The woke feeding frenzy has come for Discovery Channel's popular Shark Week, with critics decrying its negative portrayal of sharks and overabundance of white experts named Mike..Shark Week lacks diverse experts and promotes misinformation, according to a study published in the Public Library of Science. .“Shark Week’s depictions of research and of experts are biased towards a small set of (typically visual and expensive) research methodologies and (mostly white, mostly male) experts, including presentation of many white male non-scientists as scientific experts,” said the study. .“While sharks are more often portrayed negatively than positively, limited conservation messaging does appear in 53% of episodes analyzed.”.Shark Week is an international television event which has substantial influence on public perceptions of sharks and shark research, researchers, and conservation. It has received routine criticism for poor factual accuracy, fear mongering, bias, and inaccurate representations of science and scientists. .The study analyzed the content and titles of Shark Week episodes across its 32 years of programming to determine if there were trends in species covered, research techniques featured, expert identity, conservation messaging, type of programming, and portrayal of sharks. .The study said the majority of episodes are not focused on shark bites. It said many episodes frame sharks around fear, risk, and adrenaline. .“Results suggest that as a whole, while Shark Week is likely contributing to the collective public perception of sharks as bad, even relatively small alterations to programming decisions could substantially improve the presentation of sharks and shark science and conservation issues,” it said.
