When Al Jazeera began in 1996, there were few broadcast news presentations in the Middle East that were not state-run. Cable options were limited to CNN, which was already taken on an American slant, and the BBC World Service, which was having trouble keeping its Middle East bureaus running because of censorship. The time was ripe for Al Jazeera to fill a gap in the market for regional and international news free from the ruling-party propaganda of countries like Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. Over the years, by maintaining their fierce editorial independence while reporting on some of the most repressive regimes in the world, Al Jazeera has made many enemies. At no time, however, was their position more at risk than when the Bush administration began its campaign of intimidation, censorship, and perception management in the days soon after September 11th and in the lead up to the Iraq war. Of the many dictatorial regimes Al Jazeera had faced, the democratic US proved to be their most formidable opponent.
I have seen Egyptian Jihane Noujaim’s documentary Control Room several times, and each time it was emotionally difficult to watch. The cinema verité technique used by the director accurately captures the feeling among the Arab news media as one of “damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”
The Middle Eastern media is a closely-knit family, and many of the same people do the media jobs on different networks and platforms. In essence, they all share the political inclination that Hassan Ibrahim, who I immensely respect, shares through his skeptical questioning in the documentary. He’s not exactly a radical. He worked for the BBC until their troubles in the 90’s, and then went to work for Al Jazeera. And I’ll put i...
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...of Qatar and more figuratively in the sense of their independence from state-run, state-censored media of the Middle East.
Given the choice between the state-run medias in Syria or Egypt or Saudi Arabia or Morocco, and Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera gives people a true chance at more impartial, and certainly more open, news. Because most people in the Middle East have their own satellite dish and receiver, there is little way for these governments to block it, also. They provide viewers with what they need to know. Al Jazeera might not be perfect; it might also give viewers some of what they want to feel, but it is still in its adolescence and hasn’t yet had the benefit of long experience like many Western media outlets. But when they do well, they are closer to promoting a democratic ideal than Bush ever was able to. Al Jazeera informs the people of the Middle East.
Piers Robinson: The CNN Effect: The Myth of News, Foreign Policy, and Intervention, (London: Routledge, 2002), pp.7-24.
Late May 2011, a YouTube channel by the name of ksawomen2drive posted an eight minute video. The first day it was up it became the most viewed clip in Saudi Arabia, and became so popular it started trending worldwide. Any non-Arabic viewer might have been slightly baffled by its popularity. To them it would merely be a clip of a woman in a hijab driving while talking to her passenger, and a poorly filmed clip at that. The hundreds of thousands of Arabic viewers however, saw something all together quite different. They were witnessing a crime take place, an act of dissent. The video gained over 600 000 the few days it was up, but was taken down following the arrest of the driver shown in the clip. Manal al-Sharif was that driver.
Shaheen, J. (1985). Media Coverage of the Middle East: Perception of Foreign Policy. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, v482, pp. 160-75.
A good part of Outfoxed focuses on the company's blurring of news and commentary, how anchormen and reporters are encouraged to repeatedly use catch-phrases like "some people say..." as a means of editorializing within a supposedly objective news story; how graphics, speculation and false information are repeated over-and-over throughout the broadcast day until it appears to become fact, and in doing so spreads like a virus and copied on other networks. A PIPA/Knowledge Networks Poll points to glaring, fundamental misconceptions about the news perpetuated upon Fox viewers, versus information received from widely respected news-gathering organizations like NPR and PBS. Asked, for instance, "Has the U.S. found links between Iraq & al-Qaeda?" only 16% of PBS and NPR viewers answered "yes," but a frightening 67% of Fox viewers believed there had.
Sachs, S, (2003). A Nation at War: Mideast Coverage; Arab Media Portray War as Killing Field. New York Times.
As a viewer, the documentary’s intention to inform is more completely fulfilled by research conducted beyond the scope of the camera lens. Had I never written this paper, for instance, the reason for all the violence embedded within the subject matter would remain as enigmatic as the documentary itself.
...against underdevelopment and marginalisