大象传媒

On this week鈥檚 Over To You we pursue an issue triggered by your irate comments on programme trails being played too often and too early.

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Last week the man responsible for trails on the World Service, Murray Holgate, defended the current policy by suggesting those who were most vulnerable to the repetition of trails are those listening live to the station online - and those listeners, he believes are a small minority.

But this week, Catherine Shaer, from Maine in the USA, wanted to know how he could be so confident about that assertion? Well the man who should know the answer to that is Jeremy Nye, Head of Audience Insights for the World Service.听

And what's certainly clear is that garnering statistics about audience figures 鈥� information, by the way, that heavily influences big decisions about what the World Service broadcasts and to whom - is as much an art as a science.

He has some interesting observations to make about changing listening patterns 鈥� in particular the shift towards listening via mobile phones, which he things may trigger an increase in the size of the total audience. Let us know what you think when you鈥檝e heard my interview with Jeremy.

Dismay in Delhi

Also on the programme, the media has had a field day with the preparations for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi next week, and leading the charge have been Indian newspapers, radio and television apparently.

Tinku Ray, the World Service news editor in India, gives us an inside briefing.

Plus, we hear from the man who keeps the World Service on air for 25 million listeners in West Africa and South America by tending to the crucial transmitter on Ascension Island, slap bang in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

Apparently social life on this remote piece of land is rather good ....but perhaps more importantly for the survival of the planet, the transmitters on Ascension Island are now being partly powered by energy from wind turbines, reducing the 大象传媒鈥檚 carbon footprint.

So please tune in to Over To You, give the programme a listen and then throw any comments or complaints about our beloved World Service our way ...the programme wouldn't be the same without you.

Rajan Datar is the Presenter, Over To You

Over To You is your chance to have your say about the 大象传媒 World Service and its programmes. It airs at 00:40, 03:40 and 12:40 every Sunday (GMT).

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Listeners contact Over To You with queries and complaints about any number of topics 鈥� but one subject on which we consistently receive emails is the trails that you hear on the World Service.

And you probably won鈥檛 be surprised to learn that most of those emails are critical 鈥� although I remember recently that the promos for a documentary called 'Would You Kill the Big Guy?' attracted roughly as many favourable comments as critical ones.

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Anyway, in the last couple of weeks we鈥檝e had a lot of comments that have been prompted by trails for two documentaries 鈥� Seeking the Endgame, which is about the effect of modern technology on the world of chess; and The Mysteries of the Brain.听

Some people didn鈥檛 think much of the trails themselves, but the main thrust of the criticism was 鈥� why do you trail the same thing so often, and so far ahead of its broadcast date?听

Or as listener Eddy Blaxell in Nepal so succinctly put it, the trails are 鈥渢oo many, too repetitive, too early鈥�.听

So as you can hear on this week鈥檚 programme, Rajan tackles Murray Holgate, network manager for the World Service, and the man ultimately responsible for what gets trailed and how often it鈥檚 promoted on air.

He explains how he and his team go about planning a promotional campaign, and about the difficulties of juggling the need to let people know what鈥檚 coming up and telling them about it so often that they want to switch off.

We also had an email this week from Daniel Cohen, who listened to Seeking the Endgame, and then downloaded the podcast version, which turned out not to be quite the same.听

You can find out why if you listen to this week鈥檚 Over To You.

Cathy Packe is the Producer, Over To You

Over To You is your chance to have your say about the 大象传媒 World Service and its programmes. It airs at 00:40, 03:40 and 12:40 every Sunday (GMT).

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It's a story you could imagine coming straight out of a John le Carre spy thriller.听

A little while ago, 大象传媒 News Correspondent Clive Myrie was emailed out of the blue by an old contact from his days as Europe Correspondent.

He met the man and was told that the was likely to call a ceasefire - and that Clive could be the man to break the exclusive.

Basque separatists ETA declare a ceasefire at an unknown location. The 大象传媒 had the exclusive. Picture: Getty Images

The next stage of this cloak and dagger plot involved waiting for a phone text with the coded message "It was good to see you in London", then proceeding to the Gare du Nord train station in Paris and collecting a videotape, in which the ETA leaders made their announcement of a ceasefire.

On this week's Over To You I talk to Clive and ask him the obvious question : "How do you know you weren't being taken for a ride here?"

Hear his response, and more insights into the relationship between journalist and confidential sources on this weekend's programme.

South Africa censorship

Also on the show, we reflect the growing concern that the South African Government wants to impose stricter censorship laws on the media.

The ANC feels the media has become irresponsible, is controlled by business interests that are inimical to the government, and has shown itself to be incapable of self-regulation.听

To that end it's proposing a new media tribunal and introducing hefty sentences for journalists who publish "state secrets".

Now this may or may not have anything to do with several leading ANC figures, including President Jacob Zuma, coming under close scrutiny from the media in recent years. But it certainly sours the afterglow of a football World Cup tournament that was, on the whole, a PR triumph for South Africa.听

Opponents argue that the new proposed legislation would undermine freedom of speech, criminalise investigative reporting and threaten whistleblowers in the civil service with lengthy prison sentences.听

Perhaps most damaging is the claim that it is a return to the harsh climate witnessed under apartheid. It has certainly raised the hackles of former anti-apartheid campaigners from the literary world like Nadine Gordimer who have signed a petition of protest.

You can hear more about the background to, and possible consequences of all this, in my interview with a former journalist, Professor Anton Harber from Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg.

Plus your comments on everything from irritation with incessant promotional trails to an interview with the former British Prime Minister to the inexplicable rules of cricket......听听听

Rajan Datar is the Presenter, Over To You

Over To You is your chance to have your say about the 大象传媒 World Service and its programmes. It airs at 00:40, 03:40 and 12:40 every Sunday (GMT).

• Listen to previous episodes of Over To You
• Subscribe to the podcast
• Send the team your feedback by email (overtoyou@bbc.co.uk), telephone (44 144 960 9000), SMS (447786 202006) or by leaving comments on this blog

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In this week's programme, the first topic we address is a bit of a hardy perennial, although judging by the emails we receive on it on a regular basis, it's something that interests a lot of you.听

It's the question of news values - what makes one news story more important than another so that it runs more prominently in news bulletins.

This week the particular stories in question were the miners trapped underground in Chile, and the continuing devastation caused by the floods in Pakistan.听

Listener Ulric Schollaert from Brussels in Belgium feels that the Pakistan story is the more important, so much so that when he heard it appear after the miners' story in a recent bulletin he felt this was "close to insulting".听

On Over To You this week, Rajan puts this to Andrew Whitehead, Editor of News and Current Affairs for the World Service, who makes some interesting points about how journalists decide on the relative importance of the stories they are covering.

Too American?

Another listener, Jayaram from Hong Kong, takes on Annette Mackenzie, the output editor of The Interview.

In fact he's a big fan of the programme - and clearly an assiduous listener - but he thinks they have too many American interviewees in comparison with those from other countries.

Annette explains why this might be - and she's keen to hear from listeners who'd like to suggest potential interviewees.听 But you'll have to listen to Over To You to find out what her criteria are for considering anyone as a potential candidate.

Finally, I must apologise for the fact that last week we had the wrong podcast up on our webpage for several days: although the information accompanying it was correct, the actual podcast was from the previous week.

I know how annoying it can be, as I look forward to new editions of my regular podcasts and get very bad-tempered when they don't appear.

The 大象传媒 Podcast Team is extremely sorry, and so are we.

Cathy Packe is the Producer, Over To You

Over To You is your chance to have your say about the 大象传媒 World Service and its programmes. It airs at 00:40, 03:40 and 12:40 every Sunday (GMT).

• Listen to previous episodes of Over To You
• Subscribe to the podcast
• Send the team your feedback by email (overtoyou@bbc.co.uk), telephone (44 144 960 9000), SMS (447786 202006) or by leaving comments on this blog

• Bookmark with:
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• - What's this?