Bangladesh River Shows

A team of BBC journalists - working in the media of radio, television, and online - traveled up to 200 miles along the Padma, Meghna, and Jamuna rivers in a branded BBC boat to meet people in areas which are likely to be affected by a rise in the sea level as a consequence of global warming. Thus, interpersonal connections were central to this effort to engage local communities in discussions and debates about the potential consequences of climate change on the environment.

In an effort to expose a broader audience to these conversations, news, features, and documentaries were delivered in 17 languages including Arabic, Azeri, Bengali, Brazilian, Burmese, Chinese, Hindi, English, Indonesian, Pashto, Persian, Romanian, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, and Urdu. BBC Bangla brought personal stories, views, and features from the boat every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and also offered 4 special editions of "Bangladesh Sanglap", BBC Bangla's weekly interactive radio, TV, and online discussion programme (which is co-produced with the BBC World Service Trust). Other BBC programmes bringing live reports from the boat included BBC Asian Network, which organisers describe as the BBC's first national radio station for Bangladeshis living in the UK. It dedicated its programming on November 16 2007 to the river tour. In addition, a behind-the-scenes diary, audio reports from the journey, a climate change portal, and an interactive map plotting the route of the boat, were made available on the BBC website. (Using GPS to track the boat, the website enables visitors to click on locations on the map to find out more about the region, and to read behind-the-scenes diaries by those living and working on the boat and stories on climate change from BBC journalists. Click here to access a sample report from the river.

As indicated above, this initiative involved an intercultural aspect designed to link British and Bangladeshi. BBC Asian Network host Gagan Grewal visited the town of Sirajganj to speak to those recently affected by the South Asia floods. While there, Gagan connected with BBC presenter Jas Rae in London, who brought the voices of British Bangladeshis to the table. The two communities discussed the issues with each other and audiences across the world, who could access the dialogue online here. Grewal also presented his daily current affairs show live from the boat every evening, discussing a range of issues with environmentalists and zoologists.

Environment, Natural Resource Management.