Support : Publications : Chronolog Archives : July/August 2003

A Foreign News Service from the U.S. Government

The World News Connection® (WNC) (File 985) launched on Dialog in early May, offering an extensive array of translated and English-language news and information. The File's content includes fulltext and summaries from a range of sources, including: newspaper articles; conference proceedings; television and radio broadcasts; periodicals; unclassified technical reports; and Web sites. New records are added every business day and are generally available within 72 hours of original publication or broadcast, with some content dating back to 1995.

The Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS), a U.S. government agency, monitors and collects news and information for WNC from thousands of non-U.S. media sources. In cooperation with FBIS, the National Technical Information Service (NTIS), an agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce, makes this information available electronically. Dialog now hosts and maintains WNC.

What You'll Find in WNC: Unique Perspective and Content

The international coverage found in File 985 spans a range of topics, including business and economics, crime, the environment, investment, health and medicine, humanitarian aid, military affairs, politics, science and technology, social issues and terrorism. Particularly effective in its coverage of local media sources, WNC provides users with the power to identify unique perspectives on happenings in a specific country or region. Because this database picks up non-U.S. news and translates it into English, it is one of the few databases available that allows users to gain the local or regional perspective of international events occurring in that specific area.

As a recent example, the U.S. news coverage of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) has focused on the threat of ill travelers from Hong Kong and Toronto and attempts to find a cure. However, WNC contains articles from South Korea showing the impact of SARS on that nation's GDP. Additionally, reports from Romania and Spain detail the first suspected cases of SARS in those countries and how hospitals and officials are handling the threat. Further coverage in WNC relates how the European Commission is attempting to organize a coordinated program against SARS with its member states.

In addition to different perspectives, File 985 on Dialog also boasts unique content with coverage from non-restricted, non-treaty countries such as Afghanistan, Bhutan, Ethiopia, Nepal, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tonga, Vanuatu and Vietnam. Also unique are sources from restricted, non-treaty countries such as Iraq, Iran and North Korea, as well as FBIS country reports that provide detailed summaries of pertinent issues.

Searchers Who Would Benefit

The WNC database is critical and highly beneficial to searchers with a broad range of information needs – from the obvious news agencies to humanitarian aid organizations. The former uses File 985 on Dialog to monitor activities where field reporters are stationed. Often WNC is the first place these field reporters hear of localized activities in non-industrial countries that later appear in the evening news. The latter, humanitarian aid organizations, use the database to identify locations in possible need of assistance, monitoring for war, or natural disasters such as famine, earthquakes and floods.

Other searchers who deem WNC as a highly valuable resource of international news and information include:

• International monetary lending agencies for foreign investment and/or economic development opportunities.
  
  
• International affairs business managers and global corporations that need to monitor events pertinent to regional offices or that are looking to expand their presence into additional regions. Additionally, international travelers associated with these organizations can read about political unrest or natural disasters prior to booking flights to exotic destinations.
  
  
• Supply chain managers, who monitor regions that supply valuable natural resources, such as bauxite or oil.
  
  
• Policy organizations following issues globally, including such subject areas as literacy rates, weapons control, children's issues, religious tolerance and more.

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