Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://scholarworks.montana.edu/handle/1/733
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Item A matter of life and death : rethinking evolution and the nature of science on television(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2006) Bard, Susanne Clara; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: David ScheererIn a world where antibiotic resistance can make bacterial infections deadly and the HIV virus constantly mutates inside the human body, an understanding of evolution and its mechanisms is increasingly important. Yet much of the public is still either hostile to or misunderstands evolution and its mechanisms. Television provides the bulk of the general public's exposure to science once formal education has ended. The rhetorical strategies employed by much of science and evolution programming, along with an emphasis on content over process, delivers the message that science is a search for absolute truths rather than a dynamic process relying on falsification and tentative knowledge. The way in which science and evolution is presented parallels failures in the educational system to teach science as more than just a collection of absolute truths and unassailable facts. In both science teaching and science television, critical thinking often loses out.Item The preference for the exotic in wildlife broadcast film(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2007) Fitzgibbons, Ryan Patrick; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Ronald Tobias; Paul Monaco (co-chair)American wildlife broadcast film has exhibited a preference for exotic fauna, leaving much of North American wildlife underappreciated. The American preference for the exotic finds its roots in the early African hunting films of Cherry Kearton, John Hemment, and Martin Johnson. These films became manifestations of the Pristine, a conceptual realm of untouched wildness filled with aesthetically-pleasing megafauna. Since then, visions of the Pristine, through the exotic wildlife and landscape, have remained popular in American broadcast viewing, as seen in Animal Planet's programming. Exotic wildlife broadcast film encourages viewers to engage in the roles of tourist, refugee, and conservationist. These roles, in turn, foster an understanding of nature that is dominated by seemingly plentiful megafauna, disconnected from humans and valued through a nature-importing model.