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It's been an eventful year for Over to You but if there's one theme that has cropped up over and over again it's the impact that new technology and social media is having on broadcasters like the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú World Service.

Sure, you might argue, the discussion over the potential benefits of this kind of innovation has been high on the agenda for some time (possibly ad nauseam for some) but now it's more than an academic conversation. The advent of broadband in East Africa, the tussle in China over control of social media like Facebook and the deployment of Twitter in relaying events from Iran this year - well, it all adds up to a significant number of us - consumers of radio, television, print and the internet - being affected by these changes.

As Africa gets more connected - what impact does this have for big broadcasters? Picture: Getty Images

And that's why we decided to invite three important opinion-shapers in the media world, with very different perspectives, to give us an insight into how they think things will develop over the next year.

Ying Chan is the Director of the China Media Project at Hong Kong University in addition to being a Professor of Journalism.

Salim Amin is the chairman of A24 Media in Nairobi in Kenya. A24 is an online video agency which enables local journalists to report their stories from an African perspective and to get them heard and seen by a wider audience.

And they were joined in the studio by the relatively new Director of the World Service, Peter Horrocks, a man who has been at the vanguard of the move towards multi- media and towards encouraging more contributions from a hitherto passive audience.

I hope you'll think it's a fascinating discussion; it's certainly one which highlights some of the disadvantages and unintended consequences of the media revolution. The divisions between the haves and have nots, the urban and the rural, the developed world and the developing one, are in constant flux and are forcing regular reappraisals of how media bosses should adapt their policies.

For Salim and Ying, it's all about empowering Africa and Asia to report their own lives to the rest of the world rather than having the major international networks do it for them. For Peter, it's about broadening the sources of information and opinion to enhance our level of understanding of what's happening in the world.

The World Service may be regarded as more thoughtful than other big media outlets but it is still a broadcasting "superpower" and the likes of Salim Amin and Professor Ying Chan want to see a shift in the balance of power away from the West.

But that's what they think. I wonder whether you will agree with their views. Let us know whether you want to hear more reporting of your region by local journalists. And whether you feel that the advance of technology means you have access to better media coverage - or whether you feel left behind because new technological developments are slow in reaching your part of the world.

Rajan Datar is the Presenter, Over To You

Over To You is your chance to have your say about the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú World Service and its programmes. It airs at 10:40 and 23:40 every Saturday, and atÌý02:40 on Sunday (GMT).Ìý

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They are to this day, the very epitome of what the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú does best and a symbol of the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's global mission: to provide impartial, judicious, clear analysis of what's going on in the four corners of the planet.

And this week on Over To You I talk to three of this strange breed known as foreign correspondents: Allan Little, now a roving "Special Correspondent" but formerly of the parishes of Johannesburg, Paris and Moscow as well as being a war-zone veteran; Emma Jane Kirby, currently Paris correspondent but previously posted to Geneva and Brussels; and Natalia Antelava, formerly Central Asia Correspondent, now based in Beirut but when we spoke to her in the midst of covering a heavy terrorist bombing incident in Baghdad.

And what a fascinating insight this conversation provided too.

Allan has witnessed Velvet revolutions, Gulf Wars and Balkan conflicts and has strong views on the ethics of war-zone reporting.

Natalia is originally Georgian, not British and she sheds light on why dangerous places hold a strange fascination for reporters like her. While Emma Jane explains how she got one of the most memorable interviews of her career with a woman who had chosen to end her life at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland.

Listeners posed a variety of questions - from how do you know who to contact when you land in a strange situation in order to start reporting? To what's the effect on your mental and emotional state and family life?

And the answers were illuminating. So please give the programme a listen and let us know your reactions.

I have often wondered if foreign correspondents have the same level of humility as the rest of us - whether their ego drives them into gung-ho behaviour that isn't necessarily to anyone's benefit except their own careers?

I needn't have worried. Three more sensitive and thoughtful people you couldn't hope to meet.

Rajan Datar is the Presenter, Over To You.

Over To You is your chance to have your say about the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú World Service and its programmes. It airs at 10:40 and 23:40 every Saturday, and atÌý02:40 on Sunday (GMT).Ìý

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This week - like plenty of other World Service programmes - one of our topics is the conference - although as you would expect, our special interest is in worldwide media coverage of this important event.

But the news story threatened to derail our plans. We'd arranged for Rajan to talk to Tanim Ahmed, the Assistant Editor of the Bangladeshi newspaper, , and he kindly said he would go to the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's studio in the conference centre.

We were surprised when he didn't turn up at the appointed time - and not a little concerned about the potential gap this might leave in the programme.

Riot Policeman stop activists during a protest in Copenhagen on December 16, 2009. Credit: Getty Images.

When I managed to make contact with him he'd been waiting - in the snow - for over an hour to get into the conference centre. The large demonstration that was taking place that day - and made headline news - meant that no one could get in or out.

