Here's what I've been doing lately, just for fun.
On a whim, I've been watching various international English-language news channels, just to see what's out there. Here's a capsule summary:
France24 (all news, based out of Paris)- Watchable, with about the slant that you'd expect it to have. Nice to have running as background noise while working.
Arirang Prime (news, culture, music, based out of South Korea). This one definitely feels like it's being run as a joint project of South Korea's tourism and propaganda ministries. The news program I watched had four stories that stood out: a) "Korean airline heiress goes to prison because she went nuts about nuts; b) "Gee, it sure is swell that we're trading partners with China;" c) "Vladimir Putin something something;" d) "Next up, a complete and total hatchet job on Japan."
Some advice, Arirang Prime: Your disturbingly clean cut K-Pop VJ doesn't actually have to say "Music video, cue!" before each song. It's like you stole an MTV VJ's script out of the trash, and are reading the stage directions as if they're dialogue.
On the plus side, "Chef's Foodcation" was a lot more watchable than I'd thought it would be.
Next up, RT and CCTV English. These should both be... interesting.
France24 (all news, based out of Paris)- Watchable, with about the slant that you'd expect it to have. Nice to have running as background noise while working.
Arirang Prime (news, culture, music, based out of South Korea). This one definitely feels like it's being run as a joint project of South Korea's tourism and propaganda ministries. The news program I watched had four stories that stood out: a) "Korean airline heiress goes to prison because she went nuts about nuts; b) "Gee, it sure is swell that we're trading partners with China;" c) "Vladimir Putin something something;" d) "Next up, a complete and total hatchet job on Japan."
Some advice, Arirang Prime: Your disturbingly clean cut K-Pop VJ doesn't actually have to say "Music video, cue!" before each song. It's like you stole an MTV VJ's script out of the trash, and are reading the stage directions as if they're dialogue.
On the plus side, "Chef's Foodcation" was a lot more watchable than I'd thought it would be.
Next up, RT and CCTV English. These should both be... interesting.