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| navigate: home: magazine: fall 2001: article | |
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Faculty extend research to nation’s television and radio audiences By Celena E. Kusch | |||||||||||||||
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The mission of Penn State Public Broadcasting is to enrich the quality of life for all of its diverse audiences, to extend the knowledge of the University through outreach activities and to link people and ideas and foster democracy and lifelong learning through excellence in programming. University faculty are indispensable to that mission. Tracy Vosburgh, WPSX-TV director of programming and production, talked about the new opportunities for faculty and broadcasters to collaborate in the digital age, noting, “My feeling is that the combined missions of the public broadcasting services and land-grant universities make the near future a very exciting place for Penn State Public Broadcasting, especially as we move toward new digital capabilities. As a university licensee on the Penn State campus, our work with faculty on the research they feel passionate about presents a great opportunity for WPSX-TV, WPSU-FM and the University as a whole. This exciting convergence of broadcast capability and University resources gives us a unique position in the public broadcasting system.” Community responsiveness in local programming
While the shift to digital television opens new high-tech opportunities, the station’s values and commitments are to provide service to audiences across the technology spectrum. The majority of the Penn State Public Broadcasting audience is rural, and the station has embraced the responsibility to link every citizen with timely information, learning opportunities and cultural richness.
During the 2000 election year, for example, the concerns of central Pennsylvania voters were heard and debated in the Your Voice, Your Choice series. A local extension of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) Democracy Project, the program combined Penn State Public Broadcasting in television, radio and the Internet with the Centre Daily Times newspaper to provide comprehensive election coverage. Marie Hornbein, WPSX-TV producer/director, and Cindi Deutschman, WPSU-FM producer/director, led the Penn State team.
The project provided issue-oriented election coverage based on topics identified in a 30-county voter survey administered by Penn State Outreach and Cooperative Extension’s Office of Marketing Research. The survey also explored voter turnout and the reasons why people do not vote.
Live broadcasts featured external experts and Penn State faculty members with research interests in schools, violence prevention, health care and policy, and voter participation and community responsibility. Brian Bumbarger, research associate in Penn State’s Prevention Research Center for the Promotion of Human Development; Dr. Robert O’Connor, associate professor of political science; Dr. Eric Plutzer, associate professor of political science and sociology; Dr. Dennis G. Shea, professor of health policy and administration; and Dr. Rob Speel, associate professor of political science at Penn State Erie, all took part in live, on-air discussions with community callers.
Shea, who has participated in community call-in and interview programs in the past, discussed the value of community outreach through public broadcasting. He explained that Your Voice, Your Choice provided him with an opportunity to communicate to local audiences about how difficult it is to do health policy, because many people fear they will lose coverage if policies change.
More importantly, he said, it gave him an opportunity to learn from the community, as well. Shea added that the program allowed him to connect to members of the community, hear about their experiences and learn their opinions about new ideas for policies. His recent work has been in the area of prescription drug benefits under Medicare. The public broadcasting experience reminded him of the crucial importance of developing good health policy, he said.
“The call-in programs allow me to hear what people have to say about their problems in paying for prescriptions,” Shea noted. “The next day, I can run a computer program that allows me to see what coverage is available to different populations, and I can validate their problems with my research. Then I can go back to the people in government and offer solutions.
“My work with local public broadcasting also helps me to see how much the problem of prescription drug coverage relates to people who live in rural areas. There are very few options in these areas, because they do not have the HMOs or large employers that provide prescription drug coverage. The only coverage they have is what they can get through Medigap, and that is very expensive. I have been trying to get the state legislature to think creatively about its options for expanding coverage to people in rural areas where coverage is very limited,” he added.
Beyond the election programming, the community call-in model has also been used to deliver a rapid University response to pressing issues, such as the recent U.S. outbreak of the West Nile virus. Earlier this year, Dr. Winand “Win” Hock, professor of plant pathology and director of the Pesticide Education Program at Penn State, joined experts from the Pennsylvania departments of Health, Agriculture and Environmental Protection to answer community questions about issues of risk and prevention. The one-hour special was broadcast live on WPSX-TV and WPSU-FM, drawing record numbers of questions from the audience.
“The West Nile issue is very important to the well-being of the Commonwealth,” Hock said. “The response to the broadcast was wonderful, and we thought the program was very successful. We were able to tell people how they can participate in preventing the spread of this disease through water management and mosquito management around the home. That is extremely important.”
According to Hock, most recent reports show that the virus has already spread along the entire eastern coast of the United States, including in central Pennsylvania. Community health agencies detect the virus through testing of dead birds, mosquitoes and horses.
“We depend on the citizens of the state to submit birds for testing. Over 50 percent of the birds have been submitted by residents,” Hock explained. “The West Nile Call-In was helpful in informing the community about their role in supporting these tests.”
Interactive community broadcasts like this help faculty reach new audiences and apply their expertise to the questions facing members of the local community every day. Faculty outlets in WPSX-TV shows
In addition to special programming events, a number of regular Penn State Public Broadcasting programs offer opportunities for faculty to communicate with and educate local audiences. Take Note, WPSX-TV’s daily public affairs program, produces 180 interviews a year, covering topics ranging from Medicare reform and financial planning to fatherhood and health topics. Last year, Penn State faculty members accounted for 65 of the Take Note interviews. They represented colleges at eight campus locations, including Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and University Park.
According to Patty Satalia, Penn State Public Broadcasting producer/director and host of Take Note, the show’s mission is to inform, enlighten and entertain viewers. “The Penn State faculty provides a rich pool of experts from which to draw,” she said.
