BY DR. KIM ANDREW ELLIOTT
International broadcasting to China is one of the most difficult challenges in modern mass communication. China vigorously blocks Mandarin-language news from websites outside of China, jams foreign shortwave broadcasts, and restricts ownership of satellite television receivers. Even without these forms of interdiction, the Chinese audience for international broadcasts would probably remain small because of the many domestically available channels of entertainment, in addition to competent, if not especially comprehensive and independent, news services.
BBC World Service and Germany’s Deutsche Welle have already decided to end their shortwave radio broadcasts in Mandarin to China. China’s vigorous jamming of their shortwave transmissions is one consideration. More important are very low levels of shortwave radio ownership and listening in China, compared to near-universal television ownership, and widespread access to broadband internet.
The U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) has made a similar decision for its entity the Voice of America. For the first time in nearly seventy years, VOA may stop broadcasting to China, in Mandarin, via shortwave. This proposal in the BBG budget request for fiscal year 2012 would convert VOA Mandarin to an internet-only service, and reduce its staff from 76 to 38.
This decision does not stem primarily from a reduction in funds. The BBG, a bipartisan board that supervises U.S. government funded international broadcasting, is actually requesting a slight increase in its overall budget from 2011 to 2012. They call the elimination of VOA Mandarin shortwave a "recalibration." The BBG cites very low audience numbers for VOA from surveys in China, with only a small fraction of a percent listening weekly.
VOA Mandarin would continue as an internet-only service. VOA has as few internet visitors as shortwave listeners in China, but the BBG feels there is more growth potential for an internet audience, especially among young people. Certainly, the internet is much more popular in China: over one quarter of the population uses the internet at least once a week, but only one percent own radios with shortwave bands.
Another BBG entity, Radio Free Asia, would continue its Mandarin broadcasts on shortwave. RFA was created in 1996 to provide news about the dictatorially-controlled countries to which it broadcasts. This was based on premise that VOA limited itself to news about the United States and English language lessons. The premise was incorrect: VOA has always reported about China, and still does, though not to the exclusion of world and U.S. news, as is the case with RFA. However, because both the administration and Congress at the time supported the creation of RFA (the measure was, in part, a sop to those who opposed restoring most-favored-nation trading status to China), facts were overlooked. The result has been a great deal of duplication in the news covered by VOA and RFA. This duplication points to a more promising form of "recalibration.”
(Source : Public Diplomacy Council via www.kimandrewelliott.com)
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