News Media Gives 2017 Solar Eclipse Star Treatment

The coast-to-coast Great American Eclipse captivated the country on August 21. News media were staged along the path of totality in 14 states and elsewhere, providing coverage of the first solar eclipse across the entire U.S. – from Oregon to South Carolina – since 1918. Major networks – ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, Fox News Channel, Telemundo, PBS, MTV, the Science Channel and The Weather Channel broadcast live television specials, allowing viewers who weren’t in full totality the opportunity to see what it was like. Correspondents and photojournalists covered viewing parties, broadcast activities at observatories, and explained the science behind the event. NASA, which used cameras both above and on the ground said, “never before was a celestial event be viewed by so many and explored from so many vantage points – from space, from the air, and from the ground.” It also was the first total solar eclipse in the smartphone and social media era in the U.S. NABET-CWA members across the country were proud to be involved in the historic eclipse coverage.

As published in the Fall 2017 NABET News