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America's Voices to the World |
| Section: CURRENT ISSUES / MEDIA IN REVIEW |
| Author: Ben Barber |
| Publication:
The World & I Online |
| Issue Date: 2/1/2000 |
| Size: 2,322 Words, 15,410 Characters |
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A few years afterward, on another continent, former Cambodian dictator Pol Pot was hiding in the jungles along the Thai border when he heard--over the Voice of America--that government troops were close to capturing him.
Fifty-seven years after the Voice of America was created to beam U.S. news, views, and propaganda into Western Europe, Asia, and Africa during World War II, the VOA continues to transmit shortwave radio programs in 53 languages to roughly 91 million listeners, an increase of 5 million over 1998, according to the broadcast service. Some 20 million other people tune in to news from Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty (which broadcasts to Russia), Radio Mart’ (the Cuba service), and Radio Free Asia--stations that aim to foster democracy in 23 former Soviet-bloc and various authoritarian nations.
While programs to Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy, and Japan were dropped soon after the war, new countries--such as Ethiopia, Nepal, Afghanistan, and Rwanda--took their places.
The VOA's mission has been to defend America's national interests by "telling America's story," say longtime officials and broadcasters with the U.S. overseas broadcast service.
When the war against fascism shifted to the Cold War against communism, the VOA shifted its target audiences to the new battlegrounds in Eastern Europe and the developing nations of Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Now that the Cold War has ended, the service continues to beam news, features, and commentaries into places such as Afghanistan and Angol...
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...ntries still suffering from lack of freedom as well as from basic poverty.
That would require shifting some efforts from the traditional reporting of news and U.S. government positions--telling America's story, as VOA staffers like to say--toward what is called social marketing of basic health techniques.Thus far, the VOA has not clearly indicated where its emphasis will lie in the future.
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Publication Details
(The World & I Online) |
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The World & I Online is a
comprehensive academic resource that encompasses a broad range of
articles by scholars and experts in the areas of Global Studies,
Liberal Arts, Fine & Applied Arts, General Science, and Spanish.
Originally published monthly in print as The World & I, our site
includes the complete contents since 1986 and continues to publish
a new issue online each month. |
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