The influence of TV on viewers’ engagement with Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) was the focus of a recent conference held in Berlin. The conference was organised by Project MINTiFF, a project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the European Social Fund. The Federal Ministry is concerned about representations of gender roles on German TV, particularly those aimed at young people. In Germany, as in the UK, there is concern about the numbers of young people, particularly girls, who are interested in STEM, and so this project is exploring whether and how positive educational messages about STEM can and should be included in German TV dramas and how they can be made to appeal to girls in particular.

The market for TV dramas in Germany has declined and there are currently no STEM-based dramas on TV. The only representation of women in STEM fields in fictional formats being shown on TV in Germany is in imported programmes from the US such as CSI or Grey’s Anatomy. On the German public service broadcasting channel, the show that is most popular with teenage girls is Top Model, a game show where viewers vote for their favourite model of the week. Without other shows showing alternative representations of young women, in STEM for example, there is concern about the influence of ‘Top Model’ on the development of young girls’ identities. Public service broadcasting companies in many countries, including the UK, are required to deliver a significant percentage of educational content and in Germany they are struggling to do this, in the STEM area at least.

Experts in the field of Education-Entertainment, as it is known, from Europe, the US, Mexico and India were invited to speak about their projects, initiatives and research. The field of Education-Entertainment (or edutainment) is not new, but the conference was unusual in two respects – firstly the focus on STEM and secondly in amassing such a wide range of such high profile European and American film and TV producers, directors and writers; production company directors; investment bankers; journalists; publishers; representatives from STEM industries and professional bodies together with researchers and academics in this field.

The 3-day conference consisted of presentations from the invited experts and panel discussions. The presentations included some successful examples of education-entertainment practice. For example a Dutch TV drama and series created for the Internet that had some success in affecting young people’s behaviour, particularly around health issues. From the US, the Vice-President of a TV and film production company talked about follow up activities to STEM-related feature films comprising short filmed discussions between the star of the film and a scientist that could be used by schools. The Indian investment bankers were so convinced of the power of films to stimulate social change that they have started an investment management company to raise finance for films that have the potential to raise viewers’ aspirations in STEM and deliver educational and environmental messages, and follow these up with further social action. Some of the constraints were also discussed. Unsurprisingly script writers are not enthusiastic about writing scripts purely for educational reasons but they are interested in including hot topics in their storylines, so the educational message must add to the interest of the script and speed it up not slow it down.

Several speakers emphasised the importance of including young people in the creation of the storylines and production of the dramas and this was a topic supported by the presentation of the Invisible-Witnesses project by myself and co-researcher, Richard Holliman, which examines the representation of STEM on UK TV for children and young people from a gender perspective (research funded by the UK Resources Centre for SET and the Open University).

Several participants remained for workshop sessions following the conference and ideas were considered for how to take forward some of the initiatives discussed and to transfer the good practice demonstrated. There is still much to do to show positive representations of STEM on TV and film, and still more to represent girls and women in positive ways in STEM settings.

Liz Whitelegg, Open University, UK

Other web posts that may be of interest: Gender and Big Brother; What do Girls Learn from Magazines?; Easy A