Science Friday

Am I the only listener who finds the level of discourse on "Science Friday" incredibly patronizing?

I usually listen to BBC's In Our Time, which is great. Panel of experts, all wrangled by a seemingly universally well-informed host. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/)

But occasionally I'll hear the science show on NPR with Ira or the other guy, and I'm just stunned by the level of discourse. Regardless of how well-informed the guests are, the show always seems targeted at an audience of middle-school children.

Is it because the show is mainly caller-driven, is the show intentionally dumbed-down, or are Americans really just that much less capable of following any kind of complexity?

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Permalink Reply by Jerry B. on October 26, 2009 at 3:31pm: Looking at both shows, 'In Our Time' examines one subject in a 45 minute show. 'Science Friday' looks at six subjects or so in a two hour show that also contains current science news. Could be that 'Science Friday' is just focused at a more general audience.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by ibc on October 30, 2009 at 9:37am: Jerry B. said:
Looking at both shows, 'In Our Time' examines one subject in a 45 minute show. 'Science Friday' looks at six subjects or so in a two hour show that also contains current science news. Could be that 'Science Friday' is just focused at a more general audience.

According to its wikipedia entry: "In Our Time is a live BBC radio discussion programme hosted by Melvyn Bragg. Each week, three guest speakers cover a specific historical, philosophical, religious, artistic or scientific topic. The weekly 'tremendously cerebral' 42 minute podcast is one of the BBC's most successful."

I'm not sure that SF is focused on a "more general audience" than the extremely popular (in Britain) IOT. I don't have ratings numbers for both, but I do know that IOT is popular across a broad spectrum of BBC listeners. I'm afraid "more general audience" here is a euphemism for the soft bigotry of low expectations.

It seems to me that the two assumptions SF makes is that 1) their American audience is incapable of following any subject for more than 15-20 min; 2) they need to open the phones so folks can "have their say"; and 3) Ira's "gee-whiz" tone adds something to the mix. It just seems to be yet another step in the dumbing down of America.

Meanwhile BBC shows like IOT performs the sort of public service that Public Radio was chartered to provide, *and* remains fairly popular.; ▶ Reply to This