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Press Releases
Why knowledge matters – the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s Knowledge Manifesto
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Jana Bennett, Director of ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Vision, announced today a raft of new, high-profile factual programmes, speaking at a Royal Television Society event where she stressed the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s continued commitment to serious factual programming and outlined the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s new approach to its factual output; its "Knowledge Manifesto".
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New plans for factual output include:
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 More authored, landmark factual series from Andrew Marr on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Two
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More business programming on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Two, including a series on the story of the City and a series on how new technology is reshaping business
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And, in development, a peak-time science strand for ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ One.
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Bennett also announced a raft of unprecedented science landmarks to broadcast between 2008 and 2010, marking the anniversary of the publication of Darwin's The Origin Of Species:
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Human Race (³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Two, Dr Alice Roberts) – the first time the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ has told the story of homo sapiens
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Human Planet (³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Two) – the most ambitious series the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ has done on anthropology and vanishing peoples
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Life (³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ One) – the story of the evolution of life on the planet.
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And in 2010, marking the anniversary of the founding of The Royal Society, the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ will tell The History Of Science (³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Two), the first time since Bronowski's The Ascent of Man (1973) that the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ has tackled the subject in a definitive way.
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All the science initiatives will be pan-platform, with a significant web and multimedia element, and be delivered in a way which can be used by schools.
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Explaining the background to the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ decision to reconsider the purpose of its factual output in its new Knowledge Manifesto, Jana Bennett said:
"Once upon a time knowledge was the privilege of the few. Now information has been democratised. That's a good thing.
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"But it raises big questions for the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ which has traditionally seen itself as one of the leaders of the national conversation about knowledge and what it's important to know.
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"In the world of the Wiki and the intelligent search engine, that traditional belief has begun to seem rather presumptuous. Who needs the wisdom of Auntie when you have the wisdom of crowds?
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"What I want to argue tonight is that the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ should be a leader in stating what it's important to know – not led by consumer need alone.
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"In other words, our role as a public service broadcaster is not defined by what the audience already likes; we have a responsibility to establish bridgeheads into new worlds of knowledge on the audience's behalf.
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"We should embrace the need to disseminate knowledge, but also play a role in defining the canon."
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Explaining the importance of the Knowledge genre to the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ (ie factual output such as science, history, the arts, current affairs, religion, business, the natural world and documentaries) and its purpose for audiences, Bennett defined the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s role as "promoting literacy": scientific literacy, civic literacy, cultural literacy, life literacy and media literacy.
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"Building literacy on this scale will not be easy. But it is one of the main reasons the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ exists. In my view, knowledge building is one of [the] ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ heartlands. If the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ doesn't have a commanding reputation in the field of knowledge building, then it's not the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳."
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Bennett also outlined the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s role in the multimedia age as not merely providing information but offering audiences a deeper understanding of the world, and stressed that knowledge programming must be for all the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s audiences across all channels and platforms.
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She said: "This cannot be an elitist mission; it has to be a universal mission."
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She also argued that factual programming should be about "not just the easy options in the universe of knowledge, but some of the difficult areas too."
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"Our ambition is to put Knowledge at the heart of the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ offer; to make clear its massive contribution to the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s public purposes; and to reassert its centrality to the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳-ness of the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳."
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Notes to Editors
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Full transcript of the speech.
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³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Press Office
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