Simon Potter
Dr. Simon J. Potter is Reader in Modern History at the University of Bristol, UK. His research focuses on British imperial history and on media history, including the history of newspapers and the periodical press, radio broadcasting and television.
His book Broadcasting Empire: the BBC and the British World, 1922-1970 (Oxford University Press, 2012) looks at how radio and television were used to support Britain's imperial presence overseas, and at how the BBC adjusted to Britain's imperial retreat after the Second World War. The book pays particular attention to the role played by radio and television in linking up the British audience at home with the settler diaspora in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. It also considers the impact of decolonisation on links with broadcasters in Africa, Asia and elsewhere, and the role of the US global broadcasting presence in driving and shaping British efforts. Broadcasting Empire looks at BBC domestic programmes and at the BBC's Empire Service and Overseas Services, the ancestors of today's BBC World Service.
Dr. Potter is currently writing a history of the pioneering decades of British international broadcasting in the 1920s and 1930s. He is particularly interested in institutional and political histories of policy-making; geopolitical rivalries among different international broadcasters, and associated histories of transnational monitoring and borrowing; histories of listening and audience reception; and histories of programmes and soundscapes.
Email: simon.potter@bristol.ac.uk
Twitter: @simonjpotter