Welcome to the PAWS/OMNI Communications website with links to all PAWS and EuroPAWS activities and initiatives.
PAWS and EuroPAWS run events and other activities designed to help bring science and technology into higher profile across TV and other audio-visual media.
Events in Autumn 2009
November 23 2009
The winners of the MIDAS Prizes 2009 for Enviroment in European TV and New Media are:
Best TV Documentary or Drama
Countdown on the Yangtze
from WDR, Germany
Best General TV Programme or Item
E-Waste in Ghana
from the series Galileo
Prosieben, Germany
Best New Media Production
Fusion 2100
from the European Fusion development Agreement (EFDA), Garching, Germany
The winner of the Young Jury Prize 2009 for the best European
TV Documentary or Drama on the Environment
Earth: The Climate Wars, Episode 3
from BBC, UK |
The 2009 Awards Evening has an Environmental focus for a second year. Excerpts from all the candidates for the MIDAS Prizes will be screened and the Award winners announced. There will be Keynote Talks from two highly esteemed figures - Lord Puttnam of Queensgate CBE and Professor Mark Maslin, Director of the Environment Institute, UCL. The evening will also feature a new interactive session probing some of the key questions in combating Climate Change including the role of TV/AV Media. An expert panel will help illuminate some of the important issues involved.
The Awards Evening is supported by
For full agenda, click the Awards tab or Awards box on right of this page. Attendance
by registration at the PAWS Office, details on right of this page. |
For the full running order click the Festival tab above or the Festival box on
the right of this page. There will also be two panel-led discussions geared to
the teenage jury and other young members of the audience, but open to all.
To attend morning or afternoon sessions, please confirm with the PAWS office
to ensure that a place is reserved for you (details on right of this page).
The Festival is supported by the Stem Careers Project
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Recent Initiatives
March 23, 2009, 7.00pm
The Institute of Physics, London
"Medicine and Machines"
Featuring women scientists and engineers presenting the
physical science and engineering that is changing the
face of medicine today.
A PAWS Science and Engineering evening
bringing together the science/engineering (SET) communities
with professionals in the TV and other media, each providing
new insights for the other. This cross-cultural mix featured
a panel of three women scientists and engineers revealing
the secrets and research behind diagnostics and treatments
familiar to many of us, and a leading broadcaster whose
series - Holby City on BBC1 - provides the human drama
of modern hospital life for 6 million viewers. This event
and its popular theme was supported by five organizations
(below) with introductions from Andrew Millington of
PAWS, Maggie Philbin representing Women in SET and the
New Engineering foundation and Professor Jimmy Bell who
runs the Imaging Department in the Clinical Sciences
Centre at Imperial College.
The event was supported by the UK Resource Centre for Women in SET, the Medical
Research Council, The New Engineering Foundation, The Institute of Physics ad
Engineering in Medicine, and the Institute of Physics who hosted the evening.
Click the Evening tab at the top
of the page for more information. |
PAWS is also engaged in a promotional
initiative with the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and
Technology (SET) to encourage the presence of more women in SET as TV presenters.
NEW FACES TO PRESENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ON TELEVISION
...2009 some leading women contenders
With science and technology gaining an ever greater presence across TV and new
media output, there is a strong case for bringing forward a fresh wave of presenters
versed in science and engineering and motivated to communicate with a wide audience.
In particular, there are many women scientists and engineers waiting to be discovered
as mainstream TV presenters, and indeed as experts or interesting characters
for non-science output.
So in 2009 PAWS in conjunction with the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology are proposing some leading women contenders as TV presenters or expert interviewees in science and technology. They range from young researchers keen to embrace communication with a wide public to established professors with a similar mission. An awareness pack has been created to include a 15 minute DVD showcasing TV potential and a booklet of CVs of the women scientists and engineers featured. This is available from the PAWS office to all programme makers and broadcasters (see contact details in box at bottom on page right).
