Wide Angle (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Wide Angle is an American documentary
television series
produced by Thirteen/WNET
New York for broadcast on PBS
and for worldwide distribution. The weekly one-hour series covers international current affairs
and is presently hosted by veteran journalist Aaron Brown
. Wide Angle began broadcasting on PBS in 2002, and aims to expand the awareness and understanding of Americans about the changing world in which they live. It is the only documentary series on American television devoted exclusively to reporting in-depth on international issues. The program currently airs on Wednesday nights from July through September at 10 p.m. on most PBS stations.
expert to connect the films’ themes to American concerns. The series completed its eighth season in 2009, and in that time it has produced more than 60 films in over 50 countries.
Wide Angle also produces a companion website and additional educational materials for each film. The series website includes background information on the issues from the films, interactive features, exclusive video and audio, and full streaming versions of many programs. Additional educational materials are distributed to high schools and colleges. In 2006, Wide Angles online Window into Global History project earned the Goldman Sachs Foundation Prize for Excellence in International Education.
Previous anchors for the series include Bill Moyers
, former Assistant Secretary of State James Rubin
, Mishal Husain
, and Daljit Dhaliwal
. Previous interview guests include Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton
, UN
Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown, Mexico’s former Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda, former Ugandan government minister Betty Oyella Bigombe
, Nobel Prize Laureates Joseph E. Stiglitz
and Amartya Sen
, WHO
Director-General Margaret Chan
, Women for Women International CEO
Zainab Salbi
, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, writer Arundhati Roy
and former U.S. Secretaries of State George Mitchell and James A. Baker III.
spokesman James Rubin
. It focused on Saddam Hussein
’s biological and chemical weapons and the wider threat they imply. In a host interview broadcasted immediately following the episode, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute
Richard Perle
stated that "the thing that is brought home so clearly in this film is the connection among terrorist organizations now implicating Saddam Hussein directly with Al Qaeda".
, the Sigma Delta Chi Award
, the Chicago International Television Hugo award, the Gabriel Award
, several top awards from the South Asian Journalists Association
(SAJA), citations from the Overseas Press Club
, and 22 Cine Golden Eagle
awards.
The New York Times
had a mixed review of the first program "Saddam’s Ultimate Solution", especially concerning the interview of Richard Perle
by host James Rubin
:
In the first episode of Focal Point, "From Jihad to Rehab", Canadian journalist Nancy Durham
reports from a rehabilitation center in Saudi Arabia, where art therapy and religious re-education are being used to reform militant jihadists.
Wide Angle: Window into Global History - Outreach initiative for the teaching of Global History in high schools.
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
television series
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
produced by Thirteen/WNET
WNET
WNET, channel 13 is a non-commercial educational public television station licensed to Newark, New Jersey. With its signal covering the New York metropolitan area, WNET is a primary station of the Public Broadcasting Service and a primary provider of PBS programming...
New York for broadcast on PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
and for worldwide distribution. The weekly one-hour series covers international current affairs
Current affairs (news format)
Current Affairs is a genre of broadcast journalism where the emphasis is on detailed analysis and discussion of news stories that have recently occurred or are ongoing at the time of broadcast....
and is presently hosted by veteran journalist Aaron Brown
Aaron Brown
Aaron Brown is an American broadcast journalist most recognized for his coverage of the September 11, 2001 attacks, his first day on air at CNN...
. Wide Angle began broadcasting on PBS in 2002, and aims to expand the awareness and understanding of Americans about the changing world in which they live. It is the only documentary series on American television devoted exclusively to reporting in-depth on international issues. The program currently airs on Wednesday nights from July through September at 10 p.m. on most PBS stations.
Production
Wide Angle programs consist of long-form, character-driven documentaries exploring pressing international issues through human stories, often followed by an interview with a foreign policyForeign policy
A country's foreign policy, also called the foreign relations policy, consists of self-interest strategies chosen by the state to safeguard its national interests and to achieve its goals within international relations milieu. The approaches are strategically employed to interact with other countries...
expert to connect the films’ themes to American concerns. The series completed its eighth season in 2009, and in that time it has produced more than 60 films in over 50 countries.
Wide Angle also produces a companion website and additional educational materials for each film. The series website includes background information on the issues from the films, interactive features, exclusive video and audio, and full streaming versions of many programs. Additional educational materials are distributed to high schools and colleges. In 2006, Wide Angles online Window into Global History project earned the Goldman Sachs Foundation Prize for Excellence in International Education.
Previous anchors for the series include Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers is an American journalist and public commentator. He served as White House Press Secretary in the United States President Lyndon B. Johnson Administration from 1965 to 1967. He worked as a news commentator on television for ten years. Moyers has had an extensive involvement with public...
, former Assistant Secretary of State James Rubin
James Rubin
James Philip "Jamie" Rubin is a former diplomat and journalist. He is currently an executive editor at Bloomberg News. Having served in the State Department during the administration of President Bill Clinton, he became a Sky News television news journalist and commentator...
, Mishal Husain
Mishal Husain
Mishal Husain is a television news presenter for the BBC's international news channel, BBC World News, presenting Impact between 1400 and 1600 GMT every Monday to Thursday as well as presenting the Sunday evening editions of the BBC Weekend News on BBC One...
, and Daljit Dhaliwal
Daljit Dhaliwal
Daljit Dhaliwal is a British newsreader and television presenter.Dhaliwal is currently one of the news presenters for the Al-Jazeera English news service and broadcasts from Washington DC. Previously, she was the anchor chair of Worldfocus on PBS, which aired its last broadcast on 2 April 2010...
