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>ONEWORLD TACKLES INFORMATION POVERTY THROUGH WEB RADIO
>
>If you want to reduce the information-poverty gap, what's the point
>of putting information on the Internet, where 94% of the world's
>population can't access it? Decades will pass before the conventional
>benefits of the Web reach most of the rural South - unlike radio, the
>world's most-used mass medium.
>
>But the trouble with radio is that it usually has to remain within
>national bounds.  Few stations can afford foreign correspondents -
>and it is problematic to send broadcast-quality audio material over
>long distances without expensive technology, so southern broadcasters
>are often frustrated when they try to acquire affordable foreign
>news. Content is a problem too: who offers broadcasters global news
>of human rights and sustainable development?
>
>Now there is to be an innovative new service that aims to meet all
>these needs.  The OneWorld supersite, the world's leading website on
>human rights and development issues, has now developed the OneWorld
>Radio News Service - and it is free to Southern broadcasters.
>
>Says OneWorld's editor, Anuradha Vittachi: "To radio's advantages as
>a mass medium, we are adding the Internet's outreach and flexibility
>- in order to put the debate about global justice firmly on the
>world's agenda."
>
>THE ONEWORLD RADIO NEWS SERVICE
>
>The pilot project will enable radio broadcasters worldwide to
>download from the Internet - and then re-broadcast from their local
>radio station - sound clips containing important human rights and
>development news.  The information is intended to flow both ways:
>radio stations from the South that join the Radio News Service will
>be contributing material as well as receiving it. So direct
>South-South information exchange could become quick and easy.
>
>The one year pilot project  is being launched in April 1997 by
>OneWorld Online (the Internet arm of the One World Broadcasting
>Trust) with help from the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association.
>
>
>WELCOME FROM BROADCASTERS
>
>The Radio News Service has already had a warm welcome from
>international broadcasters.  Govin Reddy, Chief Executive of Radio at
>the South African Broadcasting Association has expressed to COMBROAD
>his interest in checking out the project's potential for SABC.
>
>Jonathan Marks, Director of Programmes at Radio Netherlands, went
>further, emphasising the need for alternative global news networks:
>"It's a very important development.  Media coverage of an event is
>too often based on whether CNN or other big networks are covering it
>- if they're not, then the story is often dismissed as being of no
>news value.  If the creation of this OneWorld Radio News Service
>means that programme-makers around the world have greater access to
>relevant environmental or human rights stories from places where
>there isn't a camera, and use this opportunity, then it's fulfilling
>a vital need."
>
>OneWorld and the CBA are eager to involve community radio
>broadcasters from the very beginning of the project.  They hope to
>give support to existing radio partnership networks, like Pulsar in
>Latin America.
>
>"We are working on a number of projects including a pilot service
>providing radio spots and announcements on HIV and AIDS," says Steve
>Buckley, Vice-President of the World Association of Community Radio
>Broadcasters (AMARC) and Director of the national Community Radio
>Association in the United Kingdom.  "We are keen to work in
>partnership with other organisations such as OneWorld who could
>develop the use of radio for broadcasting information on social and
>developmental issues."
>
>HOW IT WORKS
>
>OneWorld has set up a Web site - globally accessible through the
>Internet - where radio broadcasters can browse through audio news and
>features and choose which items they would like to re-broadcast on
>their stations. There are no copyright restrictions (bar a
>requirement to attribute the source).
>
>After logging into the OneWorld Radio News Service and choosing a
>clip, the broadcaster only has to enter a few short details and a
>password - and hit the 'download' button.  The clip will then
>download to the radio station's computer and be ready for local
>playback.  The clips will play back at very high quality for
>broadcast, which can then be recorded onto tape and programmed into
>the station's output.  To assist broadcasters, OneWorld has made
>available a text summary of each audio clip, a suggested
>introduction, in and out points, and a possible back announcement.
>
>TECHNICAL DETAILS
>
>To transfer quickly across the Internet, digital audio files must be
>massively compressed.  Using RealAudio, this can be achieved with
>only a small loss of local playback quality.  Further, Shockwave
>software allows audio to be 'streamed' in realtime over the Internet,
>for broadcasters to hear previews before downloading clips.  Both
>pieces of software are available free from the Radio News site.
>
>HOW TO JOIN
>
>A pilot project of the Radio News Service is already operational.
>OneWorld would like to hear from any broadcasters interested in
>trying out or helping set up the Radio News Service.  Registration
>can be completed with an online form on the Radio News site:
>http://www.oneworld.org/radio_news/ Alternatively, broadcasters can
>e-mail OneWorld on: justice@oneworld.org  - or fax: 00 1494 481751
>
>News Editor, Mark Lynas
>OneWorld Online
>http://www.oneworld.org/
>http://www.oneworld.org/news/
>
>"There is enough on earth for everybody's need, but not for
>everybody's greed" - M. K. Gandhi


___________________________________________________
Bruce Girard
Agencia Informativa Pulsar
Email: bgirard@pulsar.org.ec
http://www.web.net/amarc/pulsar.html
Fono/Fax: +593-2-226648
Fax en Montreal, Canada: +1-514-221-2009
Av. America 3584, Casilla 17-08-8489, Quito, Ecuador