WGBH EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION
Grant: $460,817 - National Institutes of Health - Sep. 26, 2009
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Award Description: Designing Life: Stories from the Bioethical Frontier The Hastings Center (the nation?s first and foremost bioethics research organization) and WGBH (PBS?s leading producer of programming) have partnered to research whether a multiplatform media project can increase people?s knowledge of the bioethical implications of biotechnology's growing potential and affect their awareness of and engagement in the ethical issues it raises. To this end, the project will be used to evaluate a high-profile public television series with a companion website and educational outreach activities that will focus on bioethics, emerging biotechnology, and how Americans grapple with unprecedented choices that can influence how they have and raise children, how they live as adults, and their end-of-life decisions. Through this project, The Hastings Center and WGBH will assess public media?s cross-platform effectiveness in communicating bioethics issues, and the results will inform both The Hastings Center?s approach to disseminating its research and WGBH?s ongoing efforts to bring high-quality cutting-edge health and science information to the public. Our primary research question is: To what extent does a multi-platformed media initiative affect people?s perceptions on a scale measuring three variables: increased awareness, understanding, and changed behavior around the most common, yet complex, bioethical issues of our time? This study will track series viewing and engagement with online content to evaluate these variables. Through this project, The Hastings Center and WGBH will assess public media?s cross-platform effectiveness in communicating bioethics issues. The title for the proposed project is: Designing Life: Stories from the Bioethical Frontier. Designing Life will engage the public in critical bioethical questions. Leveraging the power of public television and the expertise of the world?s leading bioethicists, Designing Life has been developed to open a broad, national conversation. The television series will be broadcast during primetime on the PBS system nationwide, which includes 350 local public television stations. Outreach efforts to national health partners and organizations that have regularly collaborated with both WGBH and/or The Hastings Center on past projects are expected to reach millions of people. Project personnel will utilize these partnerships to draw additional viewers to the broadcast and to encourage their members to use the online resources. The American Medical Association (with nearly 1 million members), the American Nurses Association (2.9 million members), and the American Hospital Association (nearly 6,000 hospitals, each with hundreds of medical and allied medical staff, and reaching millions of patients), will also be utilized in answering the project?s basic research question. Designing Life will also be available for all audiences long after the broadcast period. The four television episodes will remain on a project-specific website indefinitely, along with all web resources and educational materials. This application addresses broad Challenge Area (12) Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Education (STEM) and specific Challenge Topic, 12-OD-103: Informal Science Education.
Project Description: We received the award letter on 9/26/09and have not started the project as of the end of this quarter.
Jobs Summary: We received the award letter on 9/26/09and have not started the project as of the end of this quarter so no jobs have been created yet. (Total jobs reported: 0)
Project Status: Not Started
This award's data was last updated on Sep. 26, 2009. Help expand these official descriptions using the wiki below.
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