David over at Southern Fried Science emailed me today about the controversy surrounding The Discovery Channel’s Shark Week. What controversy? you may be wondering… Well it happens there are a number of folks concerned that ‘sensationalistic‘ portrayals of sharks in shows like ‘Deadly Waters‘ and ‘Sharkbite Summer‘ are more successful at fostering fear than promoting conservation.
Now personally, I don’t have a problem with Shark Week. I like that Discovery spends time highlighting the marine realm and have a hunch it serves to encourage many youngsters to get interested in oceans by fostering curiosity about what’s going on beneath the surface. The opposing argument has some merit, but the associated petition and blog are a little… well, exaggerated:
Discovery Channel has so effectively convinced their millions of viewers that sharks deserve to be hated, that many people think that sharks should be hunted to extinction.
In my experience, both children and adults regularly bring up Shark Week when they find out I work in marine biology because sharks are ‘so cool!’ (If only sea cucumbers got that kind of attention.) So it’s hard to be outraged at an organization that funds a good deal of conservation while promoting public appreciation of science. And admittedly, along with many good friends at NOAA’s Silver Spring headquarters, I still get a kick out of the 446-foot-long inflatable shark swimming through The Discovery Channel building for the week every year. In short, I choose my battles carefully, and when it comes to marine conservation, I’ve got bigger fish to fry.
David will be interviewing The Discovery Channel’s Senior Science Editor Paul Gasek on the matter and is calling for questions from readers. The details to contribute are here…
June 17th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
I like those shark pats on te building!
June 17th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
I LOVE Shark Week because yeah sharks are cool. I really don’t think Shark Week fosters that sort of hatred of sharks, far more to blame for that is sensational media coverage of the rare shark attack on a human. I remember the whole “summer of the shark” nonsense a few years ago where the media hyped a handful of attacks was far more damaging than a cable network celebrating sharks for a week.
Now if I can just convince them to do a Squid Week.
June 17th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Did you know that sharks are resistant to the development of cancer? This is just one thing that I have learned from past shark week events on the Discovery Channel. The information that we gain from learning about sharks is invaluable to science and to the field of medicine.
June 17th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Thanks, Sheril!
June 18th, 2009 at 12:27 am
I have been watching the unfolding industry talk and growing awareness surrounding Discovery Channel and Shark Week programming – which by all accounts and by our industry standards, has reached new lows.
What began as a clarion call this spring by Da Shark in Fiji over a production that had approached him revealing production notes that described an anti-shark, anti-industry production – has gone much further with industry members and shark conservationists asking the question “how do we change this?”.
Beqa Adventure Divers also went one step further by making everyone aware a toxic production was in the region looking to do questionable things with sharks for television ratings.
A bold step by a regional shark operator and one we have called “industry leadership”. For other less charitable members of our industry they have been called “meddlers”.
Changing The Game
This is not solely a Discovery Networks problem and it cannot be solved by simply boycotting DC or even protesting DC – though a protest will generate media interest. As with all issues this is more nuanced with several players involved.
DC networks purchase show ideas from production companies. These shows are pitched to network execs who then say “great idea, here’s some money, go out and make that show”. The ball is then passed back to the production company who make a few calls eliciting help from regional players such as dive operators and shark researchers.
These regional players “enable” the production to move ahead by providing the access to sharks.
The production is wrapped, edited, and then goes back to DC for distribution aka Shark Week. If the show gets high ratings, the production company is often tapped for another show and the process repeats.
That’s how it works in most cases. This is also how production values spiral downward as production companies “build on” last years show ratings, tailoring new shark shows on that metric and little else. Ratings.
So, as industry folks we have a choice. To look at a proposed shark script and say yes, no, or in our case “please modify”. We have turned down quite a few shows in the past 5 years, we have also done quite a few and even modified a few with terrific results. Many production companies will seek guidance and it is up to us to offer it up, guiding the show to better quality.
If we as an industry want to see change at DC, then change must start with the operators and “enablers” who make productions happen. In some cases you have to “eat a production” or two – passing on productions today in the hopes that there will be better productions tomorrow.
Good productions are not hard to do, but it’s a solution everyone has to be involved in. As an operator you can do your bit by turning down productions that refuse to modify story lines and who seek to portray all sharks as little more than killers.
The world needs and wants shark productions, and operators are willing to offer them up. Breaking the cycle of formulatic “killer shark” programming is something we all need to work on for better programming in the future.
Cheers,
Patric Douglas CEO
http://www.sharkdiver.com
http://www.sharkdivers.com
http://www.sharkdivers.blogspot.com
http://www.guadalupefund.org
http://www.islandofthegreatwhiteshark.com
415.235.9410
June 18th, 2009 at 8:47 am
Sadly, the shark balloon has not made an appearance in recent years- I think they felt that spending the $ to inflate & maintain a giant shark balloon when they were firing employees to save money was bad form.