Brian Norman Winston (7 November 1941 – 9 April 2022)
was a British journalist who was the first holder of the Lincoln Professorship at the
University of Lincoln
The University of Lincoln is a public university, public research university in Lincoln, England, Lincoln, England, with origins dating back to 1861. It gained university status in 1992 and its present name in 2001. The main campus is in the hea ...
, United Kingdom. He was a Pro Vice Chancellor for 2005–2006 and the former dean of Media and Humanities.
He was awarded an
Emmy
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award catego ...
in 1985 for documentary script writing.
Biography
Winston was born in
Evesham
Evesham () is a market town and Civil parishes in England, parish in the Wychavon district of Worcestershire, in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands region of England. It is located roughly equidistant between Worcester, England, Worceste ...
, Worcestershire,
but grew up in North London, where he attended
Kilburn Grammar School
Kilburn Grammar School was an English grammar school which opened in 1898 in Kilburn, north-west London. The school ceased to exist in 1967.
History
The school's history is detailed in a book by Richard E Brock. It was founded by the Rev. Dr. ...
before going up to
Merton College, Oxford
Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 126 ...
in 1960 to read for a degree in Jurisprudence.
Winston was the founding director of the
Glasgow Media Group, and a co-author of its first two books, ''Bad News'' (1976) and ''More Bad News'' (1980). His former roles included chair of Cinema Studies at
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
, dean of the College of Communications at
Penn State University
The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsyl ...
(
State College,
PA), director of the Centre for Journalism Studies at the
University of Wales
The University of Wales () is a confederal university based in Cardiff, Wales. Founded by royal charter in 1893 as a federal university with three constituent colleges – Aberystwyth, Bangor and Cardiff – the university was the first universit ...
College of Cardiff, and head of the School of Communication, Design and Media at the
University of Westminster
The University of Westminster is a public university, public university based in London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1838 as the Royal Polytechnic Institution, it was the first Polytechnic (United Kingdom), polytechnic to open in London. The Po ...
.
Winston had worked in television current affairs and features, documentaries and as a print journalist since 1963. He was awarded an Emmy in 1985 for documentary script writing for his contribution to the
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
television series ''Heritage: Civilization and the Jews''. He wrote on free expression and theories of technological change in the media and was also known for being one of the first to address the issue of documentary ethics. His ''Media, Technology and Society'' was named the best book of 1998 by the American Association for History and Computing.
In 2014, ''A Right to Offend'' received a Special Award for "increasing understanding of human rights": International Press Institute (Vienna) Book Awards.
Winston, who had described himself as a
British Jew,
had been a governor of the
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...
, the founding chair of the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies and, in 1993, was an instigator of the Visible Evidence international conference series on documentary film.
Winston died in
Lincoln on 9 April 2022, at the age of 80.
Books
* ''Dangling Conversations: The Image of the Media'' (1973)
* ''Dangling Conversations: Hardware, Software'' (1974)
* ''Bad News: The Structure of Television News'' (with Glasgow Media Group) (1976)
* ''More Bad News: The Structure of Television News'' (with Glasgow Media Group (1980)
* ''Misunderstanding Media'' (1986)
* ''Working with Video'' (with Julia Keydel) (1986)
* ''Claiming the Real'' (1995)
* ''Technologies of Seeing: Photography, Cinematography and Television'' (1996)
* ''Media, Technology and Society: A History: From the Telegraph to the Internet'' (1998)
* ''Fires Were Started: BFI Film Classics'' (1999)
* ''Lies, Damn Lies and Documentaries'' (2000)
* ''The Movies in History: Visions of the Twentieth Century'' (2000).
* ''Reporting Diversity: Curriculum Framework'' (2003)
* ''Messages: From Gutenberg to Google'' (2005)
* ''Claiming the Real II: The Documentary Grierson and After'' (2008)
* ''A Right to Offend'' (2012)
* ''The Documentary Film Book'' (ed.) (2013)
* 纪录与方法/''Documenting and Methods'' (with Chi Wang, eds)
* ''The Rushdie Fatwa and After: A Lesson to the Circumspect'' (2014)
* ''The Act of Documenting: Documentary in the 21st Century'' (with Gail Vanstone and Wang Chi) (2017)
* ''The Roots of Fake News: Objecting to Objective Journalism'' (with Matthew Winston)
References
External links
* Patricia R. Zimmermann
"A Hole in the World: Brian Winston, 1941–2022" ''The Edge'', 5 September 2022.
"Brian Winston Reads the TV News: Live and on Tape" ''Paper Tiger'', 16 March 1983, via YouTube.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Winston, Brian
1941 births
2022 deaths
Academics of the University of Lincoln
Alumni of Merton College, Oxford
British Jews
British male journalists
British mass media scholars
People educated at Kilburn Grammar School
Mass media theorists
American technology writers
Governors of the British Film Institute