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MillimeterAn Enduring Voice
Mar 1, 2003 12:00 PM, By Cody Holt
By training their radio reporters how to use video cameras, Voice of America is broadcasting television news programs all over the world.
 Using Sony’s DSR-PD150, Greg Flakus, Voice of America’s bureau chief in Mexico City, tapes an interview with a local resident. |
“Here speaks a voice from America. Every day at this time we will bring you the news of the war. The news may be good. The news may be bad. We shall tell you the truth.”
With those words, William Harlan Hale introduced Voice of America to a worldwide radio audience on Feb. 24, 1942, less than three months after the United States entered World War II. Now in its 62nd year of broadcasting, VOA continues today in its tradition of balancing its aims of presenting the policies of the U.S. government to the world and serving as an accurate and objective source of news.
Ironically, the Voice of America is silent in its homeland because of the 1948 Smith-Mundt Act, which prohibits VOA from broadcasting in the U.S. Nevertheless, with a worldwide audience of 94 million people and broadcasts in 53 languages, VOA is perhaps more important than ever as the U.S. confronts another adversary in the face of growing anti-American sentiment around the globe.
“It's a critical time for VOA, just as it was during the Cold War,” says Thaddeus Pennas, health programs coordinator in VOA's office of development. “We grow more important all the time, particularly because the vast majority of the world lacks free access to news and information. Because of our ability to broadcast directly [via satellite], VOA serves as a vital lifeline to many parts of the world.”
From its headquarters in Washington, D.C., VOA broadcasts 1,000 hours of news, information, and educational and cultural programming each week. The majority of VOA's broadcasts are radio transmissions, however, in the mid-1990s VOA began producing television programs. Today it feeds a variety of news, feature magazines, and live call-in shows via satellite in 14 languages.
Rather than hire camera operators, VOA relies on its radio reporters to shoot footage for its video productions. To date, VOA has trained and equipped approximately 35 reporters to shoot video. The reporters carry a MiniDV camera — typically a Sony DSR-PD150 or Canon GL1 — with them on assignment. If the story warrants television coverage, the reporter shoots it, using a tripod for stand-ups. Audio from the MiniDV camera can be used for the radio report.
Robert Bryan, VOA's chief of videotape operations, says VOA's use of radio reporters has allowed the broadcaster to significantly expand its TV operations in the last five years, and says the long-term goal is to have at least 100 MiniDV cameras in the field. “The cameras take pretty good pictures,” Bryan says. “They don't take abuse real well, and you have to be careful the way you mic and light. But you can teach someone to be a fairly competent shooter with a smaller camera. And we could never give out a standard field package to every radio reporter. It would be too expensive.”
Once the video footage is shot, Bryan says the reporters typically mail the MiniDV tapes to VOA's offices at the foot of Capitol Hill. However, he says for breaking news, VOA has the capability to broadcast live via satellite.
After the tapes arrive on the news desk, they are sent to one of 13 edit suites to be cut into a newscast, news magazine, or one of VOA's specialty programs. Bryan manages the edit suites, which include six Avid Media Composer systems, two Avid Xpress 3.5 systems, one Avid Newscutter, and four Ampex ACE 25 linear systems for crash-and-burn editing. He says the edit rooms are busy from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. each weekday, feeding a daily cycle of foreign language newscasts and a weekly cycle of five one-hour and four half-hour news magazines. Once the programs are completed, they are uploaded to a satellite, allowing VOA's 1,300 affiliate stations around the world to access them 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Despite VOA's prohibitions on broad-casting in the U.S., satellite receivers and the Internet have exposed a growing number of American citizens to VOA's radio and television broadcasts. To view some of VOA's television broadcasts, visit www.voa.gov.
Cody Holt is a freelance writer based in the Midwest. Email him at codyholt@kc.rr.com.
