AbstractsCommunication

Employing visitor studies and video media to better communicate science in National Parks: Videos to train NPS staff

by Alison Lindsey. Koch




Institution: Montana State University
Department:
Year: 2007
Keywords: Videos to train NPS staff (Motion picture).; Documentary films.; National parks and reserves Public use.; National parks and reserves Interpretive programs.
Record ID: 1793372
Full text PDF: http://scholarworks.montana.edu/xmlui/handle/1/1659


Abstract

Researchers, resource management, and visitor service personnel must create avenues or maximize current strategies to cooperate more effectively to communicate park science and management. Contrary to interpretive trends in the National Park Service, social survey and visitor studies show that communicating scientific and preservation information to visitors at parks and other institutions is expected and well-received. One specific underutilized form of both employee to employee and park to visitor communication is that of video media. Video allows a platform for scientists to speak directly to visitors, train other park staff, and encourage continued divisional cooperation. It can also provide an effective archival media library of information. A filmmaker must forge through bureaucratic and institutional realities in order to achieve successful scientific communication, but the benefits are immense when this work is crucial to help sustain the future of "one of America's greatest ideas," the national parks.