Neuroscience Education Through Local Television News

描述（由申请人提供）： 尽管近几十年来科学发现的速度很快，但大多数美国人对科学的了解有限。为了保持美国在科学领域的领导地位，并允许持续的进步，公众必须重视科学研究。为了促进这些目标，我们建议通过他们已经使用的媒体：地方电视新闻广播，接触和教育那些通常不寻求科学节目的公众成员。我们将研究、制作和分发每年一次的10个新闻故事系列以及附带的深入网络材料，供美国各地的电视台使用，作为为期一周的特别健康/科学专题系列或为期一个月的一组链接报告。电视台播放的地方新闻比以往任何时候都多，预算减少或停滞;他们越来越多地寻求低成本的外部制作的节目。我们预计这些新闻故事对中小市场（大都市和农村地区）的电视台特别有吸引力，因为与纽约和芝加哥等大市场的电视台不同，这些电视台不太可能雇用受过卫生和科学专业培训的记者或制片人。我们第一年的目标是在全国210个媒体市场中的至少50个市场播出这些故事。为了扩大我们项目的范围和我们教育材料的使用，我们将与国家新闻基金会合作，为一般任务记者（来自所有媒体）开发，宣传和分发免费的基于网络的教育计划，主题与我们的新闻故事兼容。最后，为了推进科学/健康教育领域，我们将与明尼苏达大学新闻与大众传播学院合作，该学院是健康新闻领域的领导者，以评估该项目并传播我们的研究结果。我们项目的目标是提高科学素养，特别是与药物滥用和成瘾有关的科学素养，方法是通过现有但基本上未开发的分销渠道，研究、制作和向当地新闻观众和记者分发创新的教育节目。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Despite the rapid pace of scientific discovery in recent decades, the majority of Americans have limited knowledge of science. To maintain America's leadership role in science and allow continuing progress, the general public must value scientific research. To promote these objectives, we propose to reach and educate those members of the public who don't typically seek out science programs, through a medium they already use: local television news broadcasts. We will research, produce and distribute an annual series of 10 news stories plus collateral in-depth Web material to stations across America, for use as a week-long special health/science feature series or a month-long set of linked reports. Television stations are airing more local news than ever, with reduced or stagnant budgets; they are increasingly seeking Iow cost outside-produced programming. We expect these news stories to be particularly attractive to stations in medium and small markets (defined metropolitan and rural areas) since unlike stations in large markets such as New York and Chicago, they are unlikely to employ reporters or producers who have specialized training in health and science. Our first-year goal is to have the stories on the air in at least 50 of the nation's 210 media markets. To extend the reach of our project and the uses of our educational materials, we will collaborate with the National Press Foundation to develop, publicize and distribute free Web-based education programs for general-assignment reporters (from all media) on topics compatible with our news stories. Finally, to advance the field of science/health education, we will partner with the University of Minnesota School of Journalism & Mass Communication, a leader in the field of health journalism, to evaluate the project and disseminate our findings. The goal of our project is to increase scientific literacy, particularly as it relates to drug abuse and addiction, by researching, producing and distributing innovative educational programs to local news viewers and to journalists, through existing but largely untapped distribution channels.