Talking of Terror: British Television Intellectuals and Bridging the Gap between Celebrity and Intellectual Culture

This paper explores the conference theme ‘bridging the gap’ between celebrity and intellectual culture through a parallel analysis of terrorism reportage across television genres. Drawing on the British television series Atheism, the documentary series I Survived and a selection of British and Dutch television news interviews we illustrate the varying ways in which public scholars negotiate the institutional constraints underpinning national and international approaches to terrorism reportage. The final section of this paper offers a personal and professional example of ‘bridging the gap’.