World News Connection
World News Connection (WNC) is the online offering from the Open Source Center (OSC) (formerly the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS)) that replaces the hard-copy regionally-oriented "pink books" that used to be among the most prized government publications among academics, who received them free. Due to a shift in the 1990s toward copyright compliance, the online version is a limited rendition (about half) of what is available for internal government use.
WNC provides news from around the world, translated into English, usually within 24-72 hours from the time of the original publication or broadcast. The information is usually the full text of newspaper articles, television and radio broadcasts, online sources, conference proceedings, periodicals, and non-classified technical reports. This information is collected and translated to aid decision makers at the highest levels of the executive and legislative branches of the U.S. Government who need to know what is happening abroad and how it is being reported locally. WNC is especially useful for access to local thoughts and perceptions for those who don't know the local language. It covers 130 countries, including many out of the way places not generally covered by other news services. It also contains news analyses by OSC specialists. [1]
DIALOG, a commercial search service under Proquest, offers an alternative but fee-based means of accessing WNC content. WNC material is also available from Acquire Media, Country Watch, East View Information Services, NISC Pty Ltd (South Africa), and Westlaw. [2]
