Science, Entertainment and Television Documentary

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.