TRANSCRIPT:
The Voice of America’s main value is to provide a complete news service to countries where such a news service is not available domestically because of censorship or government control of the media. And with the type of news service that VOA traditionally provided to countries such as this, people in those countries were able to make their own decisions, form their own decisions about politics and current events.
I have been listening to international broadcasts on my shortwave radio since I was a teenager in the 1960s, and I’ve heard all types of international broadcasting. I’ve heard the stations that report only the good news about their own countries and the bad news about their adversaries, and it becomes evident right away that this is propaganda disguised as news. From other stations such as the BBC, and to a large extent the Voice of America, and to a greater extent VOA later in the 1980s and 90s, was in contrast to that type of international broadcasting.
When I worked in audience research at the Voice of America, I also found out through hard data that audiences want a credible and balanced and comprehensive news service, and they reject propaganda.
Published
From 1985–2017, Elliott was an audience research analyst and broadcaster at the Voice of America and the Broadcasting Board of Governors. His papers and articles have appeared in Foreign Policy, The New York Times, and numerous specialty broadcasting publications.