How to Design Public TV for the Livestreaming Age

Context

Building Stuff with NOVA is a Twitch and YouTube series from NOVA/GBH that experiments with "community-centered streaming" to bring engineering to life. The show mixes live interviews, gameplay, field trips, real-time building, and a chat-designed escape room, and sits alongside a companion documentary series. Slover Linett at NORC was funded by the National Science Foundation to understand who these formats reach, how they build community, and what kinds of STEM learning they support.

Problem

The NOVA team wanted to know how to design live, online spaces that are both welcoming and effective for informal STEM learning. Key questions included:

• Are Twitch and YouTube streams reaching younger and more diverse audiences than the documentary films?

• How can hosts and moderators shape a safe, inclusive chat culture?

• When does community-centered streaming deepen people's interest in engineering and scientific thinking, compared with traditional documentaries?

Solution

Our team designed a three-phase, mixed-methods evaluation combining stream observations, in-depth interviews with 30+ viewers, and survey research.

As Research Associate and co-author, I:

• Developed a structured data management tool to optimize coding workflow for over 40 hours of video observations, improving consistency across the research team

• Conducted and synthesized qualitative interviews with both organic viewers and recruited participants

• Coded stream observations to identify how online communities form around science content, how viewers connect STEM concepts to their daily lives, and how different types of participants engage with learning

• Authored the methodology and background sections of the final public report, translating complex research processes for broader audiences

Results

Our evaluation found that:

• Twitch and YouTube streams reached a more demographically diverse, STEM-interested audience than the documentary alone, though still skewed toward those already curious about science

• Host tone and moderation were central to building community—intentional modeling of norms created a rare "safe, informal, but rigorous" chat environment

• Community-centered streaming supported collaborative problem-solving and "everyday STEM" more strongly than traditional documentaries

These insights led to concrete design recommendations. We suggested designing multiple "on-ramps" for non-expert audiences—such as crossover episodes with established creators, gameplay segments, and escape room challenges that feel less intimidating than traditional STEM content. We also recommended treating streams as living labs to test content and inform future STEM education initiatives.

Read the full public report.