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Solemn Thoughts by Wendell Solomons

BBC sports commentators deftly pronounce their versions of Sri Lankan cricketers' names. With regard to full names, Sri Lanka enjoys some of the longest (that comes from the historical tiers mentioned below.) Yet, foreign radio and TV commentators have worked out how to package the cricketers' names for broadcast audiences.

Events call on Sri Lanka today to correctly package its own news and reach out to the world instead of relying on news agency transmissions that flow in one direction, from the West inwards.

For example, radio, TV and press in India tend mostly to rely on Reuter and AFP news agency reports that flow into India from the West even if the information is about India's neighbour Sri Lanka.

A handful of Indian newspapers do keep correspondents in Sri Lanka so as to overcome the problem of slant. Any news source provides information with a particular slant.

The difficulty that arises for Sri Lanka with Western news agencies is firstly, that journalists with a Western slant of mind collect field news. That news is transmitted to the West where well-paid writers pre-package the story, adding more style. Pre-packaging by the writers makes the news easily used by the editorial department of the Indian newspaper.

It is something like the convenience of pre-cooked noodles for the housewife. Reuters and AFP 'pre-cook' so that the editorial department of an Indian newspaper can cut and paste the Western report into its pages.

Considering the large number of corespondents and writers on payroll with a Western news agency, is it really possible for Sri Lanka to create its own images for the world?

(1) The Internet has changed field logistics for news dissemination. Looking at cost/benefit ratios, it has become possible for websites to make information available at low cost. Therefore several Sri Lankan newspapers have chosen a web presence.

(2) Costly agency telex is no longer essential to actively post news. Foreign subscribers can today be reached at low cost through mass emailing. For preparing articles at low cost, researchers may go well beyond common sources by using myriad independent news sites.

(3) As to pre-packaging news, that can be achieved by knowing what audiences overseas are looking for.

The Internet helps you find that out. Take the Yahoo web page that tells you what news stories are most frequently emailed to friends from websites of the BBC, Washington Post and similar media sources.

(4) Knowing what audiences are searching for allows you to broad-base news.

Is a street-corner brawl of interest to the journalist overseas or would the discussion of petroleum finds in Sri Lanka invite more visitors to a website? If you place my name or another's in Google, you will discover which stories have been broad-based.

Your story that goes beyond the insular or small-town brings in more hits that are countable at website. Further, when a researcher or journalist reaches an interesting story at a Sri Lankan website, links on that page can be used to direct the journalist to other stories that his immediate search might have missed.

(5) Writing in Sri Lanka has its difficulties. Some come from the smallness of a marketplace that must impose small salaries on writers.

However, the flatness of Western mass culture imposes flattening on the work of many writers overseas, even those of excellence, say, in the US. In contrast, Sri Lanka provides a treasure house of multicultural and multi-layered historical experience.

Such a background specifically supported the win of most Academy Awards in the debut of Sri Lankan-born Michael Ondaatjie's film, "The English Patient." Its competitor had been the heavily pre-publicised and funded "Evita" that starred Madonna.

In numerous works including "Rendezvous with Rama" and "View from Serendib," Sir Arthur C. Clarke makes legendary the creative benefits he gained in Sri Lanka. If that isn't enough, a pioneer programmer claims that he got the foundational idea for the Internet when reading a short story written by Sir Arthur in Sri Lanka.

To conclude, Sri Lanka needs a voice in the world. That is now situated within the realms of the achievable.

Response invited at:>mailto: Wilmiron @gmail.com>[email protected]

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