas to Asia), consider documentaries by marginalised minority communities, and assess its contribution to other disciplines and arts. Brought together here in one volume, these scholars offer compelling evidence as to why, over the last few decades, documentary has come to the centre of screen studies.

The Documentary Film Book

Gail Vanstone

Wang Chi

Documentary has never attracted such audiences, never been produced with such ease from so many corners of the globe, never embraced such variety of expression. The very distinctions between the filmed, the filmer and the spectator are being dissolved. The Act of Documenting addresses what this means for documentary's 21st century position as a genus in the “class” cinema; for its foundations as, primarily, a scientistic, eurocentric and patriarchal discourse; for its future in a world where assumptions of photographic image integrity cannot be sustained. Unpacked are distinctions between performance and performativy and between different levels of interaction, linearity and hypertextuality, engagement and impact, ethics and conditions of reception. Winston, Vanstone and Wang Chi explore and celebrate documentary's potentials in the digital age.

Documentary Film in the 21st Century

The Act of Documenting

Challenging the popular myth of a present-day 'information revolution', Media Technology and Society is essential reading for anyone interested in the social impact of technological change. Winston argues that the development of new media forms, from the telegraph and the telephone to computers, satellite and virtual reality, is the product of a constant play-off between social necessity and suppression: the unwritten law by which new technologies are introduced into society only insofar as their disruptive potential is limited.

A History: From the Telegraph to the Internet

Media,Technology and Society

The 1980s saw constant reports of an information revolution. This book, first published in 1986, challenges this view. It argues that the information revolution is an illusion, a rhetorical gambit, an expression of profound historical ignorance, and a movement dedicated to purveying misunderstanding and disseminating disinformation. In this historically based attack on the information revolution, Professor Winston takes a had look at the four central information technologies – telephones, television, computers and satellites. He describes how these technologies were created and diffused, showing that instead of revolution we just have ‘business as usual’. He formulates a ‘law’ of the suppression of radical potential – a law which states that new telecommunication technologies are introduced into society only insofar as their disruptive potential is contained. Despite the so-called information revolution, the major institutions of society remain unchanged, and most of us remain in total ignorance of the history of technology.

Misunderstanding Media

Howard Davis

Paul Walton

John Eldridge

John Hewitt

Peter Beharrell

Jean Hart

Gregg Philo

It is a commonly held belief that television news in Britain, on whatever channel, is more objective, more trustworthy, more neutral than press reporting. The illusion is exploded in this controversial study by the Glasgow University Media Group, originally published in 1976. The authors undertook an exhaustive monitoring of all television broadcasts over 6 months, from January to June 1975, with particular focus upon industrial news broadcasts, the TUC, strikes and industrial action, business and economic affairs. Their analysis showed how television news favours certain individuals by giving them more time and status. But their findings did not merely deny the neutrality of the news, they gave a new insight into the picture of industrial society that TV news constructs.

Bad News (Routledge Revivals)

First published in 1980, More Bad News is the Second Volume in the research findings of the Glasgow University Media Group. It develops the analytic findings and methods of the first volume Bad News through a series of Case Studies of Television News Coverage, and argues that much of what passes as balanced and factual news reporting is produced from a highly partial viewpoint. Focusing on the British economy in crisis, and its thematic linkage with the Social Contract during the first four months of 1975, the book deals with three main levels of activity: the story, the language and the visuals. As the book unpacks each level of routine news coverage a picture emerges which has the surface appearance of neutrality and balance but is in fact highly partial and restricted

More Bad News (Routledge Revivals)

Easy to read, and highly topical, Messages writes a history of mass communication in Europe and its outreaches, as a search for the origins of media forms from print and stage, to photography, film and broadcasting. Arguing that the development of the mass media has been an essential engine driving the western concept of an individual, Brian Winston examines how the right of free expression is under attack, and how the roots of media expression need to be recalled to make a case for the media’s importance for the protection of individual liberty. Relating to the US constitution, and key laws in the UK which form the foundation of our society, this is a highly useful book for students of media, communication, history, and journalism.

Brian Winston

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