TELEVISION-ASIA: Selling Science

By Lynette Lee Corporal

BANGKOK, Nov 28 (Asia Media Forum) - A ‘weak’ science culture, commercial pressures in the broadcast industry, a lack of TV educational programming for youngsters, as well as boring formats, combine to make it difficult for science journalism to gain a foothold in countries like Thailand.

   This lack is what experts in the field of science journalism and educational programmes for children lamented at the South-east Asian Seminar on Science Journalism held Nov 27 here. The seminar was sponsored by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in Bangkok, in connection with the Goethe-Institut's just concluded Science Film Festival.

   While there are attempts to produce science programmes for TV, the sluggish promotion of science in schools and in the viewing public continues to be a problem.

   "Unlike western countries, we don't have a strong science culture here. Most people don't want to watch science films or documentaries," said Monthida Sitathani, a specialist in science education and communication of the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA).

   The NSTDA has helped promote the local production of made-for-TV science documentaries, including 5-minute clips that introduce the country's most promising young scientists and researchers. They also produced special features about the December 2004 tsunami, with over 20,000 DVD copies distributed to schools and aired twice on television. Unfortunately, said Monthida, these attempts at injecting a 'scientific consciousness' fell short of expectations.

   "Science journalism fare, including educational programming for children, is very low as far as television is concerned. Local productions get scared airing said shows because they didn't think these would be a hit to the audience," said Somtawin Chanyawong, vice president of the government-owned MCOT Public Company Ltd.

   She added: "When we imported programming from Germany, the TV ratings soared. They even imported a presenter for the local shows."

  This view is not without basis. There are not a lot of locally produced Thai educational programmes for children. The closest one could get to educational programming that has captured the public’s imagination is a game show called 'Tha Khun Nae Ya Pae Por Si' (loosely translated into 'If You are Good, Don't Lose to a Grade 4 [student]). The show, a local adaptation of the highly popular 'Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?' first aired in the United States in 2007, gets a primetime slot five nights a week on Channel 3.

   Other than a smattering of Discovery Channel and National Geographic features dubbed in Thai and some youth-oriented weekend programming, local television does not really offer a regular fare for kids, or even for adult science fans.

THE MARKET IS THERE

   While part of the reason for this is general lack of interest, there is indeed a market out there but it is just not being tapped properly, pointed out  Lapapan Choovong, national programme officer for communcation and information at UNESC Bangkok.

   For instance, she said that DVD copies of the BBC-produced nature documentary series 'Planet Earth' were actually sold out. In addition, science and technology pages are prominent in magazines and major newspapers. "It's basically two major issues — finances and capacity. I don't know who in Thailand would be willing to invest in big budget documentaries. How do we do it?" she asked.

   As for the training part, Lapapan said it has generally been a stop-and-go process. Two years ago, she said that UNESCO and the Goethe-Institut gave training programmes to Thai journalists on science reporting. Unfortunately, these were not sustained by either the journalists or the media entities.

   Science programming in Thailand in the past has been scarce, according to Heinze Pianka, director of international relations, China and South-east Asia, for the German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle from 1995 to 2006.

   "Deutsche Welle would sell educational programmes well in China, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore. In Thailand, however, we'd sell nearly nothing. The only stations where we sold programmes was Channel 11, which was regarded as an educational institution but had limited audience reach," said Pianka, a journalist by profession.

   In contrast, China's interest in such products — which resulted in TV stations buying the whole 200-item catalogue of Deutsche Welle — was the result of a national directive given to TV stations to 'care for wildlife'. "Our catalogue has lots of wildlife programming," added Pianka.

   Pianka believes that people are interested in environment and/or scientific documentaries, but that it is the broadcasting system that can either make or break this marked interest. "Here, you have to have broadcasting programmes which generate income, where owners are assured of profit, which is more important than the content. But the situation is  changing as the interest in documentaries and similar programmes is growing," he explained.

INFOTAINMENT PLEASE

Science does sell, said Pianka, if offered in an attractive manner. "It should both educate and entertain."

"It is hard to write scripts that will both be entertaining and educational at the same time," said Emmy Award-winning director and writer Jerome-Cecil Auffret. His 1996 film 'The Pelican of Ramzan the Red' won an Emmy Award for Best Documentary. Another film, 'The Lord of the Eagles' , was adjudged the Best Film on Mountain Environment at the 1992 Banff Mountain Film Festival in Canada.

"Science journalism and filmmaking not only bridge the gap between cultures, it also bridges the gap between people who know and those who don't," said Auffret, who is currently filming the last five films of his 10-part series on global warming.

No, he does not think that the global warming issue will turn cold any time soon. "The problem of global warming is it's very abstract. We need to make people understand that the problem is really global," he added.

Simplifying without falsifying, said Pianka, is a very important rule. "While there is a general interest among the public for new understanding, if you go too far or too deep, then you lose the audience. You begin to open a Pandora's Box of questions, especially when you start dealing with sensitive topics. Most producers don't want to go there," said Canadian independent filmmaker Guilhelm Rondot.

Ute Mattigkeit and Maike Pais, producers of the German youth programme 'Nine and a Half', said they have noted that children these days are asking more and more questions about global issues.  "So we're here not too much as to tell the children the news but to explain it to them," said Pais.

As for the future of science programming in Thailand, Somtawin explained: "There's room for improvement. Local productions just need to learn how to do it in an interesting way."(END/IPSAP/LLC/281108)