Larry Kirkman interview with American Weekly, January 2003
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Kirkman chairs global media service
In the Congo, rebels have been killing and cannibalizing the pygmies of the Ituri rainforest. Zimbabwe is muzzling the last of its free press even as the troubled nation slides into famine, and much of Southern Africa faces drought. Meanwhile across the globe, half a million Argentinians occupied a bridge to demand work and food. Those items may have escaped the eyes of the Iraq-and-Korea focused U.S. press, but they’re on-line at OneWorld, a global alternative news source linked to Yahoo and now chaired by Larry Kirkman, dean of the School of Communication. Kirkman was recently elected chair of OneWorld International, the governing body for what he calls “the world’s favorite and fastest-growing civil society network on-line.” Kirkman heads a board of international journalists and social activists from Finland to Costa Rica to Sri Lanka, all of them nominated by the network’s centers around the world. It can be found in the World section of Yahoo News, along with Associated Press, Reuters, and National Public Radio, or at www.OneWorld.net. USA Today has chosen OneWorld TV, which includes programs from developing nations, as a hot site. And it has earned kudos from such wide-ranging sources as MTV, the Fairtrade Foundation, CARE, and ChristianityToday.com. OneWorld’s mission is a bit different from the typical news organization. Among other things, it’s a search engine, a jobs service, and the partner of more than 1,250 worldwide nonprofits. Daily content is selected by editors around the world, who comb local news sources and nonprofit Web sites to put out 12 “editions,” or sections of the site, focused on their region. Archives can be searched by country, so that a surfer can learn that the University of Gambia is facing a crisis as teachers quit in droves, and Lesotho has fined a Canadian company over $2 million for bribery. There is also a clearly defined perspective. The network “has a vision of equitable and sustainable distribution of wealth” and is “dedicated to harnessing the democratic potential of the Internet to promote human rights and sustainable development.” One of the agenda items is to “report ongoing processes as well as events,” such as extensive coverage of the current food shortage in Southern Africa, with a close focus on the situation in individual countries. The fact that much of the news comes from nonprofit sources is reflected by another groundbreaking characteristic of OneWorld. It has “partners” among nonprofits, whose sites are featured on OneWorld and scanned regularly by OneWorld editors, who balance the grim news about famines and brutality with reports of activities that are making a difference. In the headlines is news about the widening gulf between the United States and Pakistan, as the United States increasingly sees it as a potential foe. Nearby is news of Pakistanis who are working to educate women about microcredit and health. Want to know who’s working in Malawi? There are 75 listings, from large international nonprofits such as CARE to Story Workshop, a local group dedicated to educating through entertainment. Costs to become a member are determined by the country, so that a U.S. organization with an annual revenue over $8 million would pay dues of $1,200 a year while a Nepal-based organization would pay between about $25 and $64 a year. Most of OneWorld can be found in English, but some editions come only in other languages, so that viewers who understand the phrase “Kolmannes Burkina Fason pinta-alasta palaa vuosittain” can follow what Finnish development workers have done in recent years in Burkina Faso. Kirkman sees OneWorld as a pioneer in bringing global issues to the forefront in a way that includes as many people and perspectives as possible. “At a time when humanity is fragmented and the world more perilous than ever,” he says, “OneWorld uses the Internet to help millions of people all over the planet understand better our mutual problems and our mutual responsibilities.” Even in Finnish. Larry Kirkman interviewed by Sally Acharya, American Weekly, January 2003 Link to the site |
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