Latin America

DW will be opening a correspondents’ office in Bogotá, Colombia in 2018. The new office will add to DW’s reporting across Latin America. The plans were announced during a meeting between DW’s Director General Peter Limbourg and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos. The president praised the quality of DW’s reporting and is looking forward to welcoming DW’s correspondents. With around 14 million TV households, Colombia is DW’s second-largest market in Latin America after Mexico.

Online videos from DW are being posted by Brazilian partner Terra using Facebook’s cross posting function. It is the first time DW content has been used in a cross posting partnership. The cooperation has already registered an increase in total views for DW videos posted on Terra. Terra posts DW videos on its Facebook page and names DW as a source and links to DW websites.

Europe

Following a new partnership, DW’s English-language TV channel will have increased availablity in Scandinavia starting in September 2017. DW’s partner channel, Canal Digital from the Telenor Group, is available to 430,000 households in Norway, 255,000 in Sweden, 46,000 Denmark and 34,000 in Finland. The partnership also puts DW’s English TV channel in many hotels across Scandinavia.

Spiegel TV is carrying DW’s German language programs Euromaxx, Made in Germany, Projekt Zukunft and Reporter on its web TV lineup. The cooperation is expected to be expanded in the near future.

Asia

DW’s articles in English and Hindi are now available on the popular Indian news aggregator app, InShorts. The app features articles shortened to 60 words and has 10 million active users.

DW News is being broadcast once a day during the week on Hong Kong’s free-to-channel ViuTVsix. DW’s English-language channel is also being included in the basic package of Indonesian pay-TV company SMV Freeview. The channel is also being included in the basic package of Hyderabad, Pakistan-based cable station Hyderabad Cable Communication.

Finding new and creative ways to teach the German language is something that DW has focused on heavliy over the last few years, with formats like Jojo sucht das Glück and the new Bandtagebuch. This weekend, DW’s language team will be in Berlin for the the leading language learning convention in Germany, Expolingua.  They will be presenting DW’s award-winning interactive learning tools and will also be presenting the successful learning format, Ticket nach Berlin. The presentation at the convention will introduce the format and its didactic concepts on November 16 at 3 pm. The series is a game show featuring learners of German as they complete different challenges on a trip across Germany.  DW’s language learning services are very popular worldwide. The Facebook page DW-Learn German, has over 230,000 fans and the language course websites get around 6 million clicks every month. Every year around 13,000 people visit Expolingua to check out the 150 displays from 25 countries. Around 50 languages are there to be sampled. If you can make it to the convention, be sure to pay us a visit.

 

Guest commentary

Maja Braun, Coordinating Editor, Programs for Africa

Along with providing global audiences with quality news and information, we think international broadcasters should also be responsible for education, especially on social issues and topics that are a part of what Deutsche Welle stands for, such as democracy, civil rights and intercultural dialogue. And that is why we are always looking for new, innovative ways to make education work in different regions around the world – like, for example, in Africa.

Unlike other regions around the globe that have seen FM, shortwave and AM lose tremendous amounts of users in the last 15 years, radio has remained very important to people in Africa looking for information. It’s a big part of the media landscape and continues to draw listeners week in and week out. We have also seen a huge boom in mobile usage – the number of subscribers has increased by at least 20 percent in each of the last five years.

When we first developed Learning by Ear in 2008, we wanted to give young Africans – even those who cannot read or access the Internet – the opportunity to get information on important issues that would improve their lives immediately and in the future. It was important for listeners to learn, but we also wanted to keep them entertained. That is why we mainly use radio dramas to deliver the message of topics that are not taught in school.  Learning by Ear now plays a big role in the lives of many young people in Africa, offering radio dramas and feature stories on a variety of topics, ranging from political and societal issues to economic, health and environmental issues.

By working with mobile partners in Africa in the last few years, we have also been able to reach out to a new demographic and, hopefully, increase the level of social education among their customers. The unique, audio-based content is split up into individual series and segments – which makes it great for mobile consumption.

After five years and 42 different series with ten episodes each covering everything from health and hygiene to globalization, entrepreneurs and African success stories, we felt it was time for a change. We wanted to improve on the already successful format by providing a narrative that would help these young listeners in their daily lives; a story which accompanies them throughout the year instead of changing the scene every ten weeks.

With Crossroads Generation, we have created a Learning by Ear series which follows four characters as they confront challenges and learn from their mistakes. Listeners can get to know the characters better and will be more invested in what happens to them on the show. The episodes will deal with many issues simultaneously and the storyline will build on itself throughout the season.

The new format will also inspire young listeners to reflect on what they’ve heard and form their own opinions. One episode for example confronts teenage pregnancy and the actress decides to have an abortion. This decision is presented in a non-judgmental manner that allows for listeners to decide where they stand for themselves. There will also be a discussion platform available on Facebook where the audience can voice their ideas and opinions.

Other improvements include an online video-blog that will accompany every second episode and also adds a visual flavor to the series for the first time. The audience gets a look  behind the scenes and insight into how the characters feel. The video-blog will be included on the website and Facebook page. Their will also be a Learning by Ear theme song featured in each of the program’s six languages.

We are hoping that with this new series, we will be able to win over even more listeners and give them insights into how to help shape their own lives to be successful.

 

Guido Baumhauer, DW’s Director of Distribution, recently took time for a Q&A with the EBU, covering everything from the future of media to the Hunger Games and Jane Fonda. One of his insights has to do with using social media outside of the office:

“It is redefining how we all receive and redistribute our information and how we communicate. As a communication platform and information channel, social media provides a great opportunity for people to find and share information and news from many reliable sources.

I love this new freedom of the former “recipient” – when something big happens, social media channels are often faster than traditional sources and I rely on my smartphone. But to be honest, I don’t need to share pictures of my dinner on Facebook and Twitter via Instagram – I concentrate on eating it instead.”

Read the whole interview here.

Who better to bring you the Bundesliga then our team of editors from Kick off!. They have created a Facebook fan page to accompany the show, which will feature news, information, polls, photos, articles and videos from the show. It’s the perfect way to get your daily dose from the top flight in Germany. From Schweinsteiger and Bayern Munich to Klopp and Dortmund – this will be the place to meet and exchange opinions about soccer in Germany. Join the discussion today!