Eventually he made it to the studio, to give Rajan an idea of how the climate change discussions were being reported in Bangladesh - a country where the effects of global warming are already keenly felt.

In the course of the interview he made the point that the problems facing Bangladesh are more of a story elsewhere than in Bangladesh.

"People living in Bangladesh face climate change every day", he told Rajan in the interview. "So to them, they hadn't realised that it was that big a news story for the rest of the world that the monsoon was not coming when it was supposed to."

By contrast, making contact with Matt Frei, the presenter of Americana, was easy.

He responded to a comment from a listener, Ulric Schollaert from Brussels, Belgium, who feels that Americana shouldn't be covering the same American stories as other programmes - and he also talked about the challenges of being a non-American, presenting the United States to an audience which is, in parts, American.

Another listener, Ibrahim Umar Abdulkarin, contacted Over To You from Nigeria to ask whether it might be a good idea for the World Service to broadcast a programme for the disabled.

I phoned him to find out more, and he told me that he's blind, and so has a special interest in the topic. He felt that the type of programme he was suggesting would be useful for those who are disabled - and also for those who aren't but whose preconceptions might be challenged if they knew more about the subject.

Rajan discussed this with Peter White, the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's disability affairs correspondent, who has some interesting - and not entirely predictable - views on the matter, as you can hear in this week's programme.

But you may not agree with Peter - or Ibrahim. It would be interesting to know what you think.

Cathy Packe is the producer of Over To You.

Over To You is your chance to have your say about the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú World Service and its programmes. It airs at 10:40 and 23:40 every Saturday, and atÌý02:40 on Sunday (GMT).Ìý

• Listen to previous episodes ofÌýOver To You
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A on the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's Africa Have Your Say online section has caused controversy across the internet.

You can listen to the radio show by clicking here.

David Stead, the programme's editor, explains the decision:

Africa Have Your Say debated a bill proposing to make gay activities punishable by death in Uganda. The programme asked:

Should homosexuals face execution? Yes, we accept it is a stark and disturbing question. But this is the reality behind an Anti-Homosexuality Bill being debated on Friday by the Ugandan parliament which would see some homosexual offences punishable by death. The bill proposes: Life imprisonment for those convicted of a homosexual act. The death sentence where the offender has HIV, is a 'serial offender' or the other person is under 18. Imprisonment for seven years for 'attempted homosexuality'. The bill claims to 'protect the...traditional family values of the people of Uganda', but it has prompted widespread international condemnation. Homosexuality is regarded as taboo in much of Africa, where it is often regarded as a threat to cultural, religious and social values. Has Uganda gone too far? Should there be any level of legislation against homosexuality? Should homosexuals be protected by legislation as they are in South Africa? What would be the consequences of this bill to you? How will homosexual 'offences' be monitored? Send us your views.

The editors of the programme thought long and hard about using this question which prompted a lot of internal debate.

We agree that it is a stark and challenging question, but think that it accurately focuses on and illustrates the real issue at stake.

If Uganda's democratically elected MPs vote to proceed with the Anti-Homosexuality Bill this week they will bring onto the statute book legislation that could condemn people to death for some homosexual activities.

We published it alongside clear explanatory text which gave the context of the bill itself (see above). And as we said at the top of our debate page, we accept it is a stark and disturbing question. But this is the reality behind the bill.

This issue has already sparked much debate around the world and understandably led to us receiving many e-mails and texts. We have sought to moderate these rigorously while at the same time trying to reflect the varied and hugely diverse views about homosexuality in Africa.

David Stead is Editor of Africa Have Your Say.

You canÌýlisten to the radio show by clicking here.

More coverage about the bill from Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú World Service:

Outlook: Homosexuality in Uganda (2 December, 2009)
Uganda considers new anti-gay lawÌý(16 October, 2009)

Over To You is your chance to have your say about the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú World Service and its programmes. It airs at 10:40 and 23:40 every Saturday, and atÌý02:40 on Sunday (GMT).Ìý

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Here in the Over To You office we're always looking out for interesting media issues to bring to your attention, but they are not often quite as chilling as the topic we cover in this week's programme.

The safety of journalists is something that's taken very seriously here at the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú, and a great deal of care is taken to ensure that no one is deliberately put at unnecessary risk. But some parts of the world are extremely hazardous for reporters, and for the cameramen, fixers and other colleagues who accompany them.

Relatives, colleagues and supporters march at a cemetery in the Manila suburban area of Paranaque on December 6, 2009 to bury the remains of Daniel Tiamzon, a UNTV journalist. Picture: Getty Images

Nowhere is more dangerous than the Philippines, where, at the end of November, 57 people were massacred in an ambush - and 31 of them were from the media, trying to go about their daily job.

The matter was highlighted this week by the , which sent a delegation to Manila to talk to the authorities there. You can hear the IFJ's spokesman explaining to Rajan, on this week's programme, that drastic action is needed to guarantee the safety of journalists.Ìý

"Killing journalists has been risk-free," he told Rajan.