. Previous interview guests include Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was the First Lady of the...
, UN
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown, Mexico’s former Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda, former Ugandan government minister Betty Oyella Bigombe
Betty Oyella Bigombe
Betty Oyella Bigombe, also known as Betty Atuku Bigombe , is the current State Minister for Water Resouces in the Uganda Cabinet. She was appointed to that position on 27 May 2011. She is also the elected Member of Parliament , representing Amuru District Women's Constituency...
, Nobel Prize Laureates Joseph E. Stiglitz
Joseph E. Stiglitz
Joseph Eugene Stiglitz, ForMemRS, FBA, is an American economist and a professor at Columbia University. He is a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences and the John Bates Clark Medal . He is also the former Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank...
and Amartya Sen
Amartya Sen
Amartya Sen, CH is an Indian economist who was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to welfare economics and social choice theory, and for his interest in the problems of society's poorest members...
, WHO
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...
Director-General Margaret Chan
Margaret Chan
Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun, OBE JP is the Director-General of the World Health Organization . Chan was elected by the Executive Board of the WHO on 8 November 2006, and was endorsed in a special meeting of the World Health Assembly on the following day...
, Women for Women International CEO
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
Zainab Salbi
Zainab Salbi
Zainab Salbi is an Iraqi American writer, activist and social entrepreneur who is co-founder and president of Washington-based Women for Women International.-Early years:...
, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, writer Arundhati Roy
Arundhati Roy
Arundhati Roy is an Indian novelist. She won the Booker Prize in 1997 for her novel, The God of Small Things, and has also written two screenplays and several collections of essays...
and former U.S. Secretaries of State George Mitchell and James A. Baker III.
Episodes
The July 2002 pilot episode "Saddam’s Ultimate Solution" was hosted by former Assistant Secretary of State and chief State DepartmentUnited States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
spokesman James Rubin
James Rubin
James Philip "Jamie" Rubin is a former diplomat and journalist. He is currently an executive editor at Bloomberg News. Having served in the State Department during the administration of President Bill Clinton, he became a Sky News television news journalist and commentator...
. It focused on Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
’s biological and chemical weapons and the wider threat they imply. In a host interview broadcasted immediately following the episode, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute
American Enterprise Institute
The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research is a conservative think tank founded in 1943. Its stated mission is "to defend the principles and improve the institutions of American freedom and democratic capitalism—limited government, private enterprise, individual liberty and...
Richard Perle
Richard Perle
Richard Norman Perle is an American political advisor, consultant, and lobbyist who began his career in government, a senior staff member to Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson on the Senate Armed Services Committee in the 1970’s...
stated that "the thing that is brought home so clearly in this film is the connection among terrorist organizations now implicating Saddam Hussein directly with Al Qaeda".
Reception
Wide Angle programs have won numerous awards, including an Emmy AwardEmmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
, the Sigma Delta Chi Award
Sigma Delta Chi Award
The Sigma Delta Chi Awards are presented annually by the Society of Professional Journalists for excellence in journalism.- History :The Awards, according to the SPJ, did not begin in 1932 when the society chose six individuals for their contributions to journalism. In 1939 the awards program began...
, the Chicago International Television Hugo award, the Gabriel Award
Gabriel Award
The Gabriel Awards were originated by the Catholic Academy for Communication Arts Professionals in 1965. They were designed to honor works of broadcast excellence that have a positive and creative treatment of concerns to mankind....
, several top awards from the South Asian Journalists Association
South Asian Journalists Association
The South Asian Journalists Association was founded in 1994 in New York City. South Asia refers to India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Bangladesh and Nepal. The current president is Jigar Mehta, Previously a Video Journalist for the New York Times.SAJA celebrates its 15th anniversary July...
(SAJA), citations from the Overseas Press Club
Overseas Press Club
The Overseas Press Club of America was founded in 1939 in New York City by a group of foreign correspondents. The wire service reporter Carol Weld was a founding member...
, and 22 Cine Golden Eagle
CINE
CINE is a consortium formulated to depict American life and thought realistically for a global audience. CINE recognizes and fosters the highest quality of non-theatrical film and video production through its semi-annual film competitions....
awards.
The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
had a mixed review of the first program "Saddam’s Ultimate Solution", especially concerning the interview of Richard Perle
Richard Perle
Richard Norman Perle is an American political advisor, consultant, and lobbyist who began his career in government, a senior staff member to Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson on the Senate Armed Services Committee in the 1970’s...
by host James Rubin
James Rubin
James Philip "Jamie" Rubin is a former diplomat and journalist. He is currently an executive editor at Bloomberg News. Having served in the State Department during the administration of President Bill Clinton, he became a Sky News television news journalist and commentator...
:
Focal Point
In December 2008, Wide Angle launched, Focal Point, a new online-exclusive documentary series. Like Wide Angle, Focal Point offers a deeper understanding of forces shaping the world today through compelling human stories, with Focal Point providing a venue for shorter, less formal pieces.In the first episode of Focal Point, "From Jihad to Rehab", Canadian journalist Nancy Durham
Nancy Durham
Nancy Durham is a journalist for the CBC. She is married to Oxford philosopher William Newton-Smith. Nancy Durham was educated at York University in Toronto.-External links:*...
reports from a rehabilitation center in Saudi Arabia, where art therapy and religious re-education are being used to reform militant jihadists.