Digital Literacy and Information Fluency

Digital Literacy and Information Fluency

In 2013 Animal Planet created a series that specifically focused on the notion of mermaids. Furthermore Animal Planet aired a couple of documentaries about mermaids being discovered and that sure sparked a lot of opinions from people around the world about this theory.

Purpose of the site and series

The purpose of the site and series was to create awareness on the theory that mermaids exist or existed in our society. As Animal Planet deals mainly with animals and different discoveries pertaining to animals. Basically the series was made to spark some controversy and see if people will believe in the theory and whether further investigations will stem from this documentary. Mermaids is a docufiction  that originally aired as Mermaids: The Body Found on May 27, 2012, on Animal Planet and June 17 on Discovery Channel. It tells a story of a scientific team's investigative efforts to uncover the source behind mysterious underwater recordings of an unidentified marine body. The show presents the generally discredited aquatic ape hypothesis as evidence that mermaids exist, along with a digitally manufactured video. A sequel broadcast called Mermaids: The New Evidence aired May 26, 2013.

The process

The process of the whole thing was easy as most of the things were made up and specially made for the purpose of making people believe in their theory and that therefore misled people from the onset. Animal Planet failed to inform viewers that what they said was a documentary was in fact a docufiction with re-enactments.

The public’s response

The public's response to the whole thing was negative as they were outraged about the fact that Animal Planet failed to inform them before the broadcast that the whole thing was not real as stated in their disclaimer.

The veracity of the series

The veracity of the series remains questionable since it was discovered that the documentary was in fact a docufiction with most of the findings made up and re-enacted. It is therefore safe to say that the whole theory on mermaids is a lie, or just pure fiction.

Your opinion of the success or lack thereof of Animal Planet’s campaign

I believe that they did not reach their success as planned since the series was not received very well by the public but in terms of the channel's ratings, Animal Planet had a success as the show had a viewership of 1.9 million on its premiere telecast and the last time the channel had such ratings was in 2007.