During the course of my master’s thesis on wildlife television, I was repeatedly struck by the feeling that much wildlife and science-based programming was stale. It was too formulaic, and lacked something important.
It was one of my personal heroes, the late Anthony Bourdain, who showed me what that was: human connection.
I’ve spent much of this spring putting my ideas onto paper, and interviewing science communicators about the topic of authenticity. Those efforts have now culminated in an essay on The Revelator: an excellent and quickly-growing environmental magazine. Here’s a brief excerpt:
This is what those wildlife specials were lacking, and it’s a direction we need to go in with science communication, especially concerning critical environmental issues. We need to show that scientists — despite their education and technical expertise — are people the public can relate to and trust. This has the potential to disseminate knowledge, touch lives, create solidarity and generate support for conservation.
Josh Gross, The Revelator
For the full article, please click on the button below! After you read it, please tell me what you think!
The Jaguar 