Producing Nature(s): On the Changing Production Ecology of Natural History TV

Abstract

Over recent years natural history programmes have undergone dramatic change and evolution both in form and in their representations of nature(s). This article empirically examines the changing ‘production ecology’ of natural history television and how this has impacted on the changing nature(s) represented within this popular genre of programming. The discussion explores the strategic and creative responses of organizations and producers, including those of natural history units based within national public service and commercial TV companies, international satellite and cable TV distributors, and medium- and small-scale production houses and independent producers. The concept of ‘production ecology’ is elaborated to help orient research precisely to the organizational dynamics and relations characterizing a particular field of cultural production and how these can permit differentiated responses to forces of change and creative adaptations of form. Attending to the production ecology of natural history programming reveals how and why transformations of genre have been enacted, and serves to underline the centrality of issues of form at the heart of the productive enterprise within different cultural fields. Considerations of form also help to explain the woeful natural history programme representations of ecology and environmental politics across recent years