Listen Up! Life Lines
Podcast Debuts October 15
 BETHESDA,
Md. –The first episode of Life Lines, the Society’s new
podcast will be available Monday, Oct. 15. You can hear this general
interest audio show by clicking on
www.lifelines.tv, or by subscribing through iTunes or another of your
favorite online podcast directories.
Life Lines is part of our Society’s
commitment to share scientific knowledge with the general public. The show
will:
-
provide greater public access to scientific information
-
promote public understanding of physiological research and
its relevance to everyday life
-
build recognition of the Society and its members
APS currently issues written press releases which are
picked up by print, broadcast and online media outlets. The podcast is the
next step in our effort to promote physiology to the general public and is a
way to widen our audience.
More people turn to the
Web
Research from the Pew Internet & American Life Project
found more people are embracing online media -- and young people are
embracing it even more enthusiastically than older adults.
In late 2006, Pew found that 41% of Americans got their
science news primarily from television. But 20% of Americans -- that’s 40
million people -- said they got most of their science news and information
from the internet. Only 14% said they got their science mainly from print
media, such as newspapers and magazines.
Among American young adults (18-29) who have a high
speed connection at home, 44% get most of their science news online, while
only 32% rely primarily on television. People older than 30 who have high
speed internet access also obtain more science information online: 34% said
they get most of their science news from the internet while 33% say they
rely more on television.
Podcast popularity grows
Podcasts -- audio that the listener downloads from the
internet and listens to when convenient -- are growing in popularity. In
November 2006, Pew reported that 12% of internet users had downloaded a
podcast. That was a 5% increase compared to a Pew survey done only eight
months earlier. In late 2004, one podcast directory listed fewer than 1,000
podcasts, according to the Pew report. By late last year, it had 26,000
titles in its directory.
So more people are going online for science information
and more are downloading podcasts. In general, young adults are doing this
faster than those who are older. That is one reason the APS Education
Department will develop teacher guides for the scientific studies we present
in these shows.
What will you find in Life Lines? Each
edition will contain three segments and each segment will include the voices
of your peers. The three segments:
-
Physiology Feature
-
Ask a Physiologist
-
Journal Study
The feature segment will focus on an interesting area
of research or a particular scientist whose work would be of interest to the
general public. In the Ask a Physiologist section, a physiologist will
answer a question from the audience. The physiologist who answers will be an
expert in the field. Finally, we’ll feature a study from one of our
journals, bringing up-to-the-minute studies to our listeners.
Be sure to listen and tell us what you think.
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