The shift from traditional documentary to "factual entertainment" television has been the subject of much debate and criticism, particularly with regard to the representation of science. New types of factual programmes, mixing documentary techniques with those from entertainment formats like drama, game-shows and reality TV, using spectacular visual effects produced by Computer Generated Imagery, and often blurring the boundaries between mainstream science and popular beliefs have sometimes come in for strident criticism. This books explores these issues, conducting close analysis of programmes across a range of sciences to see if criticisms of them as representing the "rotting carcass of science TV" are valid, or whether, when considered in relation to the principles, practices and communication strategies of different sciences they can be seen to offer a more complex and richer set of representations of science which construct them as objects of wonder, awe and the sublime.

Autorentext

Vincent Campbell is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Media and Communication at the University of Leicester, UK. He has written on issues relating to the communication of science in factual television, and more widely on issues relating to screen communication. He co-edited Controversial Images: Media Representations on the Edge (with Atwood, F., Hunter, I. and Lockyer, S., Palgrave 2013).

Klappentext

The shift from traditional documentary to factual entertainment television has been the subject of much debate and criticism, particularly with regard to the representation of science. New types of factual programmes, mixing documentary techniques with those from entertainment formats like drama, game-shows and reality TV, using spectacular visual effects produced by Computer Generated Imagery, and often blurring the boundaries between mainstream science and popular beliefs have sometimes come in for strident criticism. This books explores these issues, conducting close analysis of programmes across a range of sciences to see if criticisms of them as representing the rotting carcass of science TV are valid, or whether, when considered in relation to the principles, practices and communication strategies of different sciences they can be seen to offer a more complex and richer set of representations of science which construct them as objects of wonder, awe and the sublime.

Inhalt

Acknowledgements.- **1) Introduction: The Changing Landscape of Science Television.- 2) Analytical Frameworks: Science, Documentary and Factual Entertainment.- 3) Space Sciences: Wonders of the Cosmos.- 4) Palaeontology: Monsters from Lost Worlds.- 5) Archaeology: Ancient Secrets and Treasures.- 6) Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Extreme Weather and Natural Disasters.- 7) Pseudoscience and Popular Beliefs.- **Bibliography.-