International TV news wars are hotting up in a big way and we news junkies are winning big time.
International TV news wars are hotting up in a big way and we news junkies are winning big time.
The BBC has just put its massive, spanking new New Broadcasting House on air and even their own anchors are stunned with all the hi-tech wizgadgetry they have at their disposal.
The BBC spent one billion pounds, or roughly R14 billion on a new, state-of-the-art news centre aimed at producing converged news products for TV, radio, and online.
The 11-story building will house more than 6 000 people whose main purpose in their professional lives is to tailor news products for the world.
The new building has been especially designed to be not only soundproof, but bombproof as well. The enormous expense is an indication of how serious the international news war has become.
The Cold War saw the rise and rise of international shortwave radio stations that broadcast heavily doctored news and current affairs programmes in hundreds of languages into other countries.
Radio Moscow, the Voice of America, Radio Tirana, South Africa’s own Radio RSA and the BBC are only a few of the many stations that were used to pump propaganda into the airwaves.
The end of the Cold War and a multitude of new technologies have radically reduced the importance of the shortwave radio battleground.
Today few people find it necessary to listen to squeaky, interference-distorted hisses in an effort to find out what is happening in the world.
We now get more news than we could ever read online – but even better than that, it is now possible to watch a range of highly competitive TV news channels if, of course, we can afford the over-priced DSTV bouquets.
CNN was the first real international TV station that attempted to broadcast world news on a regular basis. It rocketed into international prominence with its riveting, live broadcasts of Operation Desert Storm in 1991 and it quickly became evident that there was substantial demand for international TV news broadcast 24 hours a day.
Sky News took to the air with is somewhat European version of world news and the BBC gingerly converted some of its international radio expertise into television.
It took a few years before BBC International became a viable option, but as the trend gathered momentum, so radio’s World Service lost ground as the definitive source of international news.
In the past decade or so, the stage has been extensively transformed with the birth and growth of Al Jazeera.
Initially owned by the government of Qatar, Al Jazeera upset the status quo by offering perspectives on world news, but particularly the Middle East, that differed significantly from the standard Western paradigm.
Many informed commentators including former US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, acknowledged that Al Jazeera’s coverage of recent protests in Egypt was superior to American journalism.
This month, Al Jazeera announced that it had purchased a complete US cable TV network that had once been owned by Al Gore.
Russia Today and CCTV, a Chinese government station have also joined battle over the airways to find out who can capture and hold the attention of the world’s TV news junkies.
Meanwhile, those of us armed with our trusty TV remotes can flip from channel to channel and critically compare how each of these news warriors is covering the latest news.
The French fighting the Islamists in Mali; Assad bombing his own country or Obama fighting the good war for gun control – these issues can be closely monitored and analysed from a range of different angles with just a light touch of my thumb.
