Articles About Internews
CHANGEMAKERS: Social Venture Specialists Changing the World
Following is an unofficial English translation of a chapter in
book, Changemakers, by Nana Watanabe, published in Japan in August
2005 by Nikkei Business Publications. The chapter profiles Annette
Makino, Senior Vice-President for Communications and Corporate
Affairs for Internews Network. (Watanabe
also profiled Makino in the Japanese
edition of the magazine Madame Figaro.)
Mami Mita, Editor for Nikkei Business Publications, wrote in a
letter to Makino, “The target readers are Japanese youth in
their teens and twenties and the author’s motivation to write
this book was to inspire Japanese youngsters who seem lost in the
society where the values their parents’ generation believed
in no longer seem effective. We are very pleased to have the opportunity
to introduce you and your organization as a role model in the society
where a small, yet intense wave of desire for changes in values is
about to come.”
CHANGEMAKERS: Social Venture Specialists Changing the
World
By Nana Watanabe
Passionate messages from 18 movers and shakers who work in NPOs/NGOs
The people who appear in this book: a father of social venture, a founder
of businesses that encourage new market countries, a social venture
incubator, a leader in social venture in Japan, a developer creating
homes for the homeless, an organizer of an architectural fair dealing
with refugee housing problems and solutions, a planner for low-cost
medical businesses for low-income people, a “Red Beard” teacher
in war & conflict zones, a media wizard for the citizens, a watcher
of media in countries with limited media access, an art therapist who
supports AIDS patients, a marketer of the world’s largest fair
trade organization, a screenwriter bringing peace and understanding
to countries in war, a program director of friendship camps for children
of war-torn countries, a media producer who exposes human rights violations
in the world, a human rights lawyer who prevents juvenile delinquents
from falling further, a clown who brings laughter and hope to a children’s
hospital, and a principal of “free school” who takes in
students refusing to go to regular schools.
Chapter: Annette Makino
Internews Senior-Vice President for Communications
“Free media without bias and restrictions symbolizes the
richness”
Arcata, a small university town in Northern California, is full of
American Redwood trees. It is known for its thick fog and frequent
rain. Even when the college students return from their summer
vacation, the population of Arcata is only 16,000. If you exclude
the campus, this town has three traffic lights and two elevators.
Since the 60s, numerous hippies, vegetarians, idealists, and dreamers
of various ages who hated authority, started visiting this area and
making it their home. INTERNEWS, based here in Arcata, is quite
an anomaly since most large international non-profit organizations are
based in metropolitan areas such as Washington, New York, London, and
Paris. “When I try to tell people where we are located,
I always have to repeat myself several times!” Annette Makino
smiles. She is one of four senior-vice presidents at this organization.
Annette was born in 1963. Her Swiss mother and Japanese physicist
father met while studying in the U.S.
Internews’ main office is housed in a building that was formerly
occupied by a truck repair company until it was recently redesigned
by a local architect. With its large windows and comfortable space,
it feels more like a regular house. Just recently, thinking, “Let’s
brighten this place up since there’s so much fog and rain,” Annette
painted the bottom half of her office walls bright red and the top half
a light saffron color. Like Annette, many of the staff members
have small children, so they always keep chocolates and granola bars
in the office kitchen for snacks.
On Annette’s desk, there’s a reprint of Georgia O’Keefe’s “Red
Hills and Mesa” and a picture of her husband, a university professor,
and their two children. On her wall, there’s a world map
depicting Internews’ overseas offices and a list of goals for
the communication department in 2005. Right next to this is a
small faded piece of paper that caught my eye. Annette had posted
the words by the poet Khalil Gibran on her first day at work at Internews
to use as her motto: “Work is love made visible.”
Annette heard about Internews for the first time in 1989, shortly after
graduating from Stanford University and moving to Arcata. Back
then, she was painting and starting up a recycling company, which is
still in existence today. Annette always had a great interest
in environmental problems, and in those days, most people weren’t
yet familiar with the idea of recycling. Annette was also continuing
her research on accidental nuclear war, which she began while learning
about international relations at Stanford. This research may have
been influenced by her father’s work as a nuclear physicist.
“About that time, I heard about this small organization in Arcata
that was producing films and TV programs about nuclear war. I
was very interested, so I came knocking on the door.”
The next day, Annette became one of the 4 staff members at the Internews. Back
then Internews was running with just 3 people, with an annual budget
of less than $200,000.
Internews was born when two young documentary producers made “Thinking
Twice About Nuclear War”. This program premiered while the
world was worried about the possibility of nuclear war between the former
Soviet Union and the U.S. Soon David Hoffman, who was working
to support labor organizations, joined the group and the three of them
started Internews in order to “promote social reform through television
broadcasting”. The year was 1982. At the time, they
received grants from the Kendall Foundation to produce a documentary
about nuclear war, television programs, film editing and such. They
were operating from the living room of their house and soon the floor
was covered with mountains of film.
“Bringing free media into countries striving to become democratic”
When Annette first came to Internews, there was a political barrier
between two giant countries: the former Soviet Union and the United
States. Things started to change with Mikhail Gorbachev’s
appearance. He became the general secretary of the Communist Party,
then came perestroika and glasnost, which began in
1986 to soften the tension between the two countries. Internews
provided a great influence to the people of Russia through media. One
such example was the broadcasting of American rock concerts to Moscow
from Washington D.C. Another example was a series of debates between
American and Russian physicists and biologists. These debates
were broadcast live, without rehearsals, focusing on the true nature
of broadcasting.
