III.IV: Locality
Go Local in Content and Presence Other Information:
Paradoxically, for us to be successful as international broadcasters, we must be local in orientation and sound. Broadcasting
from 10,000 miles away inevitably sounds like it and turns listeners off. Radio Sawa is BBG's first effort to reflect this
at the truly local (not national) level. The fully developed MERN will have a unique format of locally targeted programming
streams together with a pan-Arabic stream. It will serve as a model for regional broadcasts in the future.· In the local stream,
we will focus on local news, issues, and problems. At the same time, we have to sound local, which means employing on-air
talent speaking local dialects. The more local we are overall, the more the audience will see us as their own.· We will also
establish a physical presence in the area. Local and regional news bureaus and program centers will drive the news gathering
and reporting and specialized programming development and facilitate recruitment of language-qualified talent. Clearly we
cannot afford to take this approach for every one of our broadcast languages. But to the degree we can apply them, these principles
will help shape our broadcast policies everywhere.
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