Anthropology and television: Ethnographic‐ethnological topics on German television

Abstract

The following paper gives an overview of the various programs with ethnographic‐ethnological content shown on Channels I and III of ARD, a public broadcasting company in Germany, from 1965 until 1989. Research focused on ethnographic‐ethnological content of documentary films in general and thus also included television programs whose theme as a whole differed from this topic. Based on a review of the data of a total of 280 programs, 4 categories of program are classified: 1. Eth nographic television programs; 2. Television programs with ethnographic elements; 3. Television programs with an ethnological topic; and 4. Border‐line cases, i.e. programs which are remarkable from an anthropological point of view but which cannot directly be classed with one of the categories above. Most of the programs with ethnographic‐ethnological content are broadcast on Channel III which addresses target groups with specific interests. This aim was more visible during the first years of the existence of Channel III at the e...