By Mitchell Polman With Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking tools coming to the fore as public diplomacy tools, you might be surprised to know that a relatively old-fashioned technology – text messaging – is a favored vehicle for outreach from the Voice of America.  VOA has been expanding the use of SMS technology to deliver news and information to its audience worldwide.  The growing use of mobile phone technology in developing countries, especially in Africa, has made it possible for VOA to reach people directly.  VOA is using SMS to deliver public health information, monitor elections, and alert people to breaking news. In some cases, SMS technology can even help VOA interact with foreign citizens on events as they are happening.  In Zimbabwe, for example, VOA used funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to launch an SMS service prior to Zimbabwe's elections.  VOA provided news bulletins twice a day.  But the relationship with listeners was not a one-way street:  Zimbabweans replied via text message with tips and information on the elections.  Within two weeks time the service had 20,000 subscribers and was heading towards 50,000 subscribers

When the Soviet Union broke up, we said we had won the Cold War; when Russia moved in an authoritarian direction the question was "Who Lost Russia?" as if Russia were ours to lose.  Too often in America we assume that the world revolves around us, around our reactions to world ...

Third article in our series “The Face of America Abroad” By Mitchell Polman Washington, June 3 -- Two former employees of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) recently sent to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder a petition alleging unfair labor practices at the U.S.-supported radio and information service.  The petition is the latest salvo in an ongoing labor dispute that is causing international embarrassment for a venerable institution of America's public diplomacy.  It is also causing some headaches for the Obama Administration and especially for Secretary of State Clinton, whom the plaintiffs at one point petitioned to appear before the court in her capacity as a member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), RFE/RL's parent agency. The former employees of RFE/RL, Snježana Pelivan of the Croatian service, and Anna Karapetian of the Armenian service, are suing RFE/RL and the BBG in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg over the radios' employment practices.  The Croatian and Armenian governments are supporting their lawsuits.

An Understanding Government report

Second in our series "The Face of America Abroad"

By Mitchell Polman Washington, D.C. -- Since it was founded in 1942, the Voice of America has been just that – a radio voice for the American perspective on the issues of the day and a prime source of information about American society for its overseas audiences. VOA has also brought educational programs to overseas audiences on such issues as public health and business skills. In recent years, however, the broadcasting service has experienced staff cuts, service reductions, and politically-charged controversies.

At the center of the storm has been the Broadcasting Board of Governors, or BBG, which oversees U.S. government-funded media outlets.  And these problems have arisen while – largely through emergency supplemental appropriations from Congress in the past couple of years – the Broadcasting Board of Governors has seen its budget actually increase. Critics say that the BBG has skewed priorities and has spent money that could have gone to its broadcasting services on wasteful administrative overhead and public relations efforts.

You don't want the people telling America's story to the world to hate their place of work (that would be the U.S. government).  Unfortunately, the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which oversees the Voice of America, Al-Hurra television, and numerous other overseas broadcasting and Internet outlets is the least popular ...

Can we talk?  I'm not sure we can anymore -- at least when it comes to telling our global rivals and allies and their citizens about America.  The latest sign that our government doesn't care about telling America's story to the world is the dismal performance of taxpayer-funded Al Hurra, the Arabic-language TV channel created to help the world's 250 million Arabic speakers better understand America.

David Trachtenberg writes in the Christian Science Monitor about Voice of America's dull and often opinion-free editorials.  He says VOA and its parent organization, the Broadcasting Board of Governors, are missing an opportunity to help foreigners recognize America's nuances and appreciate our internal policy debates.  Read his opinion piece ...

The heads of America’s Arabic-language television service, Al Hurra, do not speak Arabic.  The network is in the news because it has broadcast, unedited, the speeches and interviews of extremists from Hamas and Hezbollah.  According to Helene Cooper’s report in the New York Times, one network executive “testified that network officials ...

Did you know that the folks at the Voice of America developed "Special English," a 1,500-word English language glossary designed to help familiarize non-English speakers with our language?

The New York Times has an interesting article (31 July 2006) explaining still more of the good work being done in the Executive ...