Overview, Accomplishments

1
Earth Science Story Development for Public Media
Overview, Accomplishments and Current
Status Feb. 16, 2007
Steve Cole Sarah DeWitt Goddard Space Flight
Center Public Affairs Office
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Objective Scope
Objective to meet the information needs of
the news media through products and services
customized for print, Web, broadcast, and new
media. Scope encompasses NASA
remote-sensing missions and research performed at
NASA centers, universities, and in collaboration
with other agencies.
3
Team Structure
Earth Science News Steve Cole staff,
GSFC Katie Lorentz, LaRC Multimedia Production
Animation Sarah Dewitt PAO staff,
GSFC Scientific Visualization Studio
Horace Mitchell staff, GSFC
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End-to-End Process
Science Story Development
Product Delivery
Implementation
Broadcast, Print Media
Independent Producers
Story Mining
Museums
Prioritization
Management-Directed Requests
Translation / Production
Web Based Visualizations
External Requests
Special Events (e.g., NASM)
Stakeholders / Decision Makers / Internal
Audiences
5
Earth Science News

• Goal To increase news coverage of NASA Earth
  Sciences by identifying newsworthy results,
  developing public affairs strategies, and
  creating materials to get the news to the media.
• Supports NASA-wide media activities
• Science writers "embedded" in Public Affairs
• Established in 1998

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Earth Science News

• We start with the science
• "Mining" of Journals, Scientific Meetings
• Review with SMD Program Managers
• GSFC "Popular Summary" Committee
• Individual Scientists (Inside Outside NASA)
• Assignments from HQ

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Earth Science News

• Build relationships and collaborations
• Across all NASA Centers and HQ
• Universities
• Partner Federal Agencies
• Scientific Societies (AGU, AMS)

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Earth Science News

• Produce materials for the media.
• Press Conferences AGU, NASA Media Telecons
• Press Releases, Web Features
• Science Writer's Guides, Workshops
• Web Sites Earth Observatory Newsroom,
  Hurricane Page
• Earth Science Experts Directory
• NASA Earth News quarterly newsletter

9
Recent Media Projects

• December 2006 Climate Warming and Marine Life
• NASA Media Teleconference
• Partnered with Oregon State University Rutgers
  University
• December 2006 NASA Presentations at AGU Fall
  Meeting
• Press releases, AGU Press Room support
• February 2007 US-International Polar Year
• Lead NASA Public Affairs planning and strategy,
  Web site, collaborations
• February 15, 2007 Leaks in Antarctic Plumbing
  System
• AAAS Press Briefing HQ release, visualizations
  animations

10
End-to-End Process
Science Story Development
Product Delivery
Implementation
Broadcast, Print Media
Independent Producers
Story Mining
Museums
Prioritization
Management-Directed Requests
Translation / Production
Web Based Visualizations
External Requests
Special Events (e.g., NASM)
Stakeholders / Decision Makers / Internal
Audiences
11
Multimedia Visualization

• Breaking News Hurricanes
• To address the high demand for immediate
  visualizations and information, the team
• Works proactively with the TV news outlets to
  provide live interviews and daily visuals
• Interacts with specific researchers to create
  accurate visuals based on NASA research provides
  focused media training
• Develops pipelines for daily updates on
  high-demand products
• Provides regular content via the Web through
  NASAs Hurricane Resource Page and SVS Online
  Media Database
• Leverages products from existing scientific
  visualization partnerships (MAP) for public media

12
Multimedia Visualization

• In-Depth Science Cryosphere
• To address heightened public interest and
  scientific advances, the team developed a suite
  of core products for multiple audiences
• Tour of the Cryosphere, a 7-minute video funded
  by ESDIS (10,000 distributed to date)
• Press Briefings AGU, Annual Sea Ice Briefings
  (with NSIDC), NASA HQ Science Udpate
• National Air Space Museum Annual GSFC Event
• IPY Video, Web site, U.S. Opening Ceremony
• Footprints, a Science on a Sphere museum show

13
Multimedia Visualization

• Agency Initiative Invasive Species
• To draw attention to a major NASA Applied
  Sciences initiative, the team developed a broad
  public engagement strategy with partner agencies.
  
• Significant groundwork with interagency group to
  create messages highlighting the science,
  applications, and societal impact
• Created conceptual animations and data
  visualizations to communicate the complex
  messages
• Produced and distributed material to many end
  users press releases, video file, live
  interviews, Viewspace, Museum Alliance

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Near-Term Activities

• Public Affairs lead for NASA IPY strategy Web
  page, video resources, media campaign
• Initiated A-Train PAO Working Group with
  scientists, HQ, JPL, LARC, GSFC
• NASA Applied Sciences Program Video and
  presentation module
• Expand Media Visualizations Resources Issue
  major media resource for Earth Day 2007
• Pre-launch support for upcoming missions