The Pacific Islands CASC highlights an article written by a Voice of the Sea host on the role local television programs can play in science communication efforts.
PI CASC Partner Voice of the Sea Highlights Success of Communicating Science Via Television in the Pacific
In 2018, the critically acclaimed television program Voice of the Sea highlighted research funded by the Pacific Islands CASC in two 30-minute episodes, one of which won a Bronze Telly Award the following year. The weekly program, produced by the University of Hawai’i Sea Grant Center for Marine Science Education, spotlights researchers, scientists, and cultural practitioners throughout the Pacific Islands. In a recent article on the science news site Eos, Voice of the Sea host Kanesa Duncan Seraphin discusses the unique opportunity local television offers science communicators for reaching underrepresented audiences in the Pacific and beyond. She points to television’s highly visual content and broad reach as being accessible and engaging to more diverse audiences than online or print media; for example, each Voice of the Sea episode is viewed by over 25,000 people in Hawaiʻi, the vast majority of whom identify as locals. She also describes how programs like Voice of the Sea can allow researchers to tell their own stories and can describe research that is highly relevant to local communities.