Technology is cutting costs and stoking competition, eroding the Westerners’ advantages. Big transmitters were costly; podcasts and webcams, FM radio and cable television are cheap and often open to all. As the old signals fade, rival outfits are crowding the airwaves. Iran and Russia have both launched 24-hour English television-news channels. China added a second one last month.
In places like Myanmar, Somalia or Iran, too poor or too dictatorial to attract independent commercial media companies, providing solid news may be the best that the West can do. They also counter the propaganda from state media machines in places such as Russia and China. Without its own voice, the West’s case risks failing by default.
Read more at The Economist.
