‘That’s good’: An industrial, ethics-focused analysis of the televised works of Anthony Bourdain

Abstract

Despite critical and popular acclaim, the travel/food television series of Anthony Bourdain have not received much academic attention. This paper examines the negotiations required of the series’ production team with regard to industry and ethics, including engagement with multiple forms of ‘quality’ to acquire audience share, which can exist in tension with the ethical requirements of veracity and protecting factual media subjects from harm. Ultimately, this paper shows that, while the series did negotiate both industrial and ethical requirements with regard to the places and cultures they represented, they were prone to ethical slippage with regard to practitioner/subject Bourdain himself.