About

Archaeology & Media – Entertainment or Edutainment?

Is a day session at TAG2012 Liverpool. The panelists and presenters explore the complex and often controversial relationship between archaeology and the media.  Participants address questions of both the educational and entertainment value of archaeological information in the media, from traditional television programming, archaeology on the Internet, online broadcasting, and traditional newspapers. The participants and papers presented represent the experiences of professional archaeologists, museum practitioners, television and media personalities and industry voices.  The session participants address a number of questions regarding the relationship between archaeology and the media including: what value does archaeology hold for the media and how has archaeology been presented to a media-hungry public to date? What do education, learning and entertainment mean to both practitioners and ‘consumers?’ What can archaeology learn from the media in terms of developing effective communication strategies? And how can archaeologists leverage electronic and broadcast media to build support for preservation among the general public?

The Day Session will be divided into three sections by the screening of four film projects in an archaeology film festival.  The potential role of new media in deconstructing barriers to knowledge and reaching the wider public is also explored and the session will be live broadcast on the internet to a worldwide audience via a purpose built website. The session will also encourage interaction between participants and the general public via the use of twitter and other social media. Towards this the session social media coordinator will offer questions for the presenters selected from the session twitter feed during the two discussion periods.