The DVD offers short presentation pieces and interviews with eight scientists
and engineers who could qualify as general science presenters or experts. This
is followed by shorter sequences of six other scientists or engineers who are
likely to appeal particularly in one of the two modes, either as expert or presenter. |
2008 Events
November 3 and 4
The Institute of Physics, London
The EuroPAWS Environment in TV and New Media Festival
Including two days of screenings of programmes from across
Europe, plus panel-led discussions. Three categories
of output are featured:
- TV Documentaries and Drama
- TV General Programming (i.e. magazines, politics shows, natural world etc)
- an item in context or a complete programme
- New Media Productions (including WEB, iPOD, Promotional Video etc)
A jury of leading TV professionals and scientists/engineers
and science communicators from across Europe will award
prizes for the best productions in each category plus
an extra award recognizing merit beyond the categorization.
Click
the Festival tab above for
more information. |
November 3, 2008, 4.30pm
The Institute of Physics, London
"Images Matter
- The Changing Role of Television and other Media in
communicating modern science"
A panel-led discussion at the Environment in TV and New Media Festival.
Science and Technology now have an ever greater presence across broadcasting.
Environmental issues pervade news and current affairs nowadays as well as dedicated
science programming, but also areas like drama and rural affairs programming
see it as offering major stories. But many areas of science from IT to Genetics
and even simulations of the Big Bang cut across TV and New media genres. Professionals
from across TV and New Media output will lead a debate on how the TV and other
media does and should respond to this changing world.
Click the Festival tab
above for more information. |
November 4, 2008, 7.00pm
University College, London
"Climate Change
- Let the Science Speak"
A PAWS science evening bringing some of the key science and technology
behind climate change and associated issues to a wide public. The event will
featured women scientists and engineers from across the research areas and a
leading TV producer and Director of programmes on the environment, Fiona Scott.
The event will be introduced by the Director of the Environment Institute Professor
Mark Maslin, who will also present a cameo of women scientists on television
as part of the women in science theme.
Click the Evening tab
above for more information. |
November 24, 2008, 7.00pm
Institution of Engineering and
Technology, London
The PAWS/EuroPAWS Awards Evening
Climate Change - Seeing is Believing
The Awards evening this year has an Environment in TV and New Media focus. Excerpts from all the candidates for the four MIDAS Prizes will be screened, and the Award winners announced. There will be a keynote talk from Sir David King, former Government Chief Scientist and now Director of the Smith School of Enterprise and Environment at Oxford University, and a panel-led discussion including the Head of Climate Change at the Environment Agency and writer of the BBC Drama "Burn Up" and "The Full Monty" Simon Beaufoy.
Click the Awards tab
above for more information. |
For further details on all events, click on the relevant box on the right or the indicated tab at the top.
The EuroPAWS Festival and the Panel-led Discussion are supported
by the Institute of Physics, DIUS (the UK Department of Innovation,
Universities and Skills) and OMNI Communications.
The PAWS Science Evening at UCL is supported by the Environment
Institute, UCL and the UK Resource Centre for Women in SET.
The PAWS/EuroPAWS Awards Evening is supported by the Environment Agency and
The Institution of Engineering and Technology.
Science, Arts and the Public - Bridging the Cultures
We are increasingly aware of the importance of science, engineering
and technology in all our lives. Every day hews bulletins carry
items in which science features prominently. The general public
is anxious to know more about the impact on daily life if scientific
and engineering developments. But this explosion of scientific
headlines also opens up opportunities across television for new
programming and new stories. Scientific or engineering challenges
can be fun as well as demanding, and this applies as much to areas
of threat like climate change as to more benign developments.
Television drama provides one example of how true scientific settings
can inform both classic formats and new variations where drama
can be an ingredient. PAWS categorises drama......the medium of
drama.
As the EuroPAWS 2008 festival illustrates, the challenge is on
to find new and refreshing ways of presenting issues that engage
new audiences. PAWS was inspired in its early days by the chance
for science in TV drama, and it is to the large audiences of entertainment
generally and other major strands of broadcasting where the excitement
and relevance of science today can be most widely portrayed. Dedicated
science programming remains hugely important, but the growth of
opportunities in other broadcasting contexts for engaging different
publics with new science and engineering challenges must be seized.
The three goals of public engagement - the democratic argument,
to empower people better to make informed decisions, opportunities
for jobs, and as part of a modern culture - all point to the key
role of TV and New Media in recognizing how much of its output
is relevant to this communication agenda.
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Us:
PAWS at Omni Communications
First Floor
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London
NW1 8BB, UK
Tel: 0044
(0) 20 7483 4545
e-mail: pawsomni@btconnect.com
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