CALLING EARTH FROM SPACE: MEASURING YOUTUBE'S CONTRIBUTION TO INFORMAL SPACE EDUCATION

摘要

The philosophies of informal science education are in a process of transition. Over time, the insistence that the public needs to be fed more fundamental facts to understand science, the Public Understanding of Science model, is giving way to the Public Engagement with Science and Technology model, under which the general public can be asked to make their minds up about funding issues, or different scientific controversies without being taught every part of the science involved. Engagement itself is difficult to measure, but the structure of the social web can help. Every piece of content is tracked and difference publics' reaction to it can be assessed, although the tools for this assessment are developing only gradually and often favour commercial applications. This paper looks at how the metrics of social marketing - marketing to people of something for which they have already paid through taxes, and social media marketing - a new science of selling to people in an informal, elective, social setting - can tell us more about how the publics engage with space. It pays particular attention to how YouTube as an opt-in video platform, compares with free-to-air educational television as an informal medium of science education.