The internet won't kill the radio star: A case study of the provision of digital news services to Asia and the Pacific by Radio Australia.

On a Vanuatu island a village chief clutches his radio waiting for new batteries from the monthly ferry. In the Sittwe markets of Burma the price of shortwave radios has suddenly increased in the wake of news that pro-Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been arrested, again. These are the people for whom the digital tsunami means little. In 2007 Bridge Ratings & Research reported that the number of monthly Internet radio listeners in the United States had jumped 26% in 12 months and had increased to 72 million monthly listeners from 45 million at the end of 2005. On the back of this kind of research, news providers such as Australia¿s international broadcaster, Radio Australia, and Radio New Zealand have been putting more emphasis on the provision of digital and internet services, as well as those provided by satellite and FM relays. But for many people in the Asia Pacific there is no electricity, no broadband access, and no way of accessing news except by tuning into foreign-based short-wave news providers. To this small but important group of people, the social networking site Facebook is meaningless, and Twittering is something only for birds. Most have never heard of vodcasting or pod casting. This paper looks at the new Radio Australia/Australia Television news website and related media products and argues that while it plays a valuable role for many countries with access to good broadband access, it is no replacement for old fashioned radio journalism. For journalism educators it argues there is a place for the continuation of traditional broadcast journalism training, alongside the digital radio and internet revolution.