The History of Opposition to Blood Sports in Twentieth Century England by Michael Tichelar

Author:Michael Tichelar [Tichelar, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, General, Sociology
ISBN: 9781315399775
Google: lzIlDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2016-12-15T04:30:52+00:00

Anthropomorphism in blue-chip wildlife documentaries

After 1980, wildlife films and nature documentaries became a worldwide media industry. Narrated by celebrities and driven by commercial ratings, they attracted hundreds of millions of viewers and generated enormous revenue streams. These programmes were made for both educational and entertainment purposes, building on an earlier, more science-based documentary tradition, but increasingly bowing to commercial pressure at the expense of scientific objectivity and other agendas, such as conservation. They grew in popularity as countries became increasingly urbanised and detached from wild nature, and as species were driven to extinction on an unprecedented scale due to the environmental degradation of their natural habitats.

Without doubt, these films have played a significant role in encouraging a more anthropomorphic view of animals that is at variance with a scientific understanding of animal behaviour. For example, one study has shown that blue-chip wildlife films ‘work against a proper sense of the uncertainties of scientific understanding’ in relation to the public’s knowledge of Darwinian evolution.35 In fact, the film historian Derek Bouse has gone so far as to question whether wildlife films can really be described as ‘nature documentaries’ at all. The ‘tyranny of formula represented by the Blue Chip Model is clearly a more powerful force in shaping wildlife films than are any of the traditional documentary models’.36 Another film historian has suggested that the impulse to document nature in such films is motivated by a desire to preserve animal life in a virtual world while it disappears in the real world. They are designed to entertain rather than educate, and they ‘have no other ambition than to allow for the consumption of images of animals interspersed with advertising for products bought by animal lovers’.37 Anthropomorphism has therefore become a marketing strategy, and wildlife documentaries seem uninterested in presenting accurate, scientific accounts of animal behaviour.

Derek Bouse has argued that even the BBC, which was founded and still operates as a ‘public service’ broadcaster, embraces all of the conventions associated with ratings-driven, blue-chip entertainment. Blue-chip films are defined as those that possess the following characteristics:

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First, they depict only larger mammals, primarily predators, including whales and dolphins, that are engaged in life-and-death struggles. They create dramatic, exciting storylines of chases and escapes that are designed to grab the attention of mass audiences in search of a reconnection with nature, or simple excitement.

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Second, the animals are filmed in magnificent, unspoiled environments where there is an absence of people who might ruin the natural effect by introducing science or conservation themes.

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Third, there is always a dramatic narrative, such as family romance, coming of age or overcoming adversity. The French nature film The March of the Penguins (2005) is a classic example of this.

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Fourth, the films do not discuss history or politics, and no propaganda is allowed on behalf of conservation or other potentially controversial causes.

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Fifth, there is an equal absence of real science, as this might obscure the view of nature in its unspoiled splendour.38

Bouse suggests that many of the early Survival films, produced by

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