All sources,references and influences have been acknowledged in the body of the text and in the bibliography. This work has not been submitted previously for any other assessed unit or other degree courses. Here, we present a case study based on fake documentaries and discuss effective social media strategies for scientists who want to engage with the public on issues of bad science, pseudoscience, and fake science. We identify two tracks that scientists can use to maximize the broad dissemination of corrective and educational content: that of an audience builder or an expert resource.
Finally, we suggests that scientists familiarize themselves with common sources of misinformation within their field, so that they can be better able to respond quickly when factually inaccurate content begins to spread. This research would not have been possible without the help, support and patience of my supervisor and tutor Mohd Razeef Shah Bin Mohmad Rafik.
It is a fictional text based on real events or facts that appropriates techniques and narrativity from the broader genre of the documentary. Some authors argue that the precursor of the genre is the radio version by Orson Welles of The War of the Worlds broadcasted in Roscoe and Hight, At this time of history, we were just experiencing for the first time such media hoax and we quickly understood the power media could have on public opinion as a manipulative tool.
This hoax, the essence of all mockumentary texts, raised awareness on the factual discourse, and lowered our naivety to media in general. Originally mockumentaries are using techniques, conventions and codes taken from the documentary. We rarely speak about the societal role mockumentaries can pursue because most of them are used for entertainment only. But nowadays the mockumentary tools are used more often than we think.
They come in different shapes and colours and they are not only mimicking the documentary filmmaking for entertainment.
This study will be focusing only on mockumentary hoaxes. Using mockumentary techniques, setting up a televisual hoax, is a choice made by the media producers: it can convey the message more efficiently.
It is of prior interest to analyse if the mockumentaries can act as true media of information. Sometimes mockumentaries can have a larger audience and a different one than the traditional media of information like documentaries or news media. Its success relies a lot on the relationship with the viewer: in the case of mockumentaries, the viewer must make an effort to understand what he is seeing in order to puzzle out the meaning conveyed, and that is not the case with traditional media of information where information is already selected and analysed for the viewer.
Moreover, the viewer can be tricked into believing the fictional text that appropriates factual narrativity and this trickery can be part of the storytelling core of the production, sometimes necessary to prove a point, or to transmit information efficiently.
Also the form of mockumentary lowers our gullibility on the broader genre of documentaries: beneath the entertaining aspects, they reveal us the techniques and the discourses used in documentaries with satire and parody. For the purpose of this dissertation the analysis will be limited on television mockumentaries because of the nature of the contract set up between producers and viewers in television.
Furthermore the televisual space allows the producers to trick the viewers in a more direct way. A few recent and different mockumentaries will be analysed in this study to show if they are acting as efficient media of information or not.
The analysis will try to determine the agenda of the producers to tell whether or not there is a will of transmitting information besides the trickery and if it is successful in doing so. The fictitious documentary, which presents the case that mermaids are not only real, but that there is an active government conspiracy to hide their existence, aired with a minimal post-credit disclaimer and was proceeded by heavy promotional material suggesting that the program evidence-based.
To project credibility, Mermaids featured actual government organizations, particularly the United States' National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA , implicating real scientists in a fake conspiracy.
Mermaids: The Body Found launched a new generation of fake documentaries, produced with the trappings of educational programming, including high production value, stunning visuals, and compelling narration.
Since then, Discovery Communications' networks have aired a follow-up to the initial fake mermaid documentary, which went on to become Animal Planet's highest grossing show ABC News, These fake documentaries followed a very particular style, weaving real science, natural history, and current events with fabricated images, CGI video, and interviews with actors playing experts, witnesses, and government officials.
In each case, the fake documentaries created conflict by inserting real government agencies into the narrative as antagonists, and implicated working scientists in fictional conspiracies. Shows like this can have real, tangible effects on science and science outreach Myrick and Evans, By sowing distrust about the motives and methods of this organization through misleading works of fiction, the producers of Mermaids and other shows undermined NOAA's ability to address real, pressing issues.
Climate change already suffers from an organized and concerted denial industry Dunlap and McCright, and this additional insult further erodes the public's confidence in government scientists. Others tapped into the increased public interest to boost ocean science literacy Steingass, It is important to note that, though the earliest responses to these fake documentaries were haphazard, latter articles did not appear de novo, but rather built upon the experience of a diverse group of ocean science communicators that coordinated and evaluated the success of each component of an overarching campaign.
