Public issue television : world in action, 1963-98 / Peter Goddard, John Corner, Kay Richardson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Goddard, Peter, 1960-

Contributor:

Corner, John, 1943-

Richardson, Kay, 1955-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

World in action (Television program)--History.

World in action (Television program).

Documentary television programs--Production and direction.

Documentary television programs.

Documentary television programs--Political aspects--Great Britain.

Documentary television programs--Social aspects--Great Britain.

Social aspects.

History.

Great Britain.

Physical Description:

xiii, 250 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Manchester : Manchester University Press, 2007.

Summary:

Public issue television is a major contribution to understanding the relationship between television, politics and society. Based on full access to the archives, it offers a fascinating historical account of how one television series, Granada's World in Action, celebrated for its tough journalism, visual directness and public impact, functioned and developed over its run across 35 years, between 1963 and 1998. In a succession of chapters looking at different periods in the series' development and at key dimensions of its distinctive identity, it gets deep inside the making of factual television and examines how a particular culture of production works within broader conditions of possibility and constraint. In particular, it charts the interwoven processes of change - technological, professional, aesthetic, institutional, economic, social and political.

As well as discussing achievement and success, it examines the tensions, the debates and open conflicts that formed part of the context within which the series was made and transmitted across four decades. The book is significant for television studies internationally. Its focus on 'documentary journalism' brings together areas of practice that have often been studied in separation, and its concern for tracing the changing project of making popular television about serious issues could not be more relevant to current policy debate.

Written in a clear and vigorous style, citing extensively from archive documents and from interviews, this volume will be a valuable resource for all levels of teaching about television as well as for future scholarship. It also engages with the broader questions about television's public role.

Contents:

World in Action: some key names xi

A note on referencing xiii

2 Origins: technology, innovation and social purpose 8

Interlude: The World Tomorrow 37

3 1967-75: the classic period 42

4 1975-88: the Fitzwalter years 75

5 1988-98: current affairs as commodity 105

6 Organisation and culture of production 126

7 Documentary journalism and television form 159

8 Regulation: policy and conflict 185

9 Conclusion: television in action 215

Index of World in Action programmes 224.

Notes:

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN:

9780719062551

0719062551

071906256X

9780719062568

OCLC:

154789054