"The Spaceship" – live and interactive space news in Hebrew
- Paper ID
28971
- author
- company
; None
- country
Israel
- year
2015
- abstract
In recent years space has become increasingly crowded and bustling. Not a week goes by without something new and exciting happening outside of the earth’s atmosphere. In 2014, a record number of launches has been set (92 launches worldwide), many missions arrived at their destination, and space observation has also been extremely bountiful. Unfortunately, the mainstream media has mostly ignored these exciting events, and the general public remains mostly unaware of them. "The Spaceship" is an attempt to try and fill this gap in the Hebrew-speaking media. "The Spaceship" is a bi-weekly internet based program that broadcasts live on Google+ Hangout-on-Air and YouTube on alternate Saturday nights, and remains as a regular YouTube video, allowing followers to watch it at their leisure. It is an interactive program in which (during the live broadcast) the viewers can ask the participants questions and get immediate answers. The participants are space enthusiasts with extensive backgrounds (all hold at least a Master’s degree) in various space-related disciplines such as cosmology, astronomy, space systems, propulsion and more. We even have a medical doctor on the team. This paper will describe the unique format of the program (the format was inspired by similar shows in English, but at the time it began there were no such shows in Hebrew). The origins and motivation for the program will be discussed as well. The challenges facing a grass-root initiative aimed at informing the general public about space-related issues will be outlined. The contribution of the modern social media platforms to the proliferation of science communication among the general populace will be shown. Silly screenshots will be included.