Technology is changing the traditional relationship between broadcasters and their audiences.

For most of its short history, broadcasting has been something of a one way street. Messages have flowed in a steady stream from studio to home but very few have gone in the opposite direction. The tendency has been for the broadcasting elite to hold on to its privileged position, to strictly control access to the airwaves.

Indeed until recently the idea that listeners or viewers might be given the chance to answer back was considered not only undesirable but positively dangerous. Here in Britain democratisation of the airwaves only really began in the late 1960s with limited deregulation and the arrival of local radio and television. With airtime to fill, relatively cheap access programmes took off . Talk shows and phone-ins have been part of the broadcasting landscape ever since.

Such programmes may have been born out of necessity but their popularity today is unquestioned. And all this has happened at the same time as changing technology has made it easier for broadcasters to link up with their audiences.

Clearer telephone lines have helped but the arrival of the fax machine and e-mail has taken communication a stage further, providing listeners with an armoury of weapons with which to contribute, encourage, question or criticise. And now there's the Internet which is opening up new channels of communication and interactivity.

For those who have access to a computer, a telephone and a modem, the Internet allows people from across the globe to share their experiences and discuss issues of common interest. This may be in unregulated areas of the Internet or on websites moderated by service providers or broadcasters .

Although much of the chat on the net is undoubtedly banal and repetitive, it is also increasingly possible to find discussion which both engages the intellect and provides new insights. The BBC News website now runs a variety of 'Talking Points' on the week's top news stories and frequently the contributions add weight to the existing news stories as well as providing ideas for the BBC to develop a story.

In this way users are not just passively reading or listening to the news but are actively engaging with the content and even contributing to the news.

Malaysia's political crisis has played out on the net

Indeed in the past 12 months, the Internet has regularly made headlines of its own. It was credited with helping to break the story of President Clinton's infidelities in the White House, while the Judge in the Louise Woodward trial chose the Internet as the appropriate place to release his full judgement. In Malaysia, the Internet has been used as a battleground in the political battle between Dr Mahathir and his former deputy.

The BBC News site now gets around 5 million page views a week - and almost every major US and European broadcaster is now beginning to realise the importance of this new medium both as a way of engaging new audiences and supporting old ones.

It's against this background that Newstalk aims to combine the immediacy and vitality of the radio phone-in with the extra interactive dimension offered by the Internet.

The programme will be able to draw on comments from the thousands of people who e-mail the BBC News Online web site as well as the traditional BBC World Service radio audience.

Users of the Internet will not only be able to contribute to the programme by e-mail they will also be able to hear it on their computer and see Presenter Robin Lustig live via a Webcamera positioned in his Bush House studio.

Presenter Robin Lustig

Often the best and most contentious parts of a radio phone in happen just as the programme is coming to the end. But with Newstalk the conversations can continue online after the programme is over. And the following week we can bring our radio listeners up-to date on how the conversation developed, with a selection of the best comments.

These new techniques also offer a chance for more listeners to interact directly with BBC broadcasters. Each week on Newstalk a BBC correspondent will take questions - via phone or e-mail - directly from listeners. More questions will be taken later and posted on the website and there_ll be a full transcript of the conversations too.

This may sound like a collection of trendy gimmicks but in reality it is just the start of a process which is seeing broadcasters all over the world taking the opinions of its listeners and viewers more seriously. The BBC has one of the most sophisticated and cosmopolitan audiences in the world, getting more of you to participate directly on air can only enhance the range and vitality of our programmes