Scientific Educational Television Broadcasting throughout the World: Issues and Solutions

There is a growing shift towards employing an increasing number of entertainment elements in all areas of modern television broadcasting, including that of scientific educational broadcasting. Stations are forced to move in this direction as a result of the intense race for higher ratings - a race in which public stations are no exception.

Therefore, both TV producers/directors as well as expert consultants are ever doubtful as to what constitutes a "popular scientific educational" programme. Is it sufficient to merely select the right topic, or is employing a recognised expert in the given field also required? The same tendency can be seen in these stations whereby any topic can be covered, such as plastic surgery or police investigations, as long as the form of presentation is suitable. Such programmes theoretically refer to the scientific foundations of the disciplines being presented, but in practice they capitalise on the looks of certain pop stars or the tabloid popularity of horrendous crimes.

The increasing use of the term "infotainment," the combination of the words "information" and "entertainment," signals that purely scientific programmes, in their original sense, are losing ground all over the world. Globalisation, commercialisation, and reality shows have made educational broadcasting an endangered species. Scandinavian public stations are still holding up, but even the BBC has witnessed an apparent change, i.e. for the sake of presenting entertaining shows and the rhetorical efficiency of convincing the public, it has increasingly been hiding real scientific knowledge from its viewers. By employing lots of 3D graphics, dynamic sound effects, and even a new style of narrative that uses a form of heroic storytelling to present the procedures of a scientific research project, the programme creators enable viewers to "comprehend" the subject at hand easily, quickly, and without any particular intellectual effort. Viewers live through the experience as if it was a Hollywood production. As the attention and concentration level of the average TV viewer is lower and more diffused than that of a problem-solving researcher, for-profit broadcasting must fight to keep the viewer in front of the screen and it consequently creates strict criteria in terms of duration, level of detail, cohesion, language, the illustrations and pictorial tools applied, etc. These clearly limit the possibilities for programme makers and define the character of a given programme. NOVA, the most prestigious American counterpart of the BBC which also operates with the highest budget in its market segment, has ordered all its staff members to complete a course offered by a fashionable storytelling expert. In part due to the above, scientific and documentary films have consequently become confusingly similar.

This does not contradict the fact that there is huge competition in the international market of scientific documentaries and television programmes. Nowadays, it is quite rare for a television station to be able to finance a major documentary on its own. Independent artists and experts are rather invited to submit their ideas and screenplays, and different television stations join their financial resources to back a production. Only one out of every 300 proposals submitted in Great Britain ends up being made into a film. The various programmes are measured against each other at international television forums called "pitchings".

"Infotainment," however, does not mean a lack of scholarship, or at least not necessarily. Ever since serious scholarship came into being, great scientists have emphasised making wider segments of society accept the significance of their knowledge. "We need to simplify everything as much as possible, but no further" was Einstein's thesis; it could very well serve as the norm for all forms of good popularised science, since the actual entertainment task is to simplify complicated scientific problems and make them clear-cut and enjoyable so that the non-expert viewer can comprehend or at least follow it without allowing any significant damage to the scientific truth. "Hiding" scholarship is therefore not equivalent to giving in to pseudo-science or charlatanry, it is merely a question of methodology and of a style that finds a way to highlight a problem. This style is understandably quite different than that of the researcher's laboratory, employing suitable metaphors and spectacular examples instead of mathematic formulae which are impossible to follow. Increasing financial and intellectual capital are therefore being concentrated around professional television stations that make efforts to meet the challenges of "infotainment". It is worth noting that television is still a key medium, (though not the only one), for this popular and entertaining way of sharing knowledge. Newspapers and publishers, content-rich websites, databases, information services, education programmes, international research projects, and individual communities of researchers support each major television station.

One good example is the National Geographic Channel. Older generations of Hungarians probably remember the elegant and slim yellow booklets illustrated with breathtaking photographs. Most of us don't realise that the brand itself is almost 120 years old. On January 13, 1888, a group of 33 American men including geographers, explorers, attorneys, meteorologists, cartographers, teachers, biologists, and engineers founded a society in Washington to facilitate the accumulation and publication of geographic knowledge. In time, the National Geographic Society became the most significant non-profit scientific and educational society in the world; it has sponsored over 7,000 scientific research projects and expeditions. Even now, some 200 exploration teams are at work at numerous locations to enrich humankind with the latest information on the anthropological, natural history-oriented, and archaeological findings of various regions of the Earth. Later generations identify NG as the television station with the yellow square logo. The television channel is also popular in Hungary, and it has dynamically increased its viewership, which now totals over 30 million in Europe and Africa. National Geographic Channels International, the American parent company, currently reaches 160 million households in 143 countries and in 25 languages. NGC Europe, the European division of NG, broadcasts in 17 languages in 34 different countries. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, where broadcasting began in 1997, an additional one million households were connected last year alone and advertising proceeds have increased by one-third since 2001.

The number of subscribers in the Czech Republic has multiplied by six since 2001. With its quality and entertaining documentaries, the station has established its position in the global market. Its success is based on the belief that good television programmes should quench viewers' thirst for knowledge. The channel provides financial assistance for the exploration, environmental protection, and educational projects of the National Geographic Society. The National Geographic Channel has launched a significant scientific educational project in Hungary. Its film database matches the needs of public education, and through its text-based information and test files related to the films and available on the Internet, the channel facilitates teachers' classroom work. NG's various national channels also sponsor a bi-annual international geographical youth competition (National Geographic World Championship), and participate in the preparation of local teams.