Jean Seaton is Professor of Media History at the University of Westminster, the official historian of the BBC and took over the Orwell Prize as Director in 2007. She has written on the history and role of the media in politics, wars, revolutions, religion and childhood, including Power Without Responsibility: the Press and Broadcasting in Britain (with James Curran) and Carnage and the Media: The Making and Breaking of News about Violence, as well as (with John Lloyd)What Can Be Done? Making the Media and Politics Better. She is on the board of the Political Quarterly and Full Fact.