Scheduled science: TV coverage of science, technology, medicine and social science and programming policies in Britain and Germany

I present an analysis of the content, audience share and scheduling of TV coverage of science, technology, medicine and social science in Britain and Germany. The sample consists of all science-related programmes broadcast from October to December 1992 during broadly defined peak hours. Four British TV channels were compared with 16 German channels. Nine different content categories were defined, which exhibited some interesting differences. There were some differences in the programme makers' approach to different subjects such as medicine, environment and social sciences; and there were many differences in scheduling practices. The more competitive market in Germany leads to an even sharper separation between the public and the commercial sector, but a second distinction seems to be more important: the public sector, at least, tends to separate a more popular from a more specialist strand. Strategies for science broadcasting are discussed with comments from prominent science producers and editors in both Britain and Germany.