2011-2016

Hillevi Ganetz, Dept. of Ethnology, History of Religions and Gender Studies, Stockholm University
The Prize of Science: The Science and Media Interface in the Televised Nobel Banquet

Purpose of the project and any changes in the purpose during the project period
The project has followed the project plan, both in theory and method, focusing on two main questions: (1) How can tensions between entertainment and science be traced in the negotiations between Swedish television and the Nobel System? (2) What is the result of these negotiations, i.e. how is science staged in the televised Nobel Banquet itself? The material is, regarding question 1) interviews with key actors from the Swedish television and the Nobel system, and regarding question 2) the televised Banquet.

Keeping the timetable has been problematic due to management responsibilities and reorganizations at the department. I know that this is an experience I share with many other researchers. Only with difficulties and delays have I managed to conclude the project work so that now only some editing work of the final publications remain to be done. In all other respects, the project plan has been followed and fulfilled, so that all the main aspects have been duly accomplished.

The three most important results from the project and an account of these results
The material consists of broadcasted Nobel Banquets, uneven years from 1977 onwards. I have also watched the scattered early broadcasts made prior to this year, all in all about 80 hours and more than 100 pages of notes. I have also interviewed key persons within the Nobel system, and SVT, a total of 10 interviews.

Three themes have crystallized from the material. These are (1) how television transforms the researcher to a celebrity; (2) how the Queen is focused as a symbol of gender, nation, 'race' and class in relation to science; and (3) how the Nobel system, the scientific community and the Swedish television interact and view each other.

1) The Nobel banquet is a mixture of two different genres, science communication and award show. The banquet might be interpreted as a co-construction that involves both the media and the scientific community. The banquet is obviously constructed by the media, yet it is also highly regulated and influenced by the scientific community, as the Nobel Foundation is dominated by scientists, and the broadcasting rights to the event are owned by Nobel Media AB, an affiliated company within the Nobel sphere that has great influence over broadcast content. The Banquet has striking similarities with the Oscar Award show. Both events focus on celebrities, fashion and elements of surprise. Both take up a large slot in the TV schedule, are symbolic rituals, are dominated by white men, are global events and bring financial gain for prize winners. The scientists are represented as personalities which requires a relation of intimacy that television provides to viewers. In fact, the scientists are represented as celebrities though the media do not focus their public role, but rather details of their private lives. This gradual 'celebrification' process is clearly visible the years through. But there are differences in how the celebrity-scientist is depicted, dependent on the scientist's sex: women are (mothers, gender), while men do (hobbies, science).

2) Since 1976, when the Swedish queen Silvia made her debut at the Banquet, she has received more TV time than any male or female - scientist or not. I use the representation of the body of the Swedish Queen as a lens through which to view intersectional power dimensions. Descriptions of science often use a double rhetoric saying that science is simultaneously free of society and utterly relevant to it. Arguments about autonomy promise that scientific facts are free from cultural or ideological conditions, while the societal relevance of research must always be proven. The question is whether it is possible for science to assert its independence from society when through the Queen's body it is symbolically associated with traditional societal ideologies. The body of the Queen signifies that gender, heterosexuality, class affiliation, nationality and race are important and normative factors in scientific discourse. At the Nobel Banquet, her body is a symbol of the status aspirations of science: its desire to belong among the heterosexual, white elites and its adherence to traditional, ideal femininity.

3) An article focusing the third theme has the provisional title "The Art of Balancing on a Knife Edge: Negotiations between Television and the Nobel Prize System". The Nobel Banquet is the result of negotiations between three parts: SVT, the Nobel Foundation and the scientific community. The latter has great influence over the broadcastings through their presence in the board of the Nobel Foundation and the prize-awarding committees. It is also where the greatest dissatisfaction is found about the 'glamourization' and 'celebrification' of the banquet. SVT representatives know very little about their audience and therefore use customary tricks in order to capture the audience's attention: for instance focusing the odd, sensational or personal, and arousing feelings. The Nobel Foundation is the balancing and mediating part, understanding the importance of media coverage and therefore open for compromises with the media, while simultaneously concerned about protecting the Nobel brand. The end result of these negotiations is the televised Nobel Banquet, a genre hybrid of prize gala and science communication.

