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WOSU and COSI – Community Collaboration
WOSU, the public broadcasting station licensed to The Ohio State University, has formed a partnership with COSI Columbus (the Center of Science and Industry) to share space in their 320,000 square foot downtown facility. WOSU@COSI houses a new, state-of-the-art digital media center, and has been designed as community space; a local gathering place for civic engagement, forums, performances, events, and meetings; an interactive exhibit area; and television and radio studios. Burt Hill Kosar Rittlemann Associates performed the architecture, engineering, interior design, and research on the project. The media center occupies approximately 12,000 square feet of space in COSI's former Gallery 1.
Serving 18 million visitors since 1964 and hailed as one of the country's best and most innovative hands-on science centers, COSI Columbus provides Ohio families, students, and teachers with engaging experiences that strengthen their interest and comprehension of science. WOSU and COSI share strong educational missions making this one of the country's most unique collaborations. With COSI located along the Scioto River in downtown Columbus, WOSU's digital media center is visible and accessible to the community, making it a vital resource for education, media literacy, and community space needs. The project was completed in the fall of 2006. The projected cost for renovation and equipment is $5.6 million. WOSU is seeking private support for the project.
The media center offers unique ways to explore the latest digital technology. WOSU has added high-definition studio cameras, and is producing digital broadcasts. Radio and television talk shows, such as WOSU 820 Open Line WOSU TV's Columbus on the Record and In the Know are being broadcasted there. WOSU and COSI have created kiosks and exhibits designed to help visitors explore and understand digital media, including U-TV, a history of WOSU, and other attractions. These hands-on activities blend seamlessly with COSI's science and education mission, as well as the overall COSI experience.
"This digital media center is our showcase," said WOSU General Manager Tom Rieland. "The WOSU@COSI initiative reflects Ohio State's commitment to community engagement and our expanded vision of public service as we move into digital broadcasting,” he added. “The studio space is and will be the basis for a remarkable expansion of local programming, but also for civic space open to community groups and organizations.”
For more information about WOSU Public Media, visit www.wosu.org. For more information on COSI, visit www.cosi.org.
WOSU@COSI mediaLab
An attraction at WOSU@COSI is a mediaLab that serves as a training ground for the next generation of content producers. The lab is used to incubate and create media in many forms for use across many platforms, including broadcast on WOSU. In the process, young people can learn how to critically assess the media all around them -- movies, video games, iPods, blogs, television, cell phones, billboards, web sites. Though they are sometimes aware of their choices, most youth rarely question the images and sounds around them. The mediaLab encourages them to develop a new set of critical thinking skills as they create and consume media.
"Almost every moment of the day in some families is tied to media," says Vicky Rideout of the Kaiser Family Foundation, "It's a huge part of families' lives."
A recent Kaiser study shows that a third of young children have TVs in their own rooms, and many are put to sleep with the television on. Young people reported spending about 6 1/2 hours per day occupied with various media. They're wired. They're plugged in but are they equipped to decipher "mediaspeak"?
The media have a complex language of images and sounds. The WOSU mediaLab offers youth a venue to familiarize themselves with this vernacular and to become media literate-to question the choices of images; isolate the effects of music and sound effects, and see through the intent of messages.
Located within a vibrant science center and a professional public broadcast facility, the mediaLab includes the latest equipment and software to enable people to create an audio or video stories, produce a podcast, start a blog, or simply experiment with multimedia.
