Topic: TV - on November 20, 2007 at 5:43:00 PM CET
Adam Curtis - The TV elite has lost the plot
Adam Curtis is one of the jewels in the BBC's crown - as well as one of its fiercest critics.
His documentaries are rich, complex histories of ideas that have surprised BBC executives with their popularity amongst younger viewers: his montage technique and visual jokes reward repeated viewings.
The Century of the Self told the story of how Freud's nephew invented modern public relations. The Power Of Nightmares described how the myth of the al-Qaeda "network" had to be invented so a terror trial could be heard under America's RICO laws. The Trap describes how reductionist and paranoid logic of game theory influenced psychology, biology and eventually social policy.
(Curtis is also an advisor to Popbitch)
Over two interviews with us, Curtis lays into a TV class that has lost its confidence, run out of ideas, and fallen back on "user generated content" as a salvation.
He explains how bloggers are bullies, warns of the snake oil salesmen of the internet's "new democracy", and suggests how to repair a BBC in crisis.
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