{"title":"伦敦东区人和环境:在黄金时段传播地球危机?","authors":"Lesley Henderson","doi":"10.1177/17496020251340359","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"The BBC flagship continuing drama <jats:italic>EastEnders</jats:italic> (1985-) is widely accepted as an exemplar of the ‘entertainment-education’ approach, embodying a strong public service ideology and rooted in Reithian values. In this paper, I explore the definitional role of the programme in addressing environmental issues in the digital age and argue that this is a novel opportunity to examine the limits and possibilities of the genre to engage with anthropogenic crises. My analysis is informed by the perspectives of <jats:italic>EastEnders</jats:italic> scriptwriters/consultants and sustainability professionals who perceived prime time drama as providing a unique tool to engage distinctive diverse audiences who are marginalised by blue-chip nature series. For the first time, I address the context in which popular environmental storylines are produced in the UK and identify how storytelling is mediated by the contemporary hostile television environment with intense competition from streaming channels and social media platforms. I outline how the dynamics of environmental storytelling are shaped explicitly by external factors including organisational commitment to climate content and the perceived role of the BBC in catalysing a ‘national conversation’. Powerful tacit assumptions concerning ‘good stories’ being rooted in interpersonal friction potentially risk presenting a false equivalency – given that environmental scientists are reluctant to collaborate with this ‘low status’ media product. Continuing drama facilitates distinct opportunities to connect climate crisis to the lived experience through human-centred narratives but the contemporary television production context is in a state of flux and dated assumptions concerning its role in constructing public attitudes and beliefs need to be revisited.","PeriodicalId":51917,"journal":{"name":"Critical Studies in Television","volume":"25 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9000,"publicationDate":"2025-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"EastEnders and the environment: Communicating the planetary crisis in prime time?\",\"authors\":\"Lesley Henderson\",\"doi\":\"10.1177/17496020251340359\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"The BBC flagship continuing drama <jats:italic>EastEnders</jats:italic> (1985-) is widely accepted as an exemplar of the ‘entertainment-education’ approach, embodying a strong public service ideology and rooted in Reithian values. In this paper, I explore the definitional role of the programme in addressing environmental issues in the digital age and argue that this is a novel opportunity to examine the limits and possibilities of the genre to engage with anthropogenic crises. My analysis is informed by the perspectives of <jats:italic>EastEnders</jats:italic> scriptwriters/consultants and sustainability professionals who perceived prime time drama as providing a unique tool to engage distinctive diverse audiences who are marginalised by blue-chip nature series. For the first time, I address the context in which popular environmental storylines are produced in the UK and identify how storytelling is mediated by the contemporary hostile television environment with intense competition from streaming channels and social media platforms. I outline how the dynamics of environmental storytelling are shaped explicitly by external factors including organisational commitment to climate content and the perceived role of the BBC in catalysing a ‘national conversation’. Powerful tacit assumptions concerning ‘good stories’ being rooted in interpersonal friction potentially risk presenting a false equivalency – given that environmental scientists are reluctant to collaborate with this ‘low status’ media product. Continuing drama facilitates distinct opportunities to connect climate crisis to the lived experience through human-centred narratives but the contemporary television production context is in a state of flux and dated assumptions concerning its role in constructing public attitudes and beliefs need to be revisited.\",\"PeriodicalId\":51917,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"Critical Studies in Television\",\"volume\":\"25 1\",\"pages\":\"\"},\"PeriodicalIF\":0.9000,\"publicationDate\":\"2025-05-27\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"Critical Studies in Television\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"1085\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.1177/17496020251340359\",\"RegionNum\":2,\"RegionCategory\":\"艺术学\",\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"0\",\"JCRName\":\"FILM, RADIO, TELEVISION\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Critical Studies in Television","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17496020251340359","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"FILM, RADIO, TELEVISION","Score":null,"Total":0}
EastEnders and the environment: Communicating the planetary crisis in prime time?
The BBC flagship continuing drama EastEnders (1985-) is widely accepted as an exemplar of the ‘entertainment-education’ approach, embodying a strong public service ideology and rooted in Reithian values. In this paper, I explore the definitional role of the programme in addressing environmental issues in the digital age and argue that this is a novel opportunity to examine the limits and possibilities of the genre to engage with anthropogenic crises. My analysis is informed by the perspectives of EastEnders scriptwriters/consultants and sustainability professionals who perceived prime time drama as providing a unique tool to engage distinctive diverse audiences who are marginalised by blue-chip nature series. For the first time, I address the context in which popular environmental storylines are produced in the UK and identify how storytelling is mediated by the contemporary hostile television environment with intense competition from streaming channels and social media platforms. I outline how the dynamics of environmental storytelling are shaped explicitly by external factors including organisational commitment to climate content and the perceived role of the BBC in catalysing a ‘national conversation’. Powerful tacit assumptions concerning ‘good stories’ being rooted in interpersonal friction potentially risk presenting a false equivalency – given that environmental scientists are reluctant to collaborate with this ‘low status’ media product. Continuing drama facilitates distinct opportunities to connect climate crisis to the lived experience through human-centred narratives but the contemporary television production context is in a state of flux and dated assumptions concerning its role in constructing public attitudes and beliefs need to be revisited.
期刊介绍:
Critical Studies in Television publishes articles that draw together divergent disciplines and different ways of thinking, to promote and advance television as a distinct academic discipline. It welcomes contributions on any aspect of television—production studies and institutional histories, audience and reception studies, theoretical approaches, conceptual paradigms and pedagogical questions. It continues to invite analyses of the compositional principles and aesthetics of texts, as well as contextual matters relating to both contemporary and past productions. CST also features book reviews, dossiers and debates. The journal is scholarly but accessible, dedicated to generating new knowledge and fostering a dynamic intellectual platform for television studies.