Project goal: While traditional mass media such as newspapers, television, and radio play a critical role in informing the public about news and issues of science and technology, they are often limited in their resources and ability to provide depth and context. One of the NISE's most visible outreach projects is the Web site, The Why Files (http://whyfiles.news.wisc.edu), which explores issues of science and technology underpinning the news of the day. While traditional media pique public curiosity about science and technology, The Why Files seeks to satisfy that interest by offering in-depth, informed, and critical stories about current topics.

Products: Short feature packages, focusing on new science discoveries, alternate with longer biweekly features, providing new content every week. The popular Web site has won awards from the likes of Popular Science, The Eisenhower National Clearinghouse, Yahoo, Netscape, and PC World Magazine. Statistics gathered during one two-week period indicate that people at more than 50,000 individual computers tapped into The Why Files during that time, requesting more than 180,000 pages. Among the new feature packages produced in the past year, The Why Files visited such topics as the earthquake in Turkey, violence in schools, and genetically engineered animals. More than 130 such stories are available in the site's archive. In July 1998 the production of The Why Files became a fully-supported entity of the Graduate School of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The Why Files is produced in the UW-Madison Office of News and Public Affairs.

The Why Files Research
Team leaders: William Eveland and Sharon Dunwoody

Project goal: This research documents how people use science information on the World Wide Web and how learning science may be facilitated by the designers of Web sites. The Why Files research team is working to make overt links between characteristics of individuals and the Web site on the one hand, and learning about science on the other. The expected result is to learn about better designs for the structure and content of science Web sites that can then be used to economically communicate up-to-date and archived science information to the general public. 

For more information, see:

1)  Objectives and Accomplishments

2)  Papers presented at professional meetings

3)  NISE Publications of the Communicating with Mass Audiences Team

4)  NISE-Related Publications of the Communicating with Mass Audiences Team

5)  Related Bibliography:

• Methodology, Measurement, and Analysis
• New Technology Issues
• Theory

Early data collected by the Communicating with Mass Audiences Team can now be accessed through the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Data & Program Library Service by clicking on this link.