With headquarters in the small country of Qatar, the Al Jazeera television network is lately dominating the internet and real world with 24/7 coverage of events in Egypt, starting with the Day of Anger on January 25, 2011. At the “Million Man March” on February 1, 2011, Al Jazeera correspondents provided live reports from Tahrir Square, the center of Cairo’s protest.
Its reportage has attracted the attention of major American newspapers and untold numbers of internet viewers from around the world. It has received recognition in the Christian Science Monitor, The New York Times as well as awards for its news reporting.
Al Jazeera’s Range of Coverage
In the current coverage of Egypt, the Al Jazeera English network is reporting from the ground through the voices of its correspondents, through live video streams and ongoing news analysis. Newscasters with British, Australian, Arabic and American-English accents demonstrate its capacity for deep background on global subjects that is not duplicated in western media outlets. These well-versed news anchors interview scholars, former presidents and heads of state and cutaway to live news coverage from the European Union and the U.S. State Department. (Business Insider ran brief profiles of Al Jazeera correspondents.)
The tone of several anchors can be abrupt, lacking the polite deference to sources that typify western TV interviewers. These anchors demand answers, and persist in their questioning, often by interruption and restatement. Interviews, correspondent and citizen reports are terminated quickly with rough segues to some new piece of information. There are no sound bites here. These are deep reports, not superficial fluff.
The network expands its coverage with a blog, podcasts, mobile news and RSS syndication. Al Jazeera’s You Tube channel, Facebook page and Twitter stream add to the entire digital dimension of this internet savvy news organization. Every hour a broadcaster reports on Twitter updates from Cairo. In airing this compilation of tweets, Al Jazeera recognizes of the value of citizen journalists. Altogether, the intensity of coverage and overlay of electronic channels makes Al Jazeera an impressive media outlet.
Origins of Al Jazeera and its English Network
“Al jazeera” an Arabic phrase meaning “the island,” and referring to the Arabian Peninsula, gives a strong indication of the network’s origins. Al Jazeera was established in 1996 with a multimillion grant from the Emir of Qatar, allowing partial independence from paid advertisers. Its headquarters is located in Doha, the capital of this small but oil-rich country located in the Arabian Peninsula.
Al Jazeera received its first staff from the BBC’s original, Arabic-language World Service’s TV station, which folded under censorship pressures from the Saudi government. Al Jazeera began broadcasting shortly thereafter in late 1996.
The flagship station was an alternative to state-controlled media in the Mideast, and became one of the most widely viewed Arabic-language networks, rivaling the BBC and CCN International with a viewership estimated at 40 to 50 million.
The year 2003 marked the introduction of its English-language website. The same year, Al Jazeera hired its first English-language journalist from the BBC's Today Programme. It also signed a cooperative agreement with the BBC, displacing its alternative media status to one more closely resembling mainstream media. In 2005, the BBC revived its Arabic-language TV news channel, responding to what it called a “strong demand” for such news service in the Mideast. (World Service confirms Arabic TV ) Al Jazeera followed with a re-launch of its English-language website and the introduction of Al Jazeera English.
Almost immediately, Al Jazeera’s confrontational style led to conflicts with governments ranging from Algeria to Iraq to Spain. Its relations with the United States were initially positive but plummeted during the administration of George W. Bush. During the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003, Al Jazeera offices in Kabul and Baghdad were hit with U.S. missiles, resulting in the death of one reporter, Tareq Ayyoub (Iraq Report: Killed by U.S. Forces).
Al Jazeera's changing status in the west
However, with the network’s wide-ranging coverage of the recent crisis in Egypt, a new stance is emerging from the U.S. government. On January 30, 2011, the Cairo offices of Al Jazeera were raided by Egyptian authorities, six staff imprisoned and the network’s press credential were revoked. In direct response to this, Phillip J. Crowley, the US Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, tweeted the following: “We are concerned by the shutdown of #Al-Jazeera in #Egypt and arrest of its correspondents. Egypt must be open and the reporters released.” (Crowley)
This public statement via new media carries more than a hint of reconciliation between the government and the TV network. The electronic delivery method for Crowley’s statement also has reverberations for the government’s acknowledgment of the power and impact of electronic media.
The future of Al Jazeera
As of 2011, Al Jazeera is available in many Mideast nations, Northern Africa and Europe, through subscription. The TV network also broadcasts throughout the world via satellite and cable. Al Jazeera English reaches approximately 100 million households, even with extremely limited viewership in the United States. Cable companies have not been enthusiastic about including the network despite the professionalism of its news journalists. (Stroehlein)
However, the live, nonstop coverage of the unfolding events in Egypt may transform the popularity of Al Jazeera English among the populace of western countries.
Sources
Alexiou, Joseph. "Meet the Al Jazeera Correspondents Who Are Putting American Coverage of the Egypt Crisis to Shame." Business Insider: The Wire. 28 January 2011.
Children, SOS. "Al Jazeera." 2008. Schools Wikipedia Section. 30 January 2011 .
Chinni, Dante. "Five hours with Al Jazeera in English." 27 November 2006. The Christian Science Monitor. 31 January 2011 .
Crowley, Phillip J. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs. Twitter, 31 January 2011.
"Iraq Report: Killed by U.S. Forces." 10 January 2006. Committee to Protect Journalists. 30 January 2011 .
Stroehlein, Andrew. "Let Al Jazeera English Speak." The Boston Globe. 20 November 2007.
"World Service confirms Arabic TV ." 25 October 2005. BBC News. 30 January 2011 .
