WASHINGTON – David Ensor, Director of the Voice of America (VOA), lead the discussion at the first of a series of CCLP monthly lunch forums on October 1, 2012. The forum focused on discussing coverage of the 2012 election by U.S. international broadcasting.
Ensor presented a handful of the sixty produced VOA web sites, including election coverage, and he described “20 to 30” live shots produced each day. According to Ensor, the resources required to produce convention coverage this year alone cost $800,000.
Anticipating coverage for the first presidential debate on Wednesday, October, 3 VOA will offer several cross platform broadcasting outlets for the public to access. “Some VOA channels will carry it live,” Ensor said, “while VOA Latin America will tweet live throughout the event.”
Rana Abtar, a reporter for Al Hurra TV, and Siamak Dehghanpour, a reporter for VOA Persian News, were also at the event describing their networks’ election coverage strategies.
Turning to cultural programming, Ensor described two new weekly music series he ordered for VOA television. The first will focus on jazz performances recorded in Washington DC clubs, and the second will feature a “tremendous variety of different kinds of American music,” also recorded on location in Washington.
The monthly series will be presented here on the first Monday of each month, in partnership with the USC Center on Public Diplomacy and the Public Diplomacy Council.