Concept
Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the state-owned news network and international radio broadcaster of the United States of America. It is the largest and oldest of the U.S.-funded international broadcasters. VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content in 48 languages, which it distributes to affiliate stations around the world. Its targeted and primary audience is non-American. VOA was established in 1942, and the VOA charter (Public Laws 94-350 and 103–415) was signed into law in 1976 by President Gerald Ford. VOA is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and overseen by the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), an independent agency of the U.S. government. Funds are appropriated annually under the budget for embassies and consulates. As of 2022, VOA has a weekly worldwide audience of approximately 326 million (up from 236.6 million in 2016) and employs 961 staff with annual budget of $252 million. Voice of America is seen by many listeners as having a positive impact while others see it as American propaganda; it also serves US diplomacy. The Voice of America website had five English-language broadcasts as of 2014 (worldwide, Learning English, Cambodia, Zimbabwe and Tibet). Additionally, the VOA website has versions in 47 foreign languages. Radio programs are marked with an "R"; TV programs with a "T": Afan Oromo Albanian Amharic Armenian Azerbaijani Bambara Bangla Bosnian Burmese Cantonese Mandarin Dari Persian French Georgian Haitian Creole Hausa Indonesian Khmer Kinyarwanda Korean Kurdish Lao Lingala Macedonian Pashto Persian Portuguese Russian Sango Serbian Shona Somali Spanish Swahili Thai Tibetan Tigrinya Turkish Ukrainian Urdu Uzbek Vietnamese Wolof English The number of languages varies according to the priorities of the United States government and the world situation. Before World War II, all American shortwave stations were in private hands.
