Many people in the UK won't have heard of The World, but the BBC has been contributing to a bit of interesting terraforming. The World provides international news for the National Public Radio network in the US and is a co-production of the BBC World Service, Public Radio International (PRI) and WGBH Boston. But what riches lies within? … My stereotype of the BBC World Service needs readjustment. Obviously, the US is as firmly within the Beeb's telescopic sites 🙂 as are the countries of the developing world, the Middle East, and the former Eastern bloc (although they are apparently losing audience in parts of the latter two).
“… it has proved difficult for the BBC World Service to obtain an FM presence in some areas. Losses were registered in Western Europe, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Ukraine” (BBC World Service Review 2003-2004, Director's Overview).
The UK Government Foreign and Commonwealth Office provide the basic grant (Grant-in-Aid) for the BBC World Service (GBP 220.1 million in 2003-2004) although the World Service can generate revenue from other sources (GBP 23.6 million in 20030-2004) within the constraints of its charter. It should be noted that ~90% of BBC World Service income is spent directly on content production and distribution which is pretty exemplary (for who? … you can make up your own mind:)
Anyway, I digress. I came across The World in a new podcast called modestly The World: Technology Podcast which I had assumed was going to be an amateur production with an ambitious moniker, but no, the presenter Clark Boyd was obviously very skilled in the subtle arts of media interviewing and with a little more homework I find that The World is actually a serious operation with some heavyweight sponsors and as PRI states “delivers global news perspectives and cultural insights”.
A recent example from The World: Technology podcast provides a flavour. In Computer Games Research (10 May 2005) Clark Boyd the technology correspondent reported a visit to the Center for Computing Games Research at the IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
The Center for Computing Games Research, IT University, Copenhagen is funded by Danish Government, has a team of academics from multiple disciplines, and carries out PhD level work. It's portfolio of interests includes: the ethics of games, educational uses for commercial computer games, and the design of games. Computer games are now part of the curricula of many universities provides a focus for academic research crossing many disciplines, e.g. what's the cultural and social impact of games in different countries?
To me what's as interesting is that my discovery of this programme was pure serendipity. The BBC has certainly done nothing to attract my attention to its existence. For example type 'The World Technology Podcast' or 'technology podcast' into the BBC search engine and not a single return from any of the internal sources could I find until I selected the 'Results from the Web' tab. So off I went to the BBC World Service Annual Review 2003-2004 to see what I could uncover there. Nothing much, apart from these very interesting quotes; the first is in the Financial Review section:
“We add further value to the core Grant-in-Aid through partnerships with radio stations and internet service providers around the world, which rebroadcast our programmes and material at no cost to BBC World Service. This enables us to further expand reach without additional distribution costs.”
And the second is in the Director's Overview section, where we find the US figures quite highly:
“But audiences have also reached a record 4.7 million in the world's most developed media market – the United States. More than one in five opinion formers in New York and Washington DC listen each week. In Britain too, 1.3 million people are listening to World Service programmes, which are now available on a range of digital and cable services.”
So there you have it folks, it's official, more people listen to the BBC World Service in the US than in the UK.
I'm a big fan of the BBC and I think it has a vast amount to contribute to the world (and to The World), but as a publicly-funded organisation it would be good if they could do more to attract our attention to these other more global productions … unless of course they want us to remain locked in to our mental national bubble? 🙂 Or is it best to leave the BBC World Service looking outwards like this just in case the BBC starts to feel it should absorb this semi-independent offshoot within its mainstream structure … and in the process destroys it?
Finally, The World also offers a couple of other podcasts which is a bit feeble in comparison to the, albeit still limited, scope of the BBC's new podcast trial.
