Hot Topic - International Broadcasting

Judge Rules Conspiracy Theorist Actions Unconstitutional - November 25, 2020
Long associated with crackly shortwave signals and wars, cold and not, government-funded international broadcasting languished when the memories of the Cold War dimmed after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Interest in news and features from distant lands rose again as major international broadcasters adjusted their missions as they replaced shortwave for FM. BBC World Service, Radio France International, Deutsche Welle and Voice of America bolstered journalistic endeavors with statutory "firewalls" between the journalism and governments. Propaganda did not end, obviously, but international broadcasting took on a different context. Audiences returned.

Big Global News Media Faces Down Dictators - August 13, 2020
News media is truly globalized. A hundred years ago this was barely the case. Sure, bigger newspapers hired foreign correspondents, readers enjoyed the occasional report from faraway places even when the copy was slowly carried across the seas by boat. Then radio carried news across wide spaces and international broadcasting was off and running. Satellites were launched to enable television channels almost everywhere. Now, it is the internet, occasionally spiced up with the odd bot.

Where There Is No Plan, Watch For Spinning - July 6, 2020
Commemorated this past weekend was the 70th anniversary of the launch of Radio Free Europe. The US-funded international broadcaster first broadcast to Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Republic and Slovakia, on July 4th, 1950 via a transmitter in southwestern Germany, near Frankfurt. The mission was to offer "surrogate" news and information for States under the rule of the Soviet Union, using largely expatriate staff. Radio Liberty came three years later, directed toward the Soviet Union, later merged with RFE. Thousands of scholarly volumes have been written about RFE/RL's history, emphasis typically on its role in the Cold War.

News Outlets Bust Digital Blackouts - August 25, 2019
Certain to amaze - even horrify - Millennials not everything is digital. Indeed, there are means of communication not dependent on ones and zeros, anything in between or bots. Analogue platforms, hardly extinct, have certain advantages.

News Network In Search Of Itself Retreats - April 4, 2016
Maturity comes to international news broadcasters when hot coverage fades. Parachuting crews in conflict zones create, often, as many headlines as they report. There is a place for that and audiences are drawn to the excitement. When the buzz fades - and critics leap out - it’s time to “examine the business model.”

Old Waves Across Borders Fade – New Waves Rise - December 15, 2014
International broadcasting reached a pinnacle during the post-Second World War years. The Cold War gave birth to a competitive sphere where government funded radio broadcasters kept news listeners fixed to their radios. By the mid 1980’s the dial was filled. A decade later, everything had changed.

Creating Credibility Not A Vanity Project - April 3 2014
Nobody doubts the soft power value of international media. Words and pictures can frame any message. Soft power effectiveness depends on credibility far more than technology. Desired outcomes, however, must be clear.

See also in ftm Knowledge

International Broadcasting - Platforms and Politics

International broadcasting is more than voices across borders. It's moved to television and the Web. Legacy broadcasters are reducing their footprint while newcomers are expanding. This ftm Knowledge file looks at all sides. 55 pages PDF (July 2011)

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