BBG Watch Commentary

VOA report on Kerry-Lavrov agreement on chemical weapons in Syria showed only 8 (eight) Facebook Likes (same as Recommend) as of 4PM, Sept. 14, 2013.
VOA report on Kerry-Lavrov agreement on chemical weapons in Syria showed only 8 (eight) Facebook Likes (same as Recommend) as of 4PM, Sept. 14, 2013, a few hours after the VOA story had been posted.

When it comes to finding out what the United States does on the world scene, international users of social media and other online news resources no longer turn to the visually unappealing, short on news content and late in updating Voice of America (VOA) English news website — they go to BBC, Russia Today, CNN International, and Al Jazeera.

A news report on the VOA English website on Syria chemical weapons agreement reached in Geneva today by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, US, Russia Agree on Framework for Ending Syrian Chemical Weapons Program, showed only 8 (eight) Facebook “Likes” as of 4 PM Washington, DC time, Saturday, September 14, 2013, a few hours after the VOA story had been posted.

 

Why Such Dismal Social Media Engagement Numbers for Voice of America?

 

Compared to reports by BBC (1099 words) and Russia Today (897 words) , the VOA report was short (599 words) and had no video. (UPDATE: Hours later, VOA added a video to the report. After five hours on YouTube, it showed only 28 views.) Both BBC and Russia Today had videos hours earlier. By 10 PM DC time, Russia Today’s two news videos on the Geneva meeting had respectively 7,275 views and 5,134 views. They have been already on YouTube for 13 hours. None of VOA language services have posted any video, probably because it was made available very late.

VOA management has marginalized the role of VOA news correspondents and placed restrictions on the length of their reports and use of original audio, photos and videos. Correspondent reports are often shortened, changed, posted late, posted so that they can’t be easily found or not posted at all. The VOA English web team often resorts to using instead short news items from Reuters.

The VOA report on the Geneva meeting had been sent by a VOA correspondent and was longer than usual, but by now international audiences have largely concluded that VOA is not capable of timely and comprehensive news reporting on its English website. The report was presented without video (both VOA Director David Ensor and VOA Executive Editor Steve Redisch are former CNN staffers) on the VOA English news website which is both unattractive and difficult to use.

More than a dozen senior Voice of America correspondents told us and our sources that VOA journalists have never been as demoralized and lacking hope as they are now under the current top leadership. They said that their ability to provide balanced and comprehensive reporting, influence news coverage, and determine how news is presented, especially on the website and through social media, has been largely taken away and their concerns ignored by the management.

 

BBC, Russia Today, Al Jazeera, CNN International Far Ahead of Voice of America on Facebook, Other Social Media

 

Compared to VOA’s 8 Facebook “Likes,” the much longer BBC news report on the outcome of the Geneva meeting with video and numerous and easy to follow links, US and Russia agree Syria chemical weapons deal in Geneva, showed 4,393 Facebook “Likes” at the same time as the VOA report.

Russia Today report on the Kerry-Lavrov Syria chemical weapons agreement showed over 2,900 Facebook Likes as of 4 PM, Sept. 14, 2013.
Russia Today report on the Kerry-Lavrov Syria chemical weapons agreement showed over 2,900 Facebook Likes as of 4 PM, Sept. 14, 2013.

Russia Today English report, US-Russia reach landmark deal on destruction of Syria chemical weapons arsenal, showed over 2,900 Facebook “Likes.”

CNN International English report, U.S., Russia agree to framework on Syria chemical weapons, also showed over 2,900 Facebook “Likes.”

Al Jazeera English report, Syria given week to declare chemical weapons, showed 808 Facebook “Likes.”

Social media statistics for these international broadcasters were checked at the same time.

 

Very Few Comments from Readers on VOA English Website

 

In terms of readers comments left on these websites, Voice of America also does not even come close to its international competitors.

The VOA Kerry-Lavrov news story had only 3 (three) comments as of 4 PM Washington, DC time, Saturday, September 14.

The CNN report had 9,558 comments.

The BBC report had 765 comments.

The Al Jazeera report had 481 comments.

The Russia Today report had 97 comments.

 

Poor Central Management Damaged VOA Language Services Even More

 

VOA Russian Kerry-Lavrov 9-14-13
Most VOA language services did not do much better in social media engagement for their Kerry-Lavrov meeting reports.

Even the VOA Russian Service had to rely on the short VOA English report from Geneva rather than to provide its own expanded reporting considering its target audience in Russia. VOA management apparently did not authorize anyone from the Russian Service to travel with Kerry to Geneva to report in depth on Kerry’s meeting with Lavrov.

