This project builds the capacity of public radio's The World, a daily one hour global news broadcast to cover a broad spectrum of science and technology topics. The project would produce 6-8 broadcast features each month and two weekly science and technology podcasts. PRI in partnership with its primary partner, Sigma Xi will develop and implement The World's Virtual Science Cafe, an innovative content-rich Web 2.0 resource for the public to engage in week-long synchronous moderated online discussions, facilitated by independent science and technology experts. This convergence of audio content and online discussions will help the target audience of 25-44 year olds broaden their understanding of key global scientific and technological issues. The World is a collaboration between PRI, WGBH, and the BBC. Edumetrics, led by Dr. Arthur Johnson, will conduct the evaluation focusing on the audience impacts of an integrated broadcast and online participatory media platform.
In 2008, PRI received major NSF support for The World’s Science and Technology Initiative, a three-year project designed to deepen the public’s understanding of global developments in science and technology and how those developments shape, and are shaped by, broader societal forces. Launched in 1996, The World is public radio’s premier daily global news program and a co-production of PRI, the BBC World Service, and WGBH. As our audiences rely on The World to understand international events and issues, this initiative was expected to help them become aware of key global scientific and technological developments that many otherwise would not have known or sought out. This initiative’s key innovation was the convergence of The World’s expanded, high quality STEM audio content with the World Science Forum, where the public engaged in asynchronous moderated online discussions with science and technology experts on STEM topics raised on The World. Our intent was to help our audiences acquire knowledge on key STEM topics, and broaden their thinking by connecting information from The World’s audio content and interacting with scientific experts. This initiative was designed primarily to reach The World’s growing national broadcast audience, now at 2.6 million weekly listeners, with a special emphasis on growing our audience of younger adults (25-44 years old). Over the course of three years, PRI’s The World achieved the following outcomes: Produced 795 reports and interviews on diverse technologies and scientific developments and their associated societal issues, equivalent to more than 10% of The World’s entire coverage. This level of STEM reporting is extraordinary for a daily news program and more than three times the 250 STEM broadcast reports we expected to produce during the project. Created the World Science Podcast, a new weekly podcast dedicated to global science, and continued to produce the World Technology Podcast, a weekly podcast dedicated to global technology issues. In combination, these podcasts are downloaded about 60,000 times each month. Launched a dedicated website for The World’s science and technology content at www.theworld.org/science. Hosted 37 World Science Forum discussions, where the public could interact with scientists and science communicators in asynchronous online discussions from a wide range of STEM disciplines related to science and technology stories raised in our broadcasts or podcasts. Commissioned outside evaluations of the program's science and technology audio from our broadcasts and podcasts, where independent experts by and large praised The World for its commitment to in-depth STEM reporting and its distinctive global perspective. Conducted rigorous independent evaluations to learn about the broader impacts of this initiative. Key findings from the summative evaluation are: Respondents reported that The World strongly influenced their knowledge of STEM, their interest in STEM-related topics, their motivation to learn more about STEM, their awareness of connections between science/technology developments and larger societal issues, and their motivation to discuss/share perspectives and ideas regarding science and technology. The World’s STEM coverage has had broad-ranging positive impacts on the respondents’ behavior, such as participating in a science or technology-related event, listening to another science/technology radio program, and reading an article or book about science/technology. They have also broadly applied the STEM knowledge/information they have acquired from The World’s broadcast, podcasts and/or online resources, most notably that they share what they have learned with others in their professional and personal networks. Those younger than 45 years old reported that The World has enhanced their knowledge about the connections between science developments and larger societal issues to a significantly greater extent than it has for those 45 years of age or older. Among those who say they are World Science Forum visitors (about a quarter of our respondent base), they found the World Science Forum discussions to be informative and distinctive compared to other online discussions. The experts/guests and interaction with them were frequently cited as the Forum’s most interesting/compelling aspect.
