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Jean Seaton

Jean Seaton (born 6 March 1947) is Professor of Media History at the University of Westminster and the Official Historian of the BBC. She is the Director of the Orwell Prize and on the editorial board of Political Quarterly. She is the widow of Ben Pimlott, the British historian.[1]

Jean Seaton

history

University of Westminster

Orwell Prize[edit]

Following Bernard Crick's retirement as Chair of the judges in 2006, Seaton took the position of Director of the Orwell Prize. Together with Martin Moore of the Media Standards Trust, Seaton led the launch of the prize's website in 2008 and the involvement of the prize with literary festivals.


During her tenure, Seaton has separated the role of Director from a judging role, increased the number of judges of the prize, and introduced longlists for the prize in addition to the already-existing shortlists.[2]

Editorial style[edit]

In Power Without Responsibility (2010) [1988], she wrote of Marmaduke Hussey's chairmanship of the BBC quite negatively, stating that he "brutally dismissed one director general, shabbily pushed aside the next, and appointed the third, John Birt, without even advertising the job or considering other candidates." And quoting without attribution a critic as describing his treating of the BBC 'rather as if he had owned it'.[13]: 206  In 2021's Guardians of Public Value, she wrote of him to have been an "excellent" chair and to have "helped creatively to change [the BBC's] direction", only describing his initial appointment as politically motivated.[14]: 108 

ed. The Media in British Politics (Avebury, 1987)

Politics and the Media in Britain: Harlots and Prerogatives at the Turn of the Millennium (Wiley, 1998)

ed. The Media of Conflict: War Reporting and Representations of Ethnic Violence (Zed Books, 1999)

Carnage and the Media: the Making and Breaking of News about Violence (Allen Lane, 2005)

(with John Lloyd) What Can Be Done? Making the Media and Politics Better (Wiley, 2006)

(with James Curran) : the Press and Broadcasting in Britain (Routledge, 7th edition 2009)

Power Without Responsibility

Curran, James; (2018). Power Without Responsibility. Abingdon, Oxon New York, NY: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-71042-8. (sections attributed in the index)

Seaton, Jean

(2021). "The BBC: Guardian of Public Understanding". Guardians of Public Value. Cham: Springer International Publishing. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-51701-4_4. ISBN 978-3-030-51700-7. PMC 7658670.

Seaton, Jean

faculty biography

University of Westminster

contributor profile page

Guardian

on the OpenDemocracy website

Seaton's articles

magazine contributions

Prospect