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[HCDX] VOA
3-Minute Interview: Joan Mower
By Michael Neibauer
Examiner Staff Writer 3/19/09
Joan Mower is director of public relations for Voice of America
(voanews.com).
You grew up in Africa. Do you remember hearing VOA?
Those were the days before CNN, before satellite television. Voice of
America and the BBC, Voice of America especially if you were American;
we would almost have a listening club.
Do Americans know about Voice of America?
Not enough. VOA is the largest international broadcasting organization,
and we are supported 100 percent by U.S. taxpayers. We’re a federal
agency. We broadcast in 45 languages to an audience of about 134
million. We are, however, prohibited from broadcasting to the United
States. The only way you can find out about us is the Internet.
Why not broadcast inside the U.S.?
That was a law passed in 1948. There was a concern at the time about the
government propagandizing its own citizens.
How do you gauge listenership?
We have a contract with a research company, and we do research in every
country. We’re all over Africa. We’re all over Asia. We have an audience
of more than 20 million in Indonesia, for example. Eleven percent of the
Pakistanis are either watching us on television [or] listening to us on
the radio, and increasingly we’re seeing our Internet audience grow.
How do you broadcast to closed nations?
Our mission is news and information. In closed radio environments, we
use shortwave and medium-wave radio. In Burma we have quite a large
shortwave audience, as well as in North Korea and Vietnam. In Iran, one
in four adults listens to us or watches us.
VOA offers tours of its D.C. studio?
It’s about 45 minutes. It’s a great way to introduce people to what we
do. It’s a little-known gem in the tour cycle of Washington. We are
taxpayer supported, and we want to let as many people know what we’re
doing. Visit voatour.com.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/people/3-Minute-Interview-Joan-Mower_03_19-41445252.html
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