The Best Guide

Archaeology and the Media – Entertainment or Edutainment?

In a year that witnessed the end of Time Team and the arrival of looting shows such as American Digger on America’s Spike TV, we bring together some of the foremost archaeologists and filmmakers to assess the state of Archaeology and Media. Join us live online for the day session at TAG2012 Liverpool. Check out the presenters, watch the films and put your questions to the experts via twitter and facebook!


We aim to explore 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.

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?

List of Presenters:

Monty Dobson: Inaugural Scholar and Visiting Assistant Professor at the School of Public Service and Global Citizenship, Central Michigan University
Title: Managing the message: my evolution from academic to television producer.

Don Henson: Honorary Director at Centre for Audio-Visual Study and Practice in Archaeology (CASPAR)
Title: Understanding the Stereotypes of Archaeology on Television

Marjolijn Kok, Institute of Landscape Archaeology and Heritage Studies
Title: Archaeotainment: A Critical View at the Mingling of Heritage and Fun

Carenza Lewis, University of Cambridge, Department of Archaeology
Title: Bullwhips, bullion and making a difference – the role of TV archaeology in social change projects.

Theano Moussouri, University College London, Institute of Archaeology
Title: Unpacking the meaning and value of education, learning and entertainment.

Victoria Park, International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies, Newcastle University.
Title: Read all about it? Newspaper coverage of the excavation of human remains.

Ian Richardson, Treasure Registrar, The British Museum
Title: Britain’s Secret Treasures

Lorna Richardson: PhD Candidate, Centre for Digital Humanities at University College London
Title: Gay Cavemen, John the Baptist and the Lost City of Ciudad Blanca
Session Social Media Coordinator

Francesco Ripanti, PhD Candidate, University of Siena
Title: Entertainment and Edutainment together – Multimedia and video-narration in archaeology

David Toon, Cloak and Dagger Studios
Title: The Theatre: Shoreditch, 1595

Gerry Twomey, Bamburgh Research Project
Title: The role of media in the rediscovery of Hope Taylor’s Bamburgh
Title: Methodological approaches to media at Bamburgh Research Project

Livestreaming Online at www.archaeotainment.blogspot.com

December 19, 2012

0900-1600 GMT

Author: Monty Dobson | Source: Archaeotainment [December 10, 2012]