Book description
The BBC is the world's most famous and powerful cultural institution
and remains the gold standard for broadcasters on every continent.
Uncertain Vision is the definitive account of the BBC in the
last decade, an engrossing and penetrating take on the corporation at
a critical and fascinating period in its history.
Georgina Born has conducted the most extensive independent research
ever inside the BBC. In this path-breaking book she blends together
reportage and cultural history, social analysis and cultural
criticism, offering both a panorama of the BBC's history and an
intimate portrait of the people that make it up - producers and
journalists, channel controllers and strategists.
Uncertain Vision dissects director-general John Birt's
policies to reveal how his 'new managerialism' undermined the
creativity of the BBC and fuelled television's decline. It probes Greg
Dyke's reign as director-general and the tumultuous events around the
Hutton inquiry, and looks to the future: to the threats posed by
escalating government interventions, and to the opportunities and
challenges of digital broadcasting and new media.
Georgina Born is an academic, musician and writer. She is Reader in
Sociology, Anthropology and Music at Cambridge University and Fellow of
Emmanuel College.
