GEOSCIENCE TOPICS IN MASS MEDIA - GEOLOGIC TELEVISION AND “GEOAMERICA TV”

The use of informal educational television, as a tool for outreach to the general public, affords today’s geoscience educators the opportunity to reach millions of potential viewers across the globe. The recent growth in the popularity and expansion of specialized science, history, and outdoor recreation/travel networks on national cable and satellite television has fostered new opportunities for geoscience-based television projects on global, national, and regional scales. Explorer Multimedia Inc., a nonprofit educational media production group, in collaboration with faculty at the University of Oklahoma, are developing a cable television and video series, entitled “GeoAmerica: Our Roots in Rock” that will focus on relevant geoscience-oriented education and outdoor recreation/travel topics. The shows will integrate travel to parks, museums and open spaces, with accurate and timely educational topics and will have input from the professional and academic geoscience community. Examples of planned shows include a show on the control of nature with a focus on the lower Mississippi River and Delta. Issues such as the efforts to control the river and the impact of the changing Louisiana coastline will be discussed. In addition to background information, this show will include coverage of a geology fieldtrip to the Old River Control Structure on the Mississippi River and to the Delta to view first hand the loss of wetlands as well as the efforts to reclaim them. In another potential show, indigenous knowledge of the Earth and Atmosphere, along with Native American Art, will be integrated with geoscience topics. The objective of the series is a viewer friendly, accessible, entertaining, and inviting look at a variety of subjects and locations to increase awareness of geoscience topics with the public at large.