"We have no knowledge of any case which has been prosecuted, and the people found guilty punished, for killing journalists - and this needs to change."

On a different subject completely, we also turn our attention to sport. I'm not much of a football expert myself (one football-mad member of the Over To You team - Rajan - is enough!) - but I do know that football is going to be important next year, particularly in Africa, with the Cup of Nations taking place in Angola in January - and then of course the World Cup in South Africa starting in June.

But currently World Service listeners are being asked to vote for the African Footballer of the Year - which prompted one listener, Arthur Kintu, to ask how the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú ensures that no one can vote twice.

Arthur lives in Uganda but when I spoke to him he told me he supports the Nigerian national team - although he didn't disclose who he'll be voting for as player of the year. You can hear how David Stead, Editor of African Productions, ensures that there is no voting fraud in this week's Over To You.

And also on the subject of polls, one of our regular listeners, Ishmael Larkai, who lives Accra in Ghana, suggested the World Service should hold a poll to vote for the Best Presenter, Best Overall Programme and so on - he suggested various categories, and I'm sure others could come up with more.

I don't think we can get into a serious poll - as David Stead explained to us, it'sÌý fiendishly complicated and long drawn-out business - but we're certainly interested in hearing who you think deserves an accolade for their work in the last year.

Cathy Packe is the Producer, Over To YouÌýÌý

Over To You is your chance to have your say about the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú World Service and its programmes. It airs at 10:40 and 23:40 every Saturday, and atÌý02:40 on Sunday (GMT).

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This week Afghanistan again hogged much of the news coverage - this time because of the injection of 30,00 extra US troops to the region by President Obama. This was followed by raised hopes for a new counter-insurgency strategy and speculation as to how much other NATO allies would contribute to the renewed military effort.

British soliders from 1st Battalion The Royal Welsh prepare to deploy to Afghanistan. Credit: Getty Images

In Bush House however, home of the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú World Service, a different kind of strategy was being discussed. How do you retain the interest of listeners in the Afghanistan story, eight years down the line? While the military top brass worry about "losing the initiative" in Afghanistan, the media worries about losing the attention of its audience.

A new research project, conducted in Istanbul, Los Angeles and Barcelona, gauging the reactions of the public to news reporting of the conflict threw up some interesting results. For example, the drip-drip effect of relaying daily news of violence and casualties is a turn-off for some of the audience - either because they can't stomach the gory detail of the death toll or because they become numbed by it, to the extent it starts feeling like "old news".

One respondent in Barcelona said she no longer knows what the war is about, which may suggest that the extent and nature of the coverage may actually be working against our better understanding of the situation. Or, as one senior journalist in the newsroom commented, during a meeting to discuss the research, some people just aren't interested.

"People do care!" World Today newsroom editor Simon Peeks insisted to me when I interviewed him for Over To You. And he maintained that his team is always thinking of different ways to treat daily developments from Afghanistan - to escape, for instance, from the usual inner circle of experts, military figures and politicians trawling over the ramifications of each episode in the conflict.

A recent Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú World Service news item about Afghanistan

But this of course cannot mean resorting to gimmickry or pandering to the lowest common denominator. It makes for painful and wearing listening at times, but then, that's the nature of a long drawn-out conflict like this, with which many of us, whether we like it or not, are associated.

Mike Fox, who co-ordinated this largely anecdotal but timely project, is very keen to hear your views on this. World Service listeners are without doubt better informed and more intelligent than the average, but you are also rightly more demanding.

What is the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú not providing you with when you hear reports about fighting and casualties in Afghanistan, or about election fraud or dithering amongst the political classes as to what to do next?

Let us know - your input could make a difference.

Oh, and listen to this week's programme for an interesting discussion as to whether divisions in Rwanda and Burundi between the Hutus and Tutsis is correctly described as "ethnic". Martin Plaut, Africa Editor, gives a stout defence of his approach to the issue.Ìý And staying with Africa, your comments about the validity of the "Only in Africa" interactive segment on the "Focus on Africa" programme rumble on...

In fact interactivity, now I come to think of it, is one very good reason why media coverage of long-running conflicts will always progress. Programmes like World Have Your Say and, yes, Over To You, increasingly inform the debate and influence the decisions made at the top. So keep your views and contributions flowing!

Rajan Datar is the Presenter, Over To You.

Over To You is your chance to have your say about the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú World Service and its programmes. It airs at 10:40 and 23:40 every Saturday, and atÌý02:40 on Sunday (GMT).

• Listen to previous episodes of Over To You
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If you're not a regular reader of our African news pages, you may have missed this clip of the Focus on Africa team showing how they gather stories and content to broadcast on Africa's foremost news and current affairs programme.

You can listen to Focus on Africa here (opens in a new window).

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