Satalia explained that everyone benefits from faculty involvement, saying, “On one hand, Take Note provides a vehicle for faculty to get the word out about the important work of the University. Often faculty members share their research with us before it is published, and it reaches audiences that would otherwise never learn about it. But from my perspective, faculty are generally among the best interviews, because they’re articulate and accustomed to explaining complex issues.”
Two other interview-format shows also feature Penn State faculty. Introduced last year, 15 Minutes is a summer series and focuses on people, issues and events that are important to the central Pennsylvania region.
To the Best of My Knowledge, President Graham Spanier’s monthly call-in show, also invites faculty to contribute the “best of their knowledge” to discussions of local and national issues. Each show is available on WPSU-FM, WPSX-TV and on the Internet. Dozens of faculty members rank among the list of guests that also includes senators, an admiral, the head of a movie studio and editors and reporters for The New York Times and CNN.
Apart from the interview programs, faculty research that has implications for public wellness and safety finds a voice in the new Extension Minute broadcasts produced by WPSX-TV. The award-winning series began last year with nutrition, gardening and consumer tips developed by Penn State Cooperative Extension agents and faculty specialists from the College of Agricultural Sciences. The minute-long pieces have been so successful that WPSX is also developing the Environmental Minute and the Health Minute, featuring Penn State faculty and staff from the Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center and the Penn State College of Medicine and the College of Health and Human Development. Original productions
Often faculty and departments need multimedia productions to support the dissemination of their own intellectual property. The Penn State Public Broadcasting MediaSolutions contract production unit produces more than 200 such products and programs for faculty and academic units each year. These projects support faculty teaching, research and service activities with instructional, noninstructional, multimedia, Internet, CD-ROM and other production materials, as well as teleconference and audience services.
According to Vosburgh, “Faculty use the productions as part of grant-funded projects to disseminate their research to different audiences, to deliver parts of the research for classroom use and to extend the range of the classroom to external audiences.”
For example, the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics and the Department of Archaeology have both produced educational segments through MediaSolutions as part of their funded research projects. The programs aired on the national WPSX-TV children’s program What’s in the News. A National Science Foundation-funded study of the biology of hydrothermal vent systems was also featured on What’s in the News. Dr. Charles Fisher, professor of biology, led a group of Penn State faculty, students, secondary school science teachers and a Penn State Public Broadcasting producer on a submarine visit of the ridge observatory on the Juan de Fuca Ridge. During the visit, Katie O’Toole, producer/writer and host of What’s in the News, taped segments for the WPSX-TV children’s news show.
Most production projects, however, do not require wetsuits. Other examples of MediaSolutions projects include:
One of MediaSolution’s most widely viewed productions, “Architecture and Children’s Museums: Through the Looking Glass,” represents the work of Dr. Jawaid Haider, professor of architecture. Haider worked with Penn State Public Broadcasting’s WPSX-TV to develop and distribute two video documentaries on spatial design for children. The documentaries have been seen by millions of people throughout the United States and around the world.
“Penn State Public Broadcasting has enabled me to reach people that are otherwise ignored and not the usual recipients of academic research. This has been very fulfilling,” Haider said.
“Architecture and Children’s Museums,” a 30-minute video aimed at a general audience, focuses on creating awareness of the importance of thoughtfully designed spaces for children. More than 60 public television stations around the country have aired the video.
The second video, “Architecture and Play: Learning from Children’s Museums,” was produced for architecture professionals and others beginning the design process for a children’s museum. The video has been distributed through Penn State Media Sales to architects, universities and children’s museums in the Netherlands, Greece, Israel, Canada, Australia and throughout the United States.
The Media Sales audio and video collection includes 1,200 titles — many based on Penn State faculty research — including those by Haider, Moorman and Hale. The collection dates from 1942 and includes media created by Penn State Public Broadcasting, as well as many other producers. Media Sales serves to market and distribute these media to academic and commercial markets.
One of the most innovative examples of Penn State faculty and college productions marketed nationally through Media Sales is the “Sexually Transmitted Diseases: The Risk is Real” educational video. This seven-minute video was developed and produced by students as part of an experimental two-semester capstone course in the College of Communications. Called Communication and Community, the course was supported by a grant from the Schreyer Institute for Innovation in Learning. Assistant professors Dr. Barbara Bird, Dr. Anne Hoag and Dr. Eve Munson provided upper-level instruction, while students worked with the Women’s Health Clinic in State College to develop the informational video.
The video serves as a vehicle for educating clinic patients about the risks involved in unprotected sexual activity. According to Bird, the students designed the message for their own demographic in order to empower their peers to protect themselves. The project was very successful, she added, saying, “The students had a tremendous learning experience, and the clinic was very pleased with the product.”
During the course, Laura Miller, media asset manager for Media Sales, became involved in marketing the video to other health clinics and schools.
“Media Sales was an ideal outlet for the distribution of the video,” Bird said. “They understood the health clinic market and set prices at the right level for them. It truly was a Penn State venture.”
Just weeks after the video’s release, the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s Sexually Transmitted Diseases Division ordered 350 copies. To date, more than 400 videos have been distributed to health departments, school districts, nurses and other audiences.
“I feel that with more resources and people, Media Sales could be comparable to a well-known university press for film media,” Bird commented. “We have a small film program here, but we can turn out very interesting documentaries at low cost. Media Sales can help keep that spirit alive and build a reputation for Penn State by distributing a really good product to the people who need it.” | ||||||||||||||
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