After two years of experience addressing these programs, an effective model of rapid debunking was developed, followed by deeper educational content that capitalizes on the increased public interest in ocean issues following the airing of a fake documentary.
Beginning with Mermaids: The Body Found, articles had been published that debunked the central premises of these shows while directing our audience to disclaimers and other material that highlighted the shows' fictitious content. Initially, these articles came out within days of first airing Thaler, b , but, increasingly, fact-checking articles could be released during, and occasionally before, the show aired Shiffman, a.
By using search-engine-optimized headlines that anticipate audience queries i. This technique, combined with a policy of posting as close to the air date and time as possible, resulted in the articles yielding top Google search results and holding a prominent position on the first page of results for years after airing.
Maintaining strong, consistent search engine rankings is essential, as these programs are frequently re-aired in both the US and international markets. These posts consistently hold top positions among all articles on Southern Fried Science, a popular marine science and conservation website.
Mermaids: The New Evidence is a fake documentary has received over a quarter-million unique visitors over its lifetime. To analyze 'representation' in the mockumentary chosen for the study. To examine the idea of mockumentary desire.
To explore the various implications of the term mockumentary, with reference to the documentary genre. Significance of the Study This research is focusing on the usage of mockumentary program as informative mediato help students improvement their learning skill.
The data gathered from this study will be useful to: 1. Literature Review This chapter provides a review of the literature that informs this dissertation. Its precursor is considered by many authors to be the radio adaptation by Orson Welles in of The War of the Worlds of H.
Nowadays mockumentaries come in various forms and a tremendous amount of productions have used its techniques. Here the focus is on television mockumentaries: fictional televisual programmes based on real events or facts that appropriates techniques and narrativity from the broader genre of the documentary.
This includes media hoaxes, television mockumentaries and parodies. Mockumentary arises from a variety of agendas on the part of fictional media producers. While it draws in particular from parodic and satiric traditions, it is not reducible to these. And mockumentary is capable of providing for a complexity of modes of reading, inherently but not always explicitly involving different senses of reflexivity toward the non-fiction and hybrid forms which it appropriates.
This means that mockumentaries not only exist for entertainment: they can also be conveying a message or information, which is the topic of this dissertation. Therefore determining the agenda, the goal of the mockumentary, is the ultimate necessary element for the purpose of this study. The second point extends the definition not only to productions pretending to be documentaries, but also to a very wide genre of media productions that would include docusoaps, sitcoms, media hoaxes and animated sitcoms.
No need to retread old ground—read the original coverage: Mermaids do not exist, and five other important things people should, but do not, know about the ocean RIP: Science on TV Mermaids Embodies the Rotting Carcass of Science TV In case you missed them and who could blame you if you did , here are screen captures of the disclaimers briefly shown at the end of Mermaids: The New Evidence stating that the show is a work of fiction. Five organisms with real super powers that rival their comic book counterparts Five more marine organisms that put their superhero counterparts to shame The Sex Lives of Spoonworms: 10 marine animals with parasitic, dwarf, and otherwise reduced males Interested in some good ocean science fiction?
New study: 22 out of 23 U. Andrew David Thaler for the win. Best comment over. I cried a bit at the last sentence! James T. Gerald R. I just took Animal Planet off my favorites list. Bye liars!! Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
For instance, the lead scientist in this show is presented as Dr. The same is true for all members of the cast. But this was on a self-styled educational network. Animal Planet cashed in on its poorly earned reputation as a science channel — the network previously aired The Pet Psychic, after all — to make gullible viewers believe mermaids are real.
Fooled you! The documentary makes much of the fact that whales evolved from terrestrial ancestors, but that took millions of years, not the kind of evolutionary eyeblink that Mermaids seems to be talking about. You may have to look hard to see the disclaimer, but the producers and Animal Planet make it clear that this program is totally and completely made up.
At least they almost make it clear. Brian Switek was more caustic in his criticism of the Mermaids program, writing of it in Wired that:. Speculative biology can be a lot of fun — to wonder how different forms of life might have evolved. And, with the right context and presentation, Mermaids could have been a unique way to highlight evolutionary and biological ideas.
But rather than being a hook for communicating actual science, Mermaids was a sensationalistic end in itself.
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