Documenting and Popularising British Nuclear Power: Exploring Science Infotainment
InMedia The French Journal of Media Studies 7.2. | 2019 Documentary and Entertainment Documenting and Popularising British nuclear power: Exploring science infotainment Lucie de Carvalho Electronic version URL: http://journals.openedition.org/inmedia/1607 DOI: 10.4000/inmedia.1607 ISSN: 2259-4728 Publisher Center for Research on the English-Speaking World (CREW) Printed version Date of publication: 15 December 2019 Electronic reference Lucie de Carvalho, “Documenting and Popularising British nuclear power: Exploring science infotainment ”, InMedia [Online], 7.2. | 2019, Online since 16 December 2019, connection on 26 January 2021. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/inmedia/1607 ; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/inmedia.1607 This text was automatically generated on 26 January 2021. © InMedia Documenting and Popularising British nuclear power: Exploring science infotai... 1 Documenting and Popularising British nuclear power: Exploring science infotainment Lucie de Carvalho Introduction 1 When Stephen Hawking passed away on March 14, 2018, much of the tribute paid underscored his iconic popularising skills. With the likes of Richard Attenborough or Jeremy Vine, Hawking rose to the status of documentary voice and British national public treasure. He also helped build bridges between science and the British public both through books and documentaries. The latter in particular have held a place of pride in the popularising techniques regarding the sometimes-esoteric world of natural or experimental sciences. As a television sub-genre, documentaries are distinct from news-providing or fiction programmes but borrow elements from both. For Bill Nichols, “The appearance of documentary involves the combination of three pre- existing elements--photographic realism, narrative structure, and modernist fragmentation—along with a new emphasis on the rhetoric of social persuasion.”1 It means that a documentary is based on chronicling the “real” through images and sounds, mostly with an activist intent.
[Show full text]