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In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act - George Orwell

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CHINA - Tiananmen Square 1989

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A few things recorded in AFGHANISTAN in 2005

AFGHAN MUSIC

A POEM in Persian - Dari

JINGLE for RADIO NAWA

another RADIO NAWA Jingle

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In June 2004 I spent a month with RADIO KILID ( Radio KEY ) a local station in Kabul.

Any kind of "free" media is still very very new in Afghanistan and Radio Kilid has been on air since August 2003. When I arrived, all of their programmes were pre recorded and you could rightly describe them as 'amateurs" They had no idea whatsoever how to make what "we" would call "Programmes" The whole thing was simply Windows Media Player playing a stream of un connected sounds. Much of the broadcasting they had in the past in Afghanistan was designed and built by the Russians. I have seen, and worked for YEARS in MANY such stations from Serbia and Mongolia to China and Vietnam and the similarities in 'attude' of the staff who sit behind microphones in these places is astounding.

When I left Radio Kilid all of their programmes were LIVE, bright and cheerful, and the staff had learned many things. They are a great bunch of people and I wish them and their audience well.

Take a listen to some of what we produced while I was with them........

In the - British - summer of 2001 and 2003 I helped with production of WORKERS WORLD - what a quaint old fashioned name!!!! The programme was made in 5 different languages and was broadcast on about 50 Radio Stations across the country.

Next its a promo made in 2001 to promote a Racism conference. This is in THREE languages, Xhosa, Afrikaans and English.

Another training exercise and I hope a lesson learned.

However serious the sublect matter, it is - in my opinion - so important to remember that above whatever ideas we may have about 'professionalism' or 'journalism' we are all first and foremost human beings.

The object of the exercise in the making of an item to be broadcast is to COMMUNICATE something.

The listener is...... human...... the broadcaster too is also human.

It surely makes for better communication if the listener identifies with and trusts the voice that is presenting the programme.

This is a rescued disaster from a feature that MOI one of the Workers World journalists was trying to make.

Poor Moi was depressed that she was having no luck in finding someone to talk to for her feature and she thought that the feature was unusable.

How wrong she was!!!!

We turned the FACT that the people she wanted to talk to were impossible to contact into a piece of radio that was FUNNY but also illustrated a common problem faced by journalists.

This feature also illustrates something else. That it is important for a journalist to be confident enough to be honest with the listener. IF you are having a problem making something TELL THE AUDIENCE. This is the way that TRUST is built. ESPECIALLY in a society where the population do not trust or believe the media.

So........ this is Moi........ having a bad day.......

Next its a production training exercise from Botswana. Its often hard to explain what we mean by "Production" In most of the projects I work with there is a MESSAGE to communicate. In Botwsana the object is to help cut the AIDS infection rate and in Kosovo and Afghanistan it is to promote democracy. It is simply not enough to sit in a studio and tell people to wear condoms or to vote. The message MUST be tailored to the audience and the 'sound' must be attractive and 'communicate' the messaage.

There are obviously a great many ways to do this. It is important to understand both the local mentality and the local broadcasting environment. If the radio dial is filled with pop music as is the case in most countries then what you make must "fit" with what people listen to and identify with in their everyday lives.

It seems that in most of the work I do, I am working in languages I cannot speak and am in societies where - due to many years of "control' - the population do not believe or TRUST the local media.

This is a training exercise in which I was trying to show how sound can be made more colourful.

The girl I was training had written a poem so we recorded it.

Is it making the most effective SOUND to simply speak the written words into a microphone?

Can we make the SOUND more attractive?

As mentioned above 'production" is important but NO production can be effective if there is no real CONTENT.

This item was NOT broadcast and was simply made to try and illustrate the role of a journalist.

In this item we hear a South African Government Minister and a Trade Union leader talking about NEPAD - The New Partnership For African Development. This is a very important agreement between Africa countries that HOPES to enable them to work together more effectively. We also hear some ordinary people on the street.

The "journalist' had interviewed the articulate and passionate Government Minister and the equally articulate but rather cynical Trade Union Leader.

BUT......... was what they SAID "understandable" to the ordinary person in the street?

It is surely the role of the 'journalist" to understand the ORDINARY person in the street and ask the kind of questions that THEY would ask.

THAT is what BROAD casting IS.

If the journalist does NOT do that and simply lets both sides say what they want to say then what has been produced may well sound slick and professional but....... it all goes way over the heads of the ordinary members of the population and NOTHING has been....... 'communicated"

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. Those to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder, and stand rapt in awe, are as good as dead. Their eyes - and EARS - are closed. Albert Einstein.