The BSA was saddened to learn of the death of Professor John Eldridge late last year.   John Eldridge was a British sociologist known for his writings on industrial sociology and Max Weber, and as the founder member of the influential media analysis research group, the Glasgow Media Group.

Professor Eldridge gained a BSc (Econ) from the University of London and an MA from Leicester University, and went on to hold positions as lecturer and senior lecturer at the University of York from 1964–69, and professor at the University of Bradford from 1969–72.

He worked at the University of Glasgow from 1972 onwards, as Professor and later Emeritus Professor, and was a Visiting Professor of Sociology at the University of Strathclyde.

In 1974 Professor Eldridge founded Glasgow University Media Group, the first research group to develop a systematic analysis of TV journalism, particularly news broadcasting, including its biases.

He wrote and co-edited books including Bad News (1976); Industrial Sociology and Economic Crisis (1990); Getting the Message: News, Truth and Power (1993); and The Mass Media and Power in Modern Britain (1997).

A 2014 conference at Glasgow to celebrate his work featured papers by many leading sociologists from around the UK. Many speakers paid testament not only to the academic and scholarly significance of his work, but also to his work as a supportive colleague, teacher and mentor, and as staunch defender of the discipline.

In 2015 he was given the Distinguished Service to Sociology Award by the British Sociological Association. The BSA’s then President, Professor Lynn Jamieson, told the audience at the annual conference that Professor Eldridge was “at the forefront of media analysis, getting us to see who gets to speak and why, who doesn’t get to speak, how is that discourse framed, how is power being exercised, in a way that hadn’t actually previously been done.”

He was President of the British Sociological Association 1979-1981.