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| Springboard: Exploring the Digital Age: National Press Release |
Public Television Series Looks at the Cultural and Human Impact of Science and Technology
Noted Journalist Rebecca Roberts Explores the Ever-Changing World of How Technology and Culture Interface
San Francisco, California -- After a one-year tour of duty in the San Francisco Bay Area—the heartland of the technological revolution -- Digital West expands nationwide as Springboard -- Exploring the Digital Age to provide public television audiences with rich analysis of the countless ways that today’s scientific and technological revolutions are effecting Americans. Rather than concentrating on the nuts and bolts and bits and bytes, the series looks at how the sweeping changes in science and technology are reshaping the fabric of American culture. Springboard -- Exploring the Digital Age premieres nationwide beginning Thursday, May 17, 2001 (check local listings).
Each thematically driven episode of Springboard -- Exploring the Digital Age will bring together host/managing editor Rebecca Roberts and the experts, analysts, policy-makers, journalists and industry insiders from varying backgrounds, specialties and philosophies who work on the frontlines of the revolution unfolding in laboratories, garages, board rooms, studios and elsewhere. The goal of Springboard is to give the audience background on these issues; convene these guests to go beyond the headlines and hype that characterize so much of the coverage of science and technology; and to provide the public with an understanding of the long-term consequences of the super-accelerated changes sweeping across the country.
By bringing intelligence, perspective and a healthy dose of skepticism to a wide range of topics -- instead of IPO announcements, performance statistics and stock prices -- Springboard will resonate with a larger and more geographically diverse audience -- and especially with viewers between the ages of 25 and 39. This successful formula has made the series one of the most-watched technology-related programs in the San Francisco Bay Area.
"The series is not just for technology fanatics and scientific experts, although they will be featured in the program and be part of our audience" explains Roberts. "We're committed to producing a show for everyone who is being touched by the unprecedented new forces driving us forward into the 21st Century. That means looking at an amazing array of topics -- from the future of stem cell research to our ability to predict the weather to the ubiquity of surveillance in our society."
During the inaugural year of Digital West, the series showcased a number of high-profile guests, including Bill Joy, chief scientist of Sun Microsystems (on nanotechnology); Sam Donaldson, noted ABC television journalist (on Internet journalism); David Brancaccio, host of NPR's "Marketplace" (on the Dot-conomy); Tim Koogle, then-president of Yahoo! (on the future of the Internet); former Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman (on genetically modified foods); science writer Timothy Ferris (on the frontiers of Astronomy); humorist Harry Shearer (on online comedy), former White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry (on digital democracy), and virtual reality guru Jaron Lanier (on technology and music), among others.
Like Digital West, Springboard -- Exploring the Digital Age will have a lush companion Web site that digs deeper into the issues explored on television. Located at pbs.org/springboard, viewers worldwide will be able to find supplementary information on topics, streaming of packaged reports, biographies on guests, links to related Web sites, polls, transcripts, message boards and other related information.
Host and managing editor of Springboard -- Exploring the Digital Age, Rebecca Roberts is also the technology reporter for Public Radio International's" The World" (airing weekdays in the Bay Area at 2 p.m. on KQED Public Radio 88.5FM and 125 public radio stations nationwide). Roberts moved on to San Francisco in 1997 to become the founding producer of "Beyond Computers", a weekly hour-long public radio show covering the relationship between technology and society (now named "Salon.com Radio"). Last year, Roberts served as host and managing editor of the now defunct Digital West. She graduated from Princeton University in 1992.
Springboard -- Exploring the Digital Age is produced by Ben Bayol. Angela Morgenstern, Andy Jordan and Barbara Moffat are the show's field producers/reporters, and the associate producer is Elizabeth Wynne Johnson. Sue Ellen McCann is executive producer. Springboard is an original production of KQED San Francisco.
Funding for Springboard -- Exploring the Digital Age is provided by the members of KQED and the KQED Campaign for the Future Program Venture Fund.
KQED operates KQED Public Television 9, the nation's most-watched public television station (in prime-time), and Digital Television 30, Northern California's only public television digital signal; KQED Public Radio 88.5 FM, the most listened-to public radio station in the nation; the KQED Education Network, which brings the impact of KQED to thousands of teachers, students, parents and media professionals through workshops, seminars and resources; and kqed.org, which harnesses the power of the Internet to bring KQED to communities across the Web.
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