From 1987 to 1990, Internews, along with ABC (one of the four major
networks in the U.S.) and the former Soviet national television station,
produced a series of programs called “Capital to Capital” in
which Peter Jennings, a well-known American newscaster, hosted a live
program with politicians from U.S. and former Soviet Union, conducted
without rehearsal. This unique television series won an Emmy Award. Under
one-party rule, this was an unbelievable experience for the citizens
of the former Soviet Union, where news was heavily censored and edited
by the government. It was projected that in the former Soviet
Union and Eastern Europe, over two million people watched the series. Using
this series as a model, Internews continued to produce programs to bridge
the gap between enemy ethnic groups such as Bosnians and Serbs, Palestinians
and Israelis, and Armenians and Azeris. From 1992 onward, Internews
assisted the former Soviet Union in creating citizen-run television
stations. Before this media revolution, there was just one government-run
channel. Additionally, Internews provided programs to educate people
in the journalism and business skills necessary for running television
stations. This sparked a communications revolution in Russia.
Since then, the Internews branch in Moscow has expanded greatly. As
of 2003, there were over 60 staff members supporting the development
of free and open media.
“Catalyzing social change through communications technologies” was
the mission of Internews when it was first established. Since
then their activities have widened to “fostering independent
media in emerging democracies by equipping under-developed countries
with television stations, radio stations, and the internet, while training
journalists and station managers in producing programs and running their
stations.”
The Internews programs vary depending on the situations in each country,
but their main theme of “Supporting open and independent media
worldwide, without bias or restrictions” remains the same.
For example, in Afghanistan, shortly after the fall of the Taliban
rule, Internews has built 29 radio stations. In many cases, Internews
will try to reform already established radio and television stations,
but since there wasn’t any media infrastructure in Afghanistan,
they had to start by building stations. Since the illiteracy
rate in Afghanistan is 70%, newspapers are practically useless. The
best source of information is the radio, which is cheaper than television. Internews
taught the local journalists how to produce programs, while creating
programs for women, by women producers who were suppressed under the
Taliban regime. These live programs cover topics of particular
interest to women, such as women’s health, raising children, AIDS,
and arranged marriages. These shows are very popular and many
of the listeners call in to express their opinions. These programs
may be contributing to the awareness of Afghan women, who have traditionally
shied away from talking about health and marriage issues both among
themselves and in public.
“Addressing the AIDS crisis in Africa through the power of
media”
Even in democratic North America, it’s impossible to experience
the media without any bias or any regulations. In 1999, Internews
Network co-created Link TV, the U.S.’s first multicultural satellite
channel, together with Independent TV Service, Internews Interactive,
and Center for Documentary Media.
A Link TV news program called “Mosaic” features news in
English taken from TV news broadcasts from 15 Middle Eastern countries
such as Egypt, Lebanon, Israel, Syria, Iran, and Palestine. This
proved to be an innovative program, differing from CNN and other networks
by providing a different viewpoint about the Iraq War and the Arab-Israeli
conflict. Link TV has received awards for its innovative programs.
Link TV is currently reaching 28 million homes via the satellite services
of DirecTV and Dish Network.
Internews, which started with 3 staff members in 1982, now has over
700 staff members (in 2005), and has worked in 70 countries. As
Internews developed into a unique non-profit organization, Annette’s
position within Internews developed too. As a senior vice-president
of communications, she is currently in charge of communications with
the media, supporters, other non-profit organizations, public entities,
and various governments. She also runs the committee for the managers
in charge of operations in Arcata and Washington. She monitors
Internews’ activities in 50 countries (where changes are common),
and also oversees her department's maintenance of the web site and preparation
of the annual report and other publications.
There is one project Annette especially loves; Internews staff have
been working on this project, called “Local Voices,” for
the last several years. This project is to train journalists,
talk show hosts and deejays to provide accurate information about HIV/AIDS. Internews
is active in 12 countries in Africa and has offices in 8 countries: Kenya,
Nigeria, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Rwanda, Egypt, Algeria, and Côte
d’Ivoire. They’ve begun a program to improve coverage
of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria and Kenya. In 2003, it was reported
that there are over 3,800,000 HIV/AIDS patients in Nigeria, and 10%
of total population of Nigeria has been infected.
“We wanted to provide accurate and effective information to people
about prevention and treatment in Africa where HIV/AIDS is spreading
quickly.” This was the beginning of their project in Africa.
Internews is providing widespread AIDS prevention information through
popular talk show hosts and DJs and inviting medical specialists to
their talk shows to answer questions via phone or to be interviewed
about HIV/AIDS. These programs, which have never been done before,
are providing great support in combating the AIDS epidemic in Africa. In
2005, Internews began “Local Voices” in Ethiopia, another
country with high number of HIV/AIDS patients. They plan to start
a similar program in south India.
Annette lives in Arcata, where she moved 19 years ago, with her
husband, their two children, and her mother who moved here recently
with her two llamas. Her makeup-free face, with her tanned complexion,
her relaxed manner and her sense of justice, fits the persona of an idealist
who lives here. There is one difference between her and the
hippies who moved there, though. Internews’ ideals and dream
turned it into a business that provides positive changes in the world
with an annual operating budget of $27,000,000. Annette has turned
her simple ideal of providing the truth without bias and restrictions
into reality.
Profile of Annette Makino in Figaro magazine, March 2005
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