New research issues that have been generated through the project
The material I have studied combines entertainment and popular science (communicating science in an understandable way to layman). Like wildlife film and CSI, the Nobel Banquet is popular science as entertainment. They are all programs based on scientific elements but where the entertaining aspects are clearly stronger, as opposed to ordinary popular science where scientific knowledge is at the centre. The Banquet does not try to mediate and explain science in the first place, but rather give it status and thus produce ideology.

One may ask whether other TV broadcasts associated with the Nobel Prize have the same function. How are the scientist, research and science for example represented in "Snillen spekulerar" (Brilliant Minds), in the informative broadcasts from the Nobel studio or in the award ceremony itself?

The project has also generated methodological questions about elite research.

International connections of the project
There is very little critical Nobel research, both nationally and internationally, and there are thus no obvious international research contexts. But with the publishing of the articles in international journals, new contacts may be established and maybe even an emergent field of research that can be called "cultural and media research on science". The project is not confined to just the proper field of science communication, as my analysis is based on an interest in science as symbolic communi¬cation, and does not regard scientific data as a fixed content that is channelled through communication media.

I have presented and will present papers at the following national and international conferences and seminars:

ECREA (European Communication Research and Education Association), Lisbon, 12-15 November, 2014: "The Body of the Queen: Science and Gender in the Televised Nobel Banquet".

ARC-GS (Amsterdam Research Centre for Gender and Sexuality Studies), Amsterdam, April 7, 2016. Presentation: "The Body of the Queen and the Prize of Science".

ECREA (European Communication Research and Education Association), Prague 9-12 November, 2016: "The Celebrity-Scientist: Genre, Gender, Genius".

G16 (National Gender Research Conference 2016), Linköping 23-25 November, 2016: "Drottningens kropp och vetenskapens pris".

Research communication measures outside the academic community
Around the Nobel Day, I have been contacted by several different media, wanting comments on the Nobel Prize and Banquet. I carefully select the most serious, such as Dagens eko (Swedish Radio P1 News programme) and P1-morgon (morning broadcast). I have also presented the project for The Swedish association for female academics and the Nobel Museum in Stockholm.
I will also publish a report for the Nobel Museum / Nobel Library about the televised Nobel Banquet from a media historical perspective.

The two most important publications from the project and an account of these publications
Ganetz, Hillevi (2015): "The Nobel Celebrity-Scientist: Genius and Personality", Celebrity Studies, DOI: 10.1080/19392397.2015.1088394.
Ganetz, Hillevi (under review for Feminist Media Studies): "The Body of the Queen and the Prize of Science".

The publication strategy of the project
There are major problems associated with open access, especially concerning the international, reputable research journals, i.e. journals that are most recognized in research circles. Even so, I have focused publishing in those journals, not least for disseminating my research internationally. I have solved the problem with open access by publishing in a few reputable journals (see publications below) and post the article in DiVA after a year.

Publications:

Ganetz, Hillevi (2015): ”The Nobel Celebrity-Scientist: Genius and Personality”, Celebrity Studies, DOI: 10.1080/19392397.2015.1088394.
Ganetz, Hillevi (under review for Tidskrift för genusvetenskap): ”Drottningens kropp och vetenskapens pris”.
Ganetz, Hillevi (under review for Feminist Media Studies): ”The Body of the Queen and the Prize of Science”.
Ganetz, Hillevi (forthcoming, aimed for Nordicom Review): ”The Art of Balancing on a Knife Edge: Negotiations between Television and the Nobel Prize System”.
Ganetz, Hillevi (forthcoming): Nobelbanketten i TV: Ett mediehistoriskt perspektiv. Rapport till Nobelmuseet/Nobelbiblioteket.