Improving Our Global Smarts: Digital Public TV to the Rescue

By Frederick Thomas, Chief Executive, MHz Networks

Recently a fellow public TV exec told me he thought our new internationally-oriented channel, MHz Worldview, contained programming he found to be un-American.  Initially it was troubling, but after 14 years of working in this area, it was nothing I hadn’t heard before.  In fact, responses like his are exactly WHY we created the channel in the first place. 

More than a few studies have identified that, as Americans, we are collectively ignorant of the world’s cultures, geography, religions and opinions, and that this lack of global smarts directly affects our ability to navigate in the international economy and understand relationships among different people.  There’s no doubt we don’t score well against citizens of other countries in these areas.  Equally obvious is the realization that our political leaders don’t seem to be much smarter about the world either.  Improving our global smarts should be a personal goal for each of us.  It might even be a good initiative for a new President looking to integrate domestic and international policy – but that’s a whole other story. 

As much as these kinds of studies identify certain truths, they don’t tell the whole truth or measure intent.  I happen to think that we, as Americans, know we need to get smarter about the world.  There is a sense in the public mood that the “we vs. them,” black-or-white approach to the world seems to be giving way to a multi-colored, pragmatic world view.  In the interconnected world of broadband opinion, Americans don’t want to be seen as out-of-touch, overweight slouches that use dial-up. 

What follows is a real-life story of one organization that is doing its part to broaden the global smarts of the policy makers in Washington, D.C. and across the country.  It is a story of how a public TV station can have a very large impact in the digital age.   

Quick Analog History
MHz Networks, which is essentially comprised of two non-PBS affiliated public TV stations, serves the Washington, D.C. market from across the Potomac River in northern Virginia.  Our independence from the PBS program schedule, born of necessity and purpose, has allowed us to carve out a niche as the exclusive provider of international TV programming in Washington, D.C. for well over a decade.   We started in the mid-90’s by aggregating a wide range of foreign news programs, foreign films, drama series, international sports and locally created ethnic-based programming – most of it in English – in to a single channel that we now call MHz Worldview.   Although we live in the shadow of one of the nation’s largest public TV stations, our unique mission and the respect it has earned us has sustained us over the years in the hope that the times and conditions would be right for us to prosper.   Those times and conditions have come.

Get Ready to Say Hello to the World, Washington
On June 1, 2007, residents of Washington, D.C. – which includes the sum total of America’s nationally-elected policy makers – woke up to find that MHz Networks had completed its transition to digital broadcasting by placing eight separate international channels into the digital broadcast space in our nation’s capital.  Most people didn’t notice the addition because most people haven’t added a digital broadcast receiver to their TV - but by February  2009 when digital broadcast signals will be the ONLY signals available to over-the-air TV viewers, they’ll be happy to discover that (literally) a whole new world of content is available to them.  MHz Networks carries English-language news/information channels from Japan, France, Russia, Nigeria and Taiwan and two non-English channels, one from Russia one from Holland.  The range of opinion, which comes through in the reporting of the world’s news and separate policy shows on these networks, is now as easy to find as turning on your free, over-the-air broadcast TV set.  When the sun sets on analog TV in February 2009, we expect many more D.C. area viewers to pay attention to our eight channel network of international programming.  Without a doubt, digital broadcasting has changed the face of information available in Washington, D.C. - our policy makers have a remarkable opportunity to improve their global smarts through free, public TV – and we’re hopeful that we’ll have an impact there.

Engaging the Globally-Minded in America:  MHz Worldview
Maybe Americans aren’t ready for eight channels of international programming in their respective cities, but they certainly seem to have room for one that offers the world:  MHz Worldview.  I can appreciate that the rest of the country may not have the demographics of Washington, D.C., with its ethnic “niches”, but what we’ve come to find is that many Americans, of all political stripes, across a wide age range, have reasons to be connected with the world.  We call these folks the globally-minded.  They include the new global generation that works, studies and disregards traditional geographic borders at ease, as well as their parents who want to keep up with their kids’ careers or studies overseas.  It includes the “1.5 generation,” the sons and daughters of immigrants, who move back and forth between their parents’ native mores and the American way of life. 
 

Less of a generational thing, the globally-minded are people linked by how they engage the world.  They believe in concepts like world peace, but are also connected or concerned about the global economy.  They drink Chilean wine or practice Indian yoga.  Some find that they have global connections through their churches.  Last but not least, the globally-minded are also ordinary people who simply want to try and make sense of everything that is going on in the post-9/11 world.  They stand in contrast to the slow but steady retreat of the American media’s interest in international news.  For all of the people who have a reason to be engaged in the world, we created MHz Worldview.
Apparently there are enough globally-minded people out there that a group of innovative public TV stations are interested in reaching them too.  MHz Worldview has found its way onto the air through the new digital multicast channels of public TV stations in Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver,  Richmond and Utah,  to name a few.  Discussions are underway with stations in less diverse areas like Iowa and Kansas.  These public TV stations see MHz Worldview as an important way to reach their respective communities – a new mission of sorts.  And even if they might not openly say so, collectively these public TV stations have decided to take the lead in trying to help improve their viewers’ global smarts. 

Last Thoughts
In response to my fellow public TV exec with concern about MHz Worldview: the channel contains a wide range of world programming.  Some is obviously different than what you’re used to, but you might be surprised to fine that some of it is very much the same.  What comes through over time in the news, the films, the sports, the documentaries is a spectrum of the world’s cultures, customs and even opinions.  What also comes through is that America is one nation among many; it is neither chief villain nor singular saint.  Isn’t that a message Americans need to hear?  Isn’t that, after all, what having global smarts is all about?