Documentary at Boston University

If this were a video and your screen a television screen, I'd be talking to you facing the camera. But I'd do so reluctantly since for most of my professional life in television, I've worked behind the camera and not in front of it. In the culture formed by television, text and images have different roles and a different relationship with each other from what seems to be the case - for now, at least - on the internet. My principal professional interest is in documentaries and I hope that this site will generate further interest in this subject.

In this section you'll find information about my background, and about the documentaries I've made, the books and papers I've written.

I was born on the north-west frontier of what was then British India and educated in England where I graduated from Oxford University with a First Class Honors Degree in Modern History.

field work picture My first professional job was with BBC Television. I joined the production team of the BBC-TV program Panorama soon after the introduction of commercial television to Britain. My assignments took me to many different parts of the globe as television extended its reach world-wide. Before coming to the United States, I served on two commissions studying the effects of television on society. In addition to making documentaries and writing, I have frequently lectured to government and industry leaders on the new media environment brought about by television.

In 1982 I joined the faculty of the College of Communication at Boston University.