 | Issue: | Latin America I 1997 |
| Article no.: | 5 | |
| Topic: | Deutsche Welle – Partner of the World | |
| Author: | Dieter Weirich | |
| Title: | Director General | |
| Organisation: | Deutsche Welle, Germany | |
| PDF size: | 56KB |
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Article abstract
Deutsche Welle offers an extensive and informative online-service, such as the use of the Internet to disseminate news. With the use of a teletext decoder connected to a personal computer, information on Deutsche Welle can be received world wide, using the same medium that carries its TV picture. This puts Germany’s international broadcaster in good stead to fulfil its objective in the 21st century as well as maintaining the traditional broadcasting methods.
Full Article
Whether in Spanish, Portuguese, English or German, Deutsche Welle (DW) is available on the Internet in a wide range of languages. Germany’s international broadcasting service can be accessed on the world wide web at the address: ”http://www.dwelle.de”. Here, Net surfers can access on-line information on DW-tv and DW-radio programmes and their producers, news and background reports in the form of texts or as audio-files. The German version of DW-radio can be heard live around the clock on the Internet, or it can be accessed as ‘radio-on-demand’. The news is updated every hour and supplemented by background reports and analyses, comments and press reviews. There are reports on current developments in the world of business and finance, with a coverage of German stock markets. DW is the first German broadcaster to disseminate news from Germany and the world in foreign languages on the Internet. DW-online presents topical information in the form of texts in more than a dozen languages, as well as ‘real-audio-files’ of 30 to 50 minutes in length. With this, DW offers the most extensive and informative online-service of all the international broadcasters. And this service is constantly being improved and extended, constituting a forum for all those in the world who are interested in Germany. Data channel DW-direct DW’s latest on-line innovation is the data channel DW-direct in connection with ‘Net on Air’, a programme compiled by editors from the vast range of Internet pages. Based on the teletext technique, data packages along with texts, graphics, pictures, sounds etc. are transmitted via the vertical video blanking interval of DW’s TV programme. With the help of a teletext decoder, which is connected to a personal computer, information on Deutsche Welle can be received worldwide using this method. The biggest advantage of this medium is that the information can be simultaneously transmitted along with the signal that carries DW’s TV picture. With this exstensive package, Germany’s international broadcaster has met the many requirements that are necessary to fulfil its objective in the 21st century as well as maintaining the traditional broadcasting methods. “Germany’s Voice in the World” Under the terms of its charter, DW has the task of conveying in its radio and television programmes – in German and many other languages – a comprehensive picture of political, cultural and economic life in Germany to foreign audiences abroad. It must give an objective coverage of world events and convey the reactions of the public and of major state and social institutions in Germany to these events. DW therefore greatly contributes to projecting an image of the Federal Republic to foreign audiences abroad. Its significance as “Germany’s voice in the world” has increased with Germany’s reunification. Director General Dieter Weirich’s credo: “The nation in the heart of Europe, which has much to give to the world in way of exports and culture, needs an adequate representation abroad.” For all people around the world who take an interest in Germany, DW serves as an important information provider with many extras. Germans living abroad temporarily or permanently are another major target group. Founded in 1953, DW is one of the five largest world broadcasting services in existence along with the BBC, Voice of America, Radio Moscow and Radio China International. To keep it competitive on the international communication markets into the 21st century, DW invests in state-of-the-art information and communication technologies. Topical World Television as a Second Tier Through its programme philosophy and self-image, DW is particularly attached to the so-called (still) underdeveloped countries of the world. For that reason, Germany’s external broadcaster will secure its global reach for the coming decades by using “traditional broadcasting methods”. DW-radio transmits programmes in German and 38 other languages to all regions of the world through propagation methods such as satellite, short and medium wave or through re-broadcasting via local VHF stations. With a small portable world receiver, DW-radio can be received in almost every comer of the globe. DW-radio broadcasts daily 270 minutes of programmes in Spanish and 115 minutes in Portuguese for the Latin American continent alone. Television has become DW’s second tier since 1992. DW-TV meanwhile broadcasts 13 hours in German, nine hours in English and two hours in Spanish. News, magazine programmes and documentaries are at the core of the information-oriented programme which can be viewed on all continents through direct-to-home reception via a globe-spanning network of satellites or with the help of local re-broadcasting partners. Several hundred television stations and cable operators around the world have signed re-broadcasting agreements and relay DW-TV’s satellite programme whole or in part. Programmes are also fed into more than 120,000 hotel bedrooms through the in-house satellite systems of hotel chains. The multi-cultural character of DW contributes to lively and colourful programmes. With some 1,800 staff from 75 nations at the broadcasting centre in Cologne and at the Berlin location, DW represents a microcosm of its own. The fact that two thirds of the DW journalists are non-German is a big advantage for viewers and listeners of the 38 language programmes in particular, as they see our country from a different angle to the German journalists. In accordance with its statutes, DW is available worldwide. The Asia/Pacific region, for instance, is of special importance to Germany’s international broadcasting service. Since 1996, DW-TV and DW-radio can be received by digitally compressed transmission quality via the ASIASAT 2 satellite. Conclusion More than three billion people live in this politically and economically booming region – representing almost two thirds of the world’s population. Africa, too, frequently forgotten by the media, is being served by the digital INTELSAT 707 satellite. Along with the EUTELSAT II-Fl, INTELSAT-K and SATCOM C-4 satellites, DW-TV and DW-radio can be received in almost every comer of the globe.
