The Lexicographer's Rules

"The Afghans were very news hungry. They really trusted the BBC. After years of abuse of the media under various regimes, the BBC was seen as more trustworthy than the national service. Some thought it was the national service. They hadn't a clue where it was located. People would often tell me they thought the BBC was a village in Afghanistan."

—Guardian. Broadcast by the BBC World Service, the educational and instructional program "Naway Kor, Naway Jwand," or "New Home, New Life," has 35 million listeners in two languages. It is based on the template of a show called "The Archers," devised in the 1950s to instruct rural listeners in modern farming methods. "Storytelling is traditional to Afghan culture, but the soap opera format is not. In the first few weeks, listeners were mystified by the way the show kept ending just as it was getting good. 'They would wonder why the programme stopped after 15 minutes in the middle of the story.' ...[T]he slow build-up of western-style drama didn't sit with Afghan storytellingÑmore had to happen in each episode to hold the audience. 'At one point, they had to have a cliff hanger at the end of each scene. I thought, my God, if the Archers writers had to deliver a cliff hanger at the end of each scene they'd be driven mad.'"'

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