Abstract

This paper forms part of a PhD thesis on media and the paranormal, which aims to develop awareness of psychic phenomena within the public domain. It attempts to explore the linkage between the multiplicity of sociocultural debates around this subject as well as the relationship between its public representation and the interpersonal domain of the individual. This paper focuses specifically on television documentaries on the paranormal and how various debates surrounding the role and practice of the documentary, can be brought to bear on the debates surrounding both the actuality of paranormal phenomena and the practice of parapsychology as a science. I draw on both applied and academic sources from outside of psychology with which to illustrate the arguments. I focus on the role between audience and communicator and how institutional practices as well as social preconceptions inform the representational practices that are adhered to by the programme makers. I aim to draw out potential theoretical issues that pertain to documentary practice as they relate to the paranormal. I additionally aim to consider how they might be interpreted positively in a way that would benefit those of us attempting to present a view of the subject that attempts to navigate a course away from sensationalism and simplicity and provide coherent narratives of the material at hand. I particularly emphasise the role of the visual image and how it can be employed to provide alternative readings by differing audiences and how that ability is essential for programme makers in order to maximise their potential ratings figures. I am interested in exploring how it is possible within given media practices to allow space for scientific representation of a topic that is potentially placed outside such ambits - namely, the paranormal. I end by exploring the subtopic of realism in documentary, drawing out the dilemmas regarding categorising audiences of paranormal centred media material and how such dilemmas could impinge on programme content and representation as well as interpretative strategies employed by different groups within the audience. Included within this category, is the concept of psychological realism, which specifically focuses on social psychological dynamics prevalent within audience-communicator relations, exploring notions of audience engagement, empathy and identification with respect to topics centred on the paranormal. The paper concludes by noting how the various arguments that are broached, could be of relevance to contemporary parapsychology. The slippage between fact and fiction within debates on the paranormal, I argue, leaves no clear space within which academic parapsychology can have a voice - a sociocultural problematic exploited by the media to its own representational ends. This selfsame slippage also has more positive outcomes, such as the ability to open discussions on the meaning and truth claims of science and the role of parapsychology within such discussions. Though, since these negotiations would take place within current sociocultural understandings of the paranormal and of parapsychology itself, it is by no means clear how parapsychologists can utilise such debates or whether they need to accept the current climate and attempt to make it work for them.