Main Page | Month Archive | Email Updates | RSS Feed

CPD Senior Fellow Alvin Snyder reports on issues in international broadcasting for the USC Center on Public Diplomacy.

THE ETHICAL DILEMMA OF BLOGGING
MAR 9, 2006 - 11:33AM PDT
by Alvin Snyder

An estimated 28.8 million bloggers publish on the Internet, while by comparison there are only a paltry 2,500 U.S. daily and Sunday newspapers published. As blogging grows and matures, it needs to confront an ethical issue, as its senior ink-to-paper colleagues have, where free trips and other gratuities are offered by those who would likely expect a return on their investment.

Print journalists have strict policy guidelines to help keep their objectivity and integrity intact and to control potential conflicts of interest. Nevertheless, many still take their junkets, especially plentiful in the entertainment and tourism fields. But individual bloggers who... FULL TEXT
 
Read Comments (4) | Add Your Own

“GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK”
FEB 27, 2006 - 10:40AM PDT
by Alvin Snyder

The flight purser came back to where Fred Friendly was seated to tell him that his friend Edward R. Murrow had died an hour earlier. The plane had just cleared the Irish coast on a flight from London to New York, and the news about Murrow had been radioed from Shannon control with instructions to tell Friendly. It was April 27, 1965.

Friendly recalled in a Columbia Records album we later prepared about Murrow, that “the message was only confirmation of what Ed and his friends had expected for months.” Edward R. Murrow smoked three packs of unfiltered Camel cigarettes... FULL TEXT
 
Read Comments (4) | Add Your Own

THE FAILURES AND POSSIBILITIES OF AU PAIRS AS PUBLIC DIPLOMATS
FEB 22, 2006 - 1:21PM PDT
by Alvin Snyder

Cultural and educational exchange programs are effective public diplomacy tools because they enrich both those who go abroad and the societies they visit.

Right?

That good intention may not be the primary motivation behind the au pair childcare program the United States facilitates. This mismanaged program is being exploited and turned into more of a profitable business than cultural experience.

Au pair, French for "on par," means that the young person is on par with the American family. Young women ages 18-26 come from all around the world to care for children, become part of an American family and go... FULL TEXT
 
Read Comments (10) | Add Your Own

AL JAZEERA: ‘DEFENDING FREEDOM’ OR PROMOTING ITSELF?
FEB 8, 2006 - 5:12PM PDT
by Alvin Snyder

Al Jazeera held its “2nd Aljazeera Forum” Jan. 31 through Feb. 2 in its headquarter city of Doha, Qatar. The conference was titled “Defending Freedom, Defining Responsibility,” but its goal seemed to be to trash U.S. media and celebrate everything Al Jazeera.

Part of the agenda of this year’s conclave was apparently to promote the oft-delayed launch of Al Jazeera International’s (AJI) new English-language service, now pushed back to May, and to quash stories that the new channel is distancing itself from the home Arabic channel.

Prior to the meeting, AJI had stated specifically in its press information that it... FULL TEXT
 
Read Comments (7) | Add Your Own

PRIVATE PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
JAN 30, 2006 - 12:23AM PDT
by Alvin Snyder

This posting has been moved to the Public Diplomacy Blog.
 
Read Comments (0) | Add Your Own

AL JAZEERA’S MIDDLE EAST POPULARITY WANES AS ITS NORTH AMERICAN SIBLING WANTS TO LEAVE HOME
JAN 19, 2006 - 4:03PM PDT
by Alvin Snyder

Worldcasting has obtained exclusive comparative independent television ratings that document a steady decline in Al Jazeera's popularity among viewers in Saudi Arabia over a one-year period. That country is the most important television market in the region; 70 percent of the region's television advertising is spent there.

These consecutive 12-month ratings measure actual daily viewership of Middle East transnational television channels and not only bode ill for Al Jazeera's marquee Arabic channel; they also impact plans for Al Jazeera International, the network's new English-language service scheduled to debut in only two months.

In what can be interpreted as a move... FULL TEXT
 
Read Comments (3) | Add Your Own

GENERAL ABIZAID SPOKE AT THE NAVAL WAR COLLEGE:  TRUE OR FALSE?
DEC 28, 2005 - 11:18PM PDT
by Alvin Snyder

Did the commander of the U.S. military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) really say those things about the media, and the war in Iraq? If so, why the big secret?

The remarks attributed to General John Abizaid that mysteriously surfaced on the Internet and were sent anonymously to media outlets were said to have been from the General’s recent address at the Naval War College, date unknown.

The speech was not (and is not) mentioned on the web sites of either CENTCOM or the Naval War College. It was one of the great mysteries of the holiday season in the blogosphere as... FULL TEXT
 
Read Comments (0) | Add Your Own

THE ENGLISH INVASION
DEC 15, 2005 - 5:52PM PDT
by Alvin Snyder

The latest international television satellite channel, Russia Today, debuted this week, after securing a bank loan of $30 million to cover start up costs. It will broadcast in English, as do satellite networks from the BBC, the Chinese government, and the proposed Al Jazeera channel. The satellite news bandwagon is getting more crowded all the time and English will be the language of choice as new channels develop.

Russia Today is a 24/7 all-news channel, with a staff of more than 300. It began beaming English-language programs to the United States, Europe and Asia to provide a modern-day image of... FULL TEXT
 
Read Comments (3) | Add Your Own

THE GREAT ALHURRA DEBATE
DEC 7, 2005 - 10:43PM PDT
by Alvin Snyder

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee conceded that its recent call for a debate on Alhurra's effectiveness should have happened before America’s Arabic television channel went on the air. But the oversight committee is too late. The dispute rages daily in Washington and the Middle East, and battle lines have been drawn on two major issues.

One is who is watching Alhurra, and the other is what they see there.

Audience ratings are important because the message means nothing if no one is there to receive it, as noted by Norman Pattiz, who founded Alhurra and Radio Sawa, the United States... FULL TEXT
 
Read Comments (1) | Add Your Own

USIA’S TOP GUNS
NOV 29, 2005 - 10:33PM PDT
by Alvin Snyder

Karen Hughes is America's Top Gun communicator. But how will her job performance be rated 25 or even 50 years from now by her team in the State Department, elsewhere around the world and in the many politico-history books that will be written about her?

Of course it's too early to tell, as she is just finding her way as the new undersecretary of state for public diplomacy. But does she have the qualities that helped raise some former directors of the defunct U.S. Information Agency to legendary status?

There were more than a dozen USIA directors during the agency's... FULL TEXT
 
Read Comments (5) | Add Your Own