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BBG Creates a Unified News Portal
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Some people believe that the U.S. international broadcast
organizations like VOA, Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcast Networks should
be managed in a more unified way.
Here’s a development
that, though smaller in scope, seems to tend in that direction. The Broadcasting
Board of Governors has launched a site that pulls together news from five
separate broadcast entities and lets users filter content by checking boxes for
regions, networks and media.
It’s calling the initiative
the Global News Dashboard.
“This site showcases
the depth and reach of the high-quality journalism that the BBG produces,” Richard
M. Lobo was quoted saying in the announcement. He’s director of the BBG’s International
Broadcasting Bureau.
“There are millions of
English-speakers worldwide who get their news from the individual websites of
our broadcasters. It makes sense to pool our resources and put them to
work to serve our audiences even better.” BBG quoted another official, Robert
Bole, director of its Office of Digital and Design Innovation, saying the move “makes
a powerful statement about this agency and the way we do business. We’re
so much greater than just the sum of our parts.”
According to BBG, the site pulls
together news from some 50 bureaus, production centers and offices supported by
staff journalists and 1,500 stringers. English-language content will come from
Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia. The dashboard
also will link to Spanish-language content of Radio/TV Martí as well as the
Arabic-language online offerings of the MEBN.
The
site runs on the Pangea content management system.
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