Understanding the Lack of Science on Tv: Network Decision-Makers’ Opinions towards Televisual Science

Maria T Soto-Sanfiel,Ariadna Angulo-Brunet,Isabel Villegas-Simón

doi:10.5209/esmp.72837

Abstract

The lack of science on the Spanish TV is explained through the people responsible for content production, scheduling and offer. Two focus groups made up of five decision-makers identified the professionals’ opinions: science on TV is needed, the function of televisual science is educating audiences, public channels are responsible for showing such contents, government should urge scientific programming, science on TV contributes in increasing the cultural level of audiences, and people holding power positions are not interested in improving society´s level of literacy. Later, the generality of those opinions was measured through a questionnaire applied to 450 TV managers. A latent profile statistical analysis showed that individual characteristics of professionals (i.e., gender, age, educational level) do not play a role in shaping their opinions but work related (i.e., area of coverage, TV ownership) do.

Highlights

The sessions served to elicit opinions, attitudes, and beliefs (Osborne, Simon & Collins, 2003) about the production, offer and scheduling of science on TV
The researchers who attended these sessions sensed that the participant professionals had somewhat vague views and several doubts regarding many of the proposed topics, suggesting that they were not matters to which they had given much previous thought. These opinions varied very little between the groups, suggesting that further sessions would not produce a wider range of attitudes
The role of science on TV has typically been studied from the perspective of journalism (Besley & Tanner, 2011; Poliakoff & Webb, 2007), but there are many others such as employees of TV networks who have a say in the kind of content that is aired on TV (Jones, 2011)

Summary

Introduction

The presence of science in the media has already been studied from the perspective of journalism (Besley & Tanner, 2011; Poliakoff & Webb, 2007). Newsroom staff are not the only employees of media companies who influence the content that is broadcast. In terms of television, producers, managers and executives decide what content to show (Jones, 2011).

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Discussion

Conclusion