The Russian Service managed to get 65 Facebook “Likes” and 24 commentaries for its Kerry-Lavrov story, Керри и Лавров достигли соглашения по химоружию в Сирии, by 6 PM Washington, DC time, September 14, 2013.

Facebook and Twitter are widely used in Russia and are not blocked by the government as they are in China, Iran, North Korea, and Cuba.

Most other VOA language services did not offer original coverage and usually got zero (Bangla-0) or barely a few (Azeri-1) Facebook “Likes” for their short reports translated from English.

While VOA management and top executives at the Broadcasting Board of Governors’ (BBG) International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) have done considerable damage to the VOA English Newsroom and the VOA English Service, they have done even more damage to VOA language services. Many were eliminated altogether and most are left with very few resources to provide original coverage. Ironically, VOA and IBB top executives claimed that many VOA English and language services had to suffer reductions in order to develop better social media outreach. But while IBB and VOA top bureaucratic ranks kept growing in recent years, VOA’s social media performance has not improved or even declined due to bad management and deteriorating news coverage.

The failure of providing comprehensive reporting by VOA Central Newsroom and the failure to provide video and additional reports are multiplied throughout various VOA language services which are no longer able to do their own reporting. This was clearly visible on the VOA Persian Service website, where a short translation of a short VOA English report on the Kerry-Lavrov meeting showed at 10 PM Washington, DC time 0 (zero) Fecebook “Likes,” 0 (zero) Tweets, and 0 zero Google+ many hours after it was posted.

While Facebook and Twitter are blocked for most Internet users in Iran, there are millions of Iranians living outside of their country. They were obviously not impressed with a short VOA news report without video even though the topic is presumably of significant importance to them and their families who may still be living in Iran. After all, what happened or did not happen in Syria may very well be repeated at some point in Iran. The VOA Persian Service like most of Voice of America is in a state of crisis under the current management.

The Voice of America Persian Service had to use a translation of the short VOA English report without video on the Kerry-Lavrov agreement on chemical weapons in Syria. Many hours after the meeting and after the report had been posted, it showed 0 Facebook Likes, 0 Tweets, and 0 Google+. While Facebook and Twitter are blocked for many Internet users in Iran, millions of Iranians who live abroad were not impressed with this report.
The Voice of America Persian Service had to use a translation of the short VOA English report without video on the Kerry-Lavrov agreement on chemical weapons in Syria. Many hours after the meeting and after the report had been posted, it showed 0 Facebook Likes, 0 Tweets, and 0 Google+. While Facebook and Twitter are blocked for many Internet users in Iran, millions of Iranians who live abroad were not impressed with this report.
 

Poor Performance by VOA on YouTube – Videos Not Updated

 

The social media appeal and engagement gap between Voice of America and Russia Today is especially visible and accurately measured on YouTube, which shows exactly how many times each video is viewed.

Hours after the conclusion of the Kerry-Lavrov meeting in Geneva, the VOA YouTube Channel still shows an outdated news video with less than 50 views.
Hours after the conclusion of the Kerry-Lavrov meeting in Geneva, the VOA YouTube Channel still shows an outdated news video with less than 50 views.

Hours after the Kerry-Lavrov meeting ended in Geneva, the VOA YouTube channel still featured an outdated video, Kerry-Lavrov Talks Continue Saturday. The VOA YouTube Channel has not been updated in more than seven hours.

The VOA video showed only 47 views.

Russia Today had posted on YouTube an updated video right after the conclusion of the Kerry-Lavrov meeting, Landmark Deal: US, Russia agree on dismantling Syria chem weapons.

As of 5 PM Washington, DC time, the Russia Today video has been YouTube for about seven hours and had 4,444 views.

Up-to-date Russia Today video on the Kerry-Lavrov meeting shows 4,444 views. Russia Today has over one billion total YouTube views and over one million subscribers. VOA has 26,572 as of Sept. 14, 2013
Up-to-date Russia Today video on the Kerry-Lavrov meeting shows 4,444 views. Russia Today has over one billion total YouTube views and over one million subscribers. VOA has only 26,572 subscribers as of Sept. 14, 2013

Russia Today regularly gets thousands and tens of thousands of YouTube views for its current news videos to barely a few dozen for VOA current news videos.

 

Complaints from VOA Journalists Ignored by Management

 

Voice of America journalists have been saying for the last few years that VOA executives are ignoring complaints about inadequate and late news coverage, poor website management, poor employee morale, and intimidation by VOA and International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) officials of internal and outside critics of VOA’s inferior news and social media performance, which critics attribute to mismanagement and bureaucratic incompetence.