Broadcast: News items

The Educational Development Building (EDB) is to be renamed as the Silverstone Building, remembering Sussex's first professor of media studies, Roger Silverstone. 

The renaming, a tribute to Roger's contribution to media studies at Sussex and beyond, will mark a new beginning for the building, which will house the new School of Media, Film and Music (MFM) when it formally opens this August. 

Roger moved to Sussex in 1991 - after 15 years as a sociologist at Brunel University - and set about moulding the shape of the Media and Cultural Studies programme. In addition, he developed new research collaborations as Director of the Graduate Research Centre in Culture and Communication (CulCom) and worked on his path-breaking text Why study the media?, since translated into many languages. 

He left in 1998 to become the first Professor of Media and Communication at LSE (London School of Economics), where he worked until he died in 2006. There is now a Silverstone Fellow appointed at LSE, where a fund was set up in Roger's name. 

The Vice-Chancellor, Michael Farthing, said: "I have been Vice-Chancellor at Sussex since 2007, so sadly never had the pleasure of meeting Roger personally. However, all of us at Sussex appreciate the tremendous contribution he made to the field of media studies, and he is a much-missed member of our faculty. 

"I feel it is a wonderful way to honour Roger's contribution to Sussex." 

Jennifer Silverstone, Roger's wife, as well as his sons Daniel and William and his daughter Elizabeth, said that Roger would have been thrilled with the tribute. Jennifer said: "We are all delighted that Sussex have chosen to honour Roger in this way. 

"His colleagues at the University and the students he taught meant a great deal to him and remained part of the academic community he valued greatly." 

Dr Kate Lacey, acting head of the department of Media and Film, described Roger as a "truly inspirational colleague". She said: "Roger was the driving force in establishing media studies at Sussex, but his tireless commitment to fostering interdisciplinarity means the mark he made at Sussex and beyond cannot be confined to just one degree or discipline. 

"His own distinctive, complex, but always accessible work on the poetics, ethics and politics of mediated experience continues to enrich and stimulate new research in the field." 

Professor Sue Thornham, Head-Designate of the School of Media, Film and Music, said: "Apart from the fact that Roger was a very important figure in the developing field of media studies, there is still a huge affection for him within the department." 

Staff in the media and film department are considering ways to mark the renaming, including the possibility of hosting a symposium of Roger's work.