Geek Girl Navigates Straight Through Discovery Channel Idiocy
"Shark Week" used to be a time of joy for me. I would actively plan to get home to watch all of the new specials avidly, because I was so excited to learn more about sharks. The Discovery Channel has been engaged in a downhill slide of their Shark Week programming for a couple of years now.
I disagreed with their continual choice to air documentaries about shark attacks largely because they played off as cheap, sensationalized drama to attract viewership without really bothering to educate them. I still watched "Shark Week" because there were usually some programs devoted specifically to new research being done on shark migratory habits or feeding and mating patterns.
The latest installment of "Shark Week" infuriated me, both as a college-educated science lover and as a nerd. Discovery felt the need to produce a psuedoscience fake-umentary claiming that Megalodon were still alive, well, and swimming off the coast of South Africa attacking people. Their efforts at maintaining that the entire show was purely for entertainment purposes was minimal at best. Snopes.com and National Geographic have both created content in response to the show and to public reaction to it.
Naturally, I had to write a column about it.
http://www.boomtron.com/2013/08/geek-girl-navigating-the-world-discovery-channel-takes-a-bite-out-of-their-reputation-with-megalodon/
I disagreed with their continual choice to air documentaries about shark attacks largely because they played off as cheap, sensationalized drama to attract viewership without really bothering to educate them. I still watched "Shark Week" because there were usually some programs devoted specifically to new research being done on shark migratory habits or feeding and mating patterns.
The latest installment of "Shark Week" infuriated me, both as a college-educated science lover and as a nerd. Discovery felt the need to produce a psuedoscience fake-umentary claiming that Megalodon were still alive, well, and swimming off the coast of South Africa attacking people. Their efforts at maintaining that the entire show was purely for entertainment purposes was minimal at best. Snopes.com and National Geographic have both created content in response to the show and to public reaction to it.
Naturally, I had to write a column about it.
http://www.boomtron.com/2013/08/geek-girl-navigating-the-world-discovery-channel-takes-a-bite-out-of-their-reputation-with-megalodon/