Pity the Discovery

[LionKing]

A Mermaid fake documentary, a Megalodon fake documentary .. now "The Haunted" on IDx..why they are doing this to themselves? it is a pity that such a great channel degrades itself like that..

[Obviousman]

Discovery, History Channel, etc - they are all pretty much the same now. Eye candy, nothing to actually educate or stimulate.

[DD Brock]

I miss the days when I could actually learn a thing or two on those channels.

[LionKing]

I have been watching the crime investigations though for three consecutive days.. and they got me thrilled to expect who is the criminal before i learn it..though i am very touched and sad for some stories..i guess these are not faked..

[smartcooky]

I despair at the succession of programs full of pseudo-science claptrap that alleged education channels dish out

Ancient Aliens
UFOs
Junk Archaeology (such as "America Unearthed")
Finding Bigfoot
et al ad infinitum...

Unfortunately, the really worrying part about the rubbish that these channels now broadcast is that they are doing so, not just because its cheap to make (how much can it cost to have a couple of cameramen following a few buffoons around as they chase nothing through the underbrush?), but because the rubbish sells. That is what you get for 30 to 40 years of undermining and lowering of educational standards throughout the western world by a succession of ignorant politicians who think that mathematics and science is less important that social engineering.

[onebigmonkey]

Sadly the same applies to what might be regarded as 'proper' science programmes.

In the UK there is a science and technology strand called Horizon, which as a young person (when admittedly I knew understood a lot less) would repeatedly twist my brain into knots. Nowadays it's far too reliant on fancy graphics and breaking down information into bite-sized chunks to present anything meaningful in its hour long slot. Great for accessibility and inclusion, but all you give people access to is a glossed over and massively oversimplified version of a topic - there is no challenge to the intellect, no incentive to ask yourself questions or find out anything more.

Another fine example is this one

which could potentially have been really interesting, and was presented by an actual astronomer. Sadly her style was so slow and laboured and the reliance on pretty pictures so heavy that hardly anything was covered other than "ooh it would be a bit scary".

[molesworth]

I agree, "Horizon" has gone a bit down market over the years, but at least it hasn't stooped to the fantasy levels the Discovery and similar channels have moved into.  It's still a very educational programme, and does a good job of explaining complex ideas to the general population (which can't be a bad thing in my view).

Other programmes, like the "Do We Need the Moon" one, are also good science, even if a bit vague at times from our viewpoints.  For the majority of the public though, they're again great at getting the science across.

Overall, I think the beeb do a pretty good job on science documentaries like these, and hopefully they won't go for the lowest common denom - there are already UK channels who've gone that way... 

[Glom]

We still have NatGeo. Some of their docos are on YouTube. I saw one on the Ottoman Empire and one on the Louisiana Purchase. Not sure how recent they were though. The Louisiana
purchase programme may have actually been 90s.

[onebigmonkey]

I agree, "Horizon" has gone a bit down market over the years, but at least it hasn't stooped to the fantasy levels the Discovery and similar channels have moved into.  It's still a very educational programme, and does a good job of explaining complex ideas to the general population (which can't be a bad thing in my view).

Other programmes, like the "Do We Need the Moon" one, are also good science, even if a bit vague at times from our viewpoints.  For the majority of the public though, they're again great at getting the science across.

Overall, I think the beeb do a pretty good job on science documentaries like these, and hopefully they won't go for the lowest common denom - there are already UK channels who've gone that way... 

I know exactly what you're saying there and up to a point I agree with it. I still want programmes for me though, where's my social inclusion?

You can't even find those freaky Open University programmes at 2am any more with bearded weirdos bending your brain about topology.