The National Academy of Sciences Goes to Hollywood: Employing Creative Engagement Strategies to Connect with Broad Audiences*

Entertainment media saturates our lives. According to the Motion Picture Association of America, an average of 600 new movies are created in the United States every year. With the exception of 2009, when the global economic crisis slowed production in Hollywood, the number of movies released in North America has steadily increased since the year 2000. In 2018, a record 878 movies graced U.S. screens.

In 2008 the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) launched The Science & Entertainment Exchange (The Exchange) to connect entertainment industry professionals with top scientists and engineers to create a synergy between accurate science and engaging storylines in both film and television programming. The goal of The Exchange is to use the vehicle of popular entertainment media to deliver sometimes subtle, but nevertheless powerful, messages about science that catalyze more storytelling grounded in authentic science, encourage the depiction of richer, more diverse STEM characters in order to challenge traditional stereotypes, and inspire new media projects driven by science and engineering themes.

Learn more about the ways in which The Exchange has worked closely with the Hollywood community to foster and incubate a collaborative community of scientists, engineers, and entertainment industry professionals to generate science-inspired film, television, and video game projects that have the potential to impact the next generation of scientists and engineers.