The INGVterremoti channel on YouTube

Amato, Alessandro and Arcoraci , Luca and Casarotti, Emanuele and Di Stefano, Raffaele (2012) The INGVterremoti channel on YouTube. Annals of geophysics, 55 (3). pp. 403-408. ISSN 2037-416X

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Abstract

In February 2010, we launched an experimental scientific video channel on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/ingvterremoti), to improve our communication strategy for earthquake risk and preparedness. The main goals of this initiative were to inform people of the ongoing seismic activity in Italy and around the World, to communicate the results of scientific research in seismology, and to increase the knowledge of seismic hazard of the people. To date, after almost two years from the start, we have published 52 original videos on YouTube, through the collaboration of many researchers at the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV). The videos are organized into eight play lists: (i) earthquakes in Italy; (ii) earthquakes worldwide; (iii) the 2009 L’Aquila, Italy, earthquake; (iv) ongoing seismic activity; (v) tsunami; (vi) earthquake prediction; (vii) seismic hazard; and (viii) May 11 2011 (when a major earthquake was predicted to hit Rome). To date, the total number of views is over 466,000, with two peaks of more than 20,000/day after the Tohoku, Japan, earthquake (March 2011) and before the presumed prediction of a major earthquake to hit Rome on May 11, 2011. The most popular videos (6) have been viewed more than 20,000 times, with a maximum of over 67,000. We think that this initiative has increased people’s knowledge and awareness of seismic risk, although at the moment the outreach is limited only to a specific (but growing) target of citizens. In the future, we will try to improve the technical aspects of our video communication, and we will try to broaden our audience. We have learned that when specific earthquakes occur (or even when there are unfounded predictions about upcoming seismic events) this is when the attention is highest, which represent the best occasions to move forward towards improved risk communication strategies

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Seismology, Educational, History of Science, Public Issues, Earthquakes, Seismic awareness, Seismic hazard
Subjects:	000 Scienza degli elaboratori - Scienze dell’informazione - Scienze archivistiche, librarie e dell'informazione documentaria – opere generali > 070 Media (Classificare qui i Mass media, il Giornalismo, l'Editoria, la comunicazione) 500 Scienze naturali e Matematica > 550 Scienze della Terra > 551 Geologia, Idrologia, Meteorologia > 551.2 Vulcani, terremoti, acque termali e gas > 551.22 Terremoti (Classificare qui la Sismologia) (Classificare le onde di maremoto in 551.463)
Depositing User:	Roberto Wiedman
Date Deposited:	14 Oct 2012 13:14
Last Modified:	17 Apr 2014 08:06
URI:	http://eprints.bice.rm.cnr.it/id/eprint/4203

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