The involvement of radio and TV broadcasters from throughout the world, the range of factual topics covered and the quality of the finalists are highlighted in this video of last year’s international media excellence awards, the 2009 AIBs
There is still time to enter the 2010 AIBs – for full details go to the entries page on the website.
You can also see other videos from the Association for International Broadcasting on our YouTube channel, http://www.youtube.com/user/AIBLondon
The new People’s Choice award in this year’s AIBs is very exciting for a number of reasons. It is the first time we are asking the general public to vote for awards, which allows the shortlisted entrants to gain a wider exposure for their programmes, as viewers will come from throughout the world, including many countries where the programmes are not currently broadcast. The voting process will also use social media to gain interest and attention, providing another example of the sort of audience engagement and participation which is becoming more and more important to broadcasting in the 21st century.
In addition climate change, the subject of programmes in the People’s Choice award, is a highly topical subject which provokes fierce debate and raises issues which could have a dramatic impact on the way that all nations live. Different countries, and even different tribes and regions within countries, risk being affected in different ways. For example, the indigenous people of the Amazon risk their lands turning into dry savanna (see here for how our sponsor, ADB, is helping the Surui tribe) while the coastal regions risk more flooding.
Because of the differing risks, as well as different political viewpoints, the range of views on climate change is enormous and the challenges of exploring and explaining the science are great. We hear about the fierce debates in the US Senate ; India and China are signing up to the Copenhagen accord; a survey in Africa shows that many Africans blame God and not global emissions for climate change; countries as diverse as Mongolia, Saudi Arabia and Madagascar show increasing awareness by joining in Earth Day celebrations.
We are eager to see the submissions for the People’s Choice award to see how broadcasters from throughout the world are tackling this contraversial issue which raises such passion and which is so important to all of our futures.
It is 40 years since US Senator created the first Earth Day by holding an environmental teach-in. There are nowadays events in nearly every country in the world each 22nd April.
Here is ex-President Bill Clinton’s responses today to environmental questions posed by people using Digg
Twitter, the service for online messages that are limited to 140 characters, has not had a clear plan for gaining revenue up until now, despite attracting tens of millions of users who post 50 million messages every day.
But yesterday the company announced “Promoted Tweets”, which are basically adverts. Initially they will be on search results, so that the first result displayed for each search may be an advert. Adverts will start out as normal Tweets posted by the advertiser and when they appear in other people’s search results they will be labelled “Promoted by…” so you will be able to identify them.
Depending on the initial success of this initiative, Twitter has plans to put Promoted Tweets in other places, such as on websites related to Twitter and even to the Tweet stream of individual users. Full details of Promoted Tweets can be found in the Twitter blog here .
Twitter has proved itself to be a vital source of breaking news (for example, during the Iranian election demonstrations or after the earthquake in Haiti) and there is now even a website dedicated to the best tools for using Twitter in journalism and media. So Promoted Tweets represent an interesting new opportunity for factual broadcasters and programme makers. It allows them to reach an audience that is interested in current events and active in reporting.
But the use of Promoted Tweets has to be handled carefully since their announcement has not been well received by Twitter users. TechCrunch report that 71% are against their introduction. Twitter hopes they will come to accept them and is stressing that they will only allow Promoted Tweets that “resonate” with the users; the company explains this as meaning that they will verify that Promoted Tweets are relevant to users and that if users are not interested in particular ones and do not click on them, then Twitter will stop showing them. However, it is not clear exactly how this procedure will work.
Broadcasters are well placed to offer Promoted Tweets that do “resonate” since they can address an audience interested in news. They can use them both to promote existing content and to help create new content. Examples might be:
– Promoting current affairs programmes to those searching for topics related to the subject
– Researching stories with Promoted Tweets asking for input from those with experience of particular subjects (and with location now being added to Tweets, the research will be able to focused on particular geographic areas)
– Encouraging those with breaking news to submit stories to your news service
Promoted Tweets promise to help in creating and promoting programmes. It is the sort of innovative tool we are looking for in the “Most Creative Marketing Strategy” award at the 2010 AIBs.
The Association for International Broadcasting is at MIP TV in Cannes where we officially announce the 2010 AIBs. We are excited by the inclusion of two new awards this year – one for the Best Children’s Factual Programme or Series, the other a “People’s Choice” for the Best TV Coverage of Climate Change.
I will talk more about the Best Children’s Factual Programme or Series in another post, and how it links in with our support of 1GOAL and the “Education for All” campaign linked to the World Cup in South Africa.
But let me now explain more about the new “People’s Choice” award. Up to now, all awards at the AIBs have been determined by an independent panel of judges, consisting of respected professionals from broadcasting and related industries – and this will continue to be the case for all awards apart from this special new award. The “People’s Choice” award recognises the increasing power of the audience to provide rapid feedback on programmes, often in real-time. We are harnessing the power of online tools and social networking to allow viewers from around the world to vote for the best programme in this category.
Each year, the topic for entries in this category will be chosen as something of great current interest. For 2010 the subject is “climate change” which creates great passion and interest around the world. By showcasing the best programmes from around the world, not only will the highest quality broadcasting be on view and brought to new audiences in many different countries, but the impact and opinions of climate change as it affects many different communities will be on display.
The shortlist of the best programmes will be available to view on different online platforms and viewers will have one vote for their favourite. More details on the viewing and voting procedures will be available nearer the time. But we are sure this will provide great interest to viewers and a fantastic platforms to the programmes entered.
We will be updating you on the progress of this award regularly in the lead up to the awards ceremony on 10th November.