广播网络起波澜（双语）

AS A child growing up in Afghanistan, Saad Mohseni watched his father listening to the BBC World Service and Voice of America: they were almost the only way of obtaining reliable domestic, let alone foreign news. No longer. Last month Mr Mohseni launched a satellite news channel broadcasting round the clock in Dari and Pashto. He hopes to distribute it on terrestrial television soon. Such upstarts are one reason Western governments are losing their voices in the places where they most want to be heard.

作为一个在阿富汗长大的孩子，萨阿德·穆赫辛尼经常看到他父亲收听BBC世界广播和美国之音：就连可靠的国内新闻都只能从这种渠道获得，更不用说国际新闻了。现在不一样了。穆赫辛尼建立了一家卫星新闻频道，用达里语和普什图语24小时播放。他希望尽快在无线电视上播放。这些后起者让西方政府在最不希望的地方失去了话语权。

The cold war was the state-backed broadcasters’ heyday, with big budgets for propaganda wars about the virtues and vices of capitalism and communism. Powerful short-wave transmissions required costly kit; getting hold of the frequencies required international arm-twisting. It was a game for big and rich countries only. Peter Horrocks, head of BBC Global News, recalls “a comfortable world”.

国家拨款的媒体如鱼得水的时期是在冷战，资本主义和共产主义，善和恶的宣传战争无休无止，赢得了大笔的预算。强力的短波信号需要昂贵的设备；争夺频段则免不了国际角力。这是大国的游戏。BBC全球新闻的主管彼得·霍罗克斯回忆道，那是个“惬意的世界”。

New technology has cut costs and demolished most barriers to entry. Wavebands matter less than bandwidth. Even for those unable to watch or listen on the internet, satellite dishes and fibre-optic cable are hugely expanding the choice of programmes.

新技术缩减了经费，也消除了大多数壁垒。波段不再重要，取而代之的是带宽。即使对那些不能应用因特网的人来说，卫星天线和光纤电缆也是收看节目非常好的选择。

Incumbents are struggling. In the past year the BBC World Service lost 8m viewers and listeners. Of the six American taxpayer-financed broadcasters that measure their reach, five see a decline. That poor performance came when budgets were generous. Now they will be flat or falling.

领导们十分头疼。过去一年里BBC世界广播失去了8百万观众和听众。6家美国国有电视台统计了自己的受众，其中5家出现了衰退。这还是在预算充足时的表现。以后预算只会持平或下降。

One problem is vulnerability to local politics. For all the costs and crackle, short-wave usually got through: trying to jam the broadcasts (a favoured Soviet tactic) was conspicuous and therefore embarrassing. The modern version of that is blocking websites: a clumsy tactic resorted to by China and Iran. But the shift to rebroadcasting on local FM channels exposes foreign broadcasters (and the stations who carry them) to more subtle pressure. In 2003 Voice of America’s Russian service was carried by 85 domestic radio stations; it is now carried by just one. The BBC Arabic service’s local broadcasts in northern Sudan were shut down on August 9th.

一大问题是当地政治的影响。虽然成本颇高，音质不佳，但短波节目难以屏蔽：阻塞广播（苏联喜欢的手段）过于明显，容易引起尴尬。这种手段的现代版是屏蔽网站：中国和伊朗采取的拙劣伎俩。但通过本地FM电台转播，也使得外国广播者（和当地转播的电台）面对着无形的压力。2003年美国之音俄语版被85家当地电台转播；如今仅余一家。8月9日，BBC阿拉伯广播的北苏丹电台也全部停播。

The din of voices
广播的喧嚣

The old international broadcasters have the resources to deal with censorship: the cocktail of satellite, short-wave, internet and local FM broadcasts offers a powerful mix of solutions. If reporters are banned from a country, big outfits can turn to clandestine or surrogate newsgathering.

老牌国际电台有对付审核制度的办法：利用卫星，短波，网络和当地FM电台的组合拳，总能有效解决。要是记者在某个国家被查禁，整个团队会改为秘密采集新闻或利用代理人。

A bigger problem for them is competition. Since 2006 China, France, Iran, Japan and Qatar have launched English-language TV news channels. China has committed $7 billion to international news. That is more than 15 times the annual budget of the BBC World Service. Last month it introduced a second English-language news channel, CNC World. China’s international broadcasters have programming in more tongues than any other state-backed rival.

更大的麻烦是竞争。自2006年起，中国，法国，伊朗，日本和卡塔尔都设立了英文电视新闻频道。中国在国际新闻上投入了70亿美元。这超出了BBC世界广播年预算的15倍。上个月它开设了第二个英语新闻频道，中国新华新闻电视网英语电视台(CNC WORLD)。中国的国际广播的语种数量，比其他任何国家的国有广播电台都多。

短波频道数量对比

The new arrivals are conquering territory (and sometimes hiring staff) shed by established Western organisations. Short-wave radio is a signal example. Since 2000 Voice of America has cut the number of short-wave frequencies on which it broadcasts by 24%, to 200. The BBC has abandoned short-wave broadcasts to Latin America, North America and most of Europe, to the chagrin and despair of some loyal listeners. In the same period China Radio International has almost doubled its short-wave output (see chart). It even broadcasts from Texas. Meanwhile the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees Voice of America, proposes to abolish the last of its short-wave transmitters in the United States.

新来者正在征服西方老牌组织失去的领土（有时候也雇佣它们的员工）。短波电台就是一个范例。2000年以来，美国之音削减了其24%的短波频段，仅余200个。BBC甚至放弃了对拉丁美洲，北美洲和大部分欧洲的短波广播，让忠实听众伤心欲绝。与此同时，中国国际广播公司的短波数量几乎翻倍（见图表）。甚至在德克萨斯州都有广播。其间，监管美国之音的广播理事会甚至提议放弃其在美国的最后一个短波电台。

Gobbling up short-wave audiences gains mostly older, poorer and more rural listeners. But the big battle is for urban opinion-formers, who consume their media chiefly by satellite and the internet. Here the most impressive new entrant is Al Jazeera, which is supported by the Emir of Qatar. Its well-established Arabic service dominates the Middle East, easily fending off competition from state-backed Western rivals. Last week a poll of six countries for the Brookings Institution, a think-tank, found that 39% of viewers watched it more than any other international news network. Just 1% of viewers favour Alhurra, America’s well-funded Arabic channel.

合并短波广播听众，主要是迎合年长且贫穷的乡村听众。但主战场是城市的意见领导者，他们的舆论获取主要通过卫星电视和互联网。最引人瞩目的新来者是卡塔尔埃米尔赞助的半岛电视台。其成熟的阿拉伯语广播主宰着中东地区，轻易击败西方国有广播的竞争。上周，智囊团布鲁金学会在6个国家范围内的一次调查显示，39%的观众看半岛电视台超过所有其他国际新闻广播公司。只有1%的观众喜欢资金充裕的美国阿拉伯语电视台自由。

Tony Burman, who runs Al Jazeera’s three-year-old English-language network, says the broadcaster plans to open 10 news bureaus in the next year, taking the number to about 80. Some will be small—but digital cameras mean a small office can achieve a lot. He is particularly keen to expand in Africa: Al Jazeera has poured resources into covering tough countries like Zimbabwe. The brand is already established in Asia. Barely five years after George W. Bush considered (supposedly) an attack on its offices, Al-Jazeera’s English service is the channel of choice on American military television sets in Afghanistan.

托尼·贝尔曼经营着成立了三年的半岛电视台英文广播网络，他说广播公司将在明年增设10个办事处，使总数达到80个。有些是小型办事处——但装备有数码摄像机的小型办公室可不容小觑。贝尔曼尤其热衷在非洲的经营：半岛电视台投入了大量资源来报道取材难度较大的国家，比如津巴布韦。亚洲已经开设了分公司。乔治·W·布什甚至曾考虑过（据称）袭击其办公室，仅仅时隔五年，美国阿富汗驻军的军用电视机上收看的都是半岛电视台英文节目。

The competition comes from little battalions too, thanks to the explosive growth of broadcasting outlets in poor countries, particularly in Africa. Before 1990 Kenya had just one, state-owned, television station. It now has 20 television broadcasters and 80 licensed radio stations playing everything from rap to Christian sermons. Whereas once the BBC news was the highlight of the day, it must now compete with a din of other offerings.

