 | Issue: | Latin America IV 1997 |
| Article no.: | 6 | |
| Topic: | German Media Presence in Latin America through Deutsche Welle Radio and TV | |
| Author: | Dr. Hildegard Stausberg | |
| Title: | Editor-in-Chief Foreign Language Services | |
| Organisation: | Deutsche Welle | |
| PDF size: | 16KB |
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Article abstract
Brazil is an example of the important role which Deutsche Welle, Germany’s international broadcaster plays in Latin America. German emigrants and their descendants not only live in Brazil in large numbers, but throughout Latin America. Since the beginning of the 1990s, the Latin American audience has switched from short-wave to satellite radio and TV in ever greater numbers. With the first-class reception of the satellite transmissions and the high information value of the programming, they opened up the possibility of re-broadcasting and the expanding German media presence.
Full Article
The second largest October Festival of the world took place in Brazil. In Blumenau, German tradition is alive and well. With a population of more than three million, Germans constitute one of the largest immigrant groups in southern Brazil. German is still a commonly used language in many districts. In some regions, one can even hit upon dialects which are hardly ever spoken in Germany, or, when mixed with a kind of ‘Germanized’ Portuguese, have never before existed. This, too, could explain Deutsche Welle’s huge success in Brazil. Brazil is an example of the important role which Germany’s international broadcaster plays in America south of the Rio Grande. German emigrants and their descendants not only live in Brazil in large numbers, but throughout Latin America. The possibility of watching a German television station on a daily basis is being intensively exploited by millions of German-speaking Latin Americans. Since the beginning of the 1990s, the Latin American audience has switched from short-wave to satellite radio and TV in ever greater numbers. With just one dish it is possible not only to watch television programmes, but also to listen, with excellent sound quality and without the shortcomings of short-wave, to the Deutsche Welle radio programmes that have been appreciated by many listeners for decades. However, the German-speaking population makes up only a relatively small percentage of Latin America. Other Latin Americans are also reached by Deutsche Welle. There are television broadcasts in Spanish and English via satellite or cable, and there are satellite and short-wave radio programmes in Brazilian, Portuguese and in Spanish. Since the end of the 1950s, Deutsche Welle has been transmitting radio broadcasts to Latin America. Deutsche Welle’s Brazilian and Spanish editorial teams in Cologne produce an extensive daily radio programme for listeners in Latin America. Deutsche Welle transmits more than 16 hours of Brazilian Portuguese and more than 35 hours of Spanish via three satellites: INTELSAT-K, GE-l and the recently launched PANAMSAT-3. In addition, the above-mentioned radio programmes are also transmitted via short-wave. Since the early days, cooperation with local radio stations in Latin America has been a priority for Germany’s international broadcaster. The first-class reception of the satellite transmissions, begun at the end of 1992, and the high information value of the programming opened up the possibility of so-called re-broadcasting. Deutsche Welle cooperates with local broadcasters who carry parts of DW-radio in their own programmes. Some 25 Latin American journalists work in Cologne, supported by freelance correspondents in Germany and abroad, to produce Deutsche Welle’s Brazilian and Spanish radio programmes. In Brazil alone, Deutsche Welle presently has re-broadcasting contracts with 12 partners. Some of these are large ‘networks’ with radio stations throughout the country, so programming from Cologne also reaches the regular listeners of more than 180 local affiliates in Brazil. The new satellite link PANAMSAT-3 should further increase the number of Brazilian partner stations in the near future. Deutsche Welle’s Spanish radio programme has a long and fruitful history of cooperation in Latin America. Short-wave Spanish-language broadcasts to this region were one of the first Deutsche Welle foreign-language services, started back in 1954. Cooperation with broadcasters in the Spanish-speaking countries of the area began 10 years later in the form of mailed productions of Deutsche Welle’s so-called ‘transcription service’. More than 150 stations have since then regularly received tapes with cultural and music stories in Spanish. Both the topical information broadcasts, which have also been transmitted via satellite since 1992, and the transcription programmes are now exclusively transmitted via satellite and in VHF quality. The only exception is stereo music programmes which will continue to be sent by mail, although now as CDs rather than tapes. This means that the old and new partner stations of Deutsche Welle which are still without satellite reception are now upgrading their technology. The Latin American service for Spanish programmes at present ‘feeds’ 38 re-broadcasters, with a new partner joining almost weekly. Conclusion In many countries, the live ‘Buenos Dias, America!’ is already retransmitted simultaneously on a daily basis. In Mexico, for example, a leading private radio network airs the programme before their main broadcast from Monday to Friday, both in the capital as well as in other important inland communities.