远在穷乡僻壤，竞争也日趋激烈，这主要是因为在贫穷国家，特别是非洲的广播市场的爆炸式增长。1990年以前，肯尼亚只有一家电视台，而且是国有的。如今，它拥有20家电视台和80个有执照的广播电台，内容繁多，从基督教布道到饶舌音乐，应有尽有。曾经唯我独尊的BBC新闻，如今也只能和无数其他内容竞争了。

Online programming strengthens the trend. Where broadcasters once pushed programmes expensively, with multiple repeats and big worries about audibility and accessibility, they now have a model based on people pulling the material they want from a website. It is cheaper, easier to reach scattered audiences and can get round local political difficulties. Voice of America’s Russian service may have been virtually driven off the airwaves there, but 2.3m of its videos were watched on YouTube in May, according to the Senate foreign-relations committee. Once a programme or clip finds popularity in the blogosphere, the broadcaster can sit back and watch traffic spike.

网络节目也推波助澜。从前广播节目只能昂贵地多次重复播出，还要担心听众会听不懂或听不到，而现在的经营模式中，听众可以在网站上各取所需。如此可以更廉价方便地触及分散的受众，而且不会因当地政策而为难。虽然美国之音俄语版可能在俄罗斯销声匿迹了，但根据参议院外交关系委员会的数据，5月份其视频在YouTube上的访问量高达230万。一旦哪段视频在博客圈里流行起来，广播商就可以坐等其流量疯长。

That is no substitute for the old days, though. Voice of America’s reach in Russia has declined as it disappeared from the radio, says Dan Austin, who runs the service. Internet audiences (at least so far) are busier and more hurried: they don’t lean back and enjoy the broadcast, but hunch forward, eager to click on the next link. In poor countries, internet use is still patchy. The penetration rate in Kenya is just 10%.

即便如此，也难振昔日雄风。美国之音俄语版的主管丹·奥斯汀说，由于无法在收音机上收听美国之音，他们的俄罗斯听众有所减少。因特网听众（至少现在是这样）总是匆匆忙忙的：他们不会好整以暇地享受广播，而是急不可耐地想要去看别的内容。在贫穷国家，互联网还是稀罕物。肯尼亚的市场渗透率只有10%。

Faced with these trends, Erik Bettermann, the head of Deutsche Welle, has largely given up trying to reach large numbers of people in the developing world, in favour of concentrating on informed urban elites. His aim is to make the German station a yardstick against which other news reports can be checked: not so much a loud voice as a dependable one.

面对这些趋势，德国之声主管埃里克·贝特曼已经基本放弃了面对发展中国家的大批人口，而开始针对城市中的知识分子。他希望树立新闻界的新标准：但求报道可靠，不求听众众多。更多信息请访问：http://www.24en.com/

As competition and cacophony intensify, this less heroic vision of international broadcasting may point the way for others. But those technological and consumer trends also make the international broadcasters’ privileged finances look (at least in the private sector’s eyes) increasingly unfair. In Afghanistan the three biggest national radio stations are run by the BBC World Service, Voice of America and Radio Free Afghanistan (which is also American). Mr Mohseni, who runs radio and television stations, complains that the outsiders lure his staff with higher salaries and visas to the West. As international broadcasters turn to popular music and soap operas to retain their audiences, such gripes will grow louder. Having long trumpeted the cause of freedom, the big Western broadcasters must now learn to live with its consequences.

随着竞争加剧，市场纷乱，这种低调的标准或许能给国际广播界开辟一条新路。但财大气粗的国际广播公司更能轻易地拉拢技术和消费者，也让人（至少是私人企业）感到颇为不公。在阿富汗，最大的三家广播电台由BBC世界广播，美国之音和阿富汗自由电台（也是美国公司）运营。经营广播和电视台的穆赫辛尼抱怨道，外国公司用高薪和西方签证挖他的墙角。当国际广播公司只有用流行音乐和肥皂剧才能留住听众时，这些抱怨会更强烈。长期鼓吹自由事业的西方广播公司，如今也要跟着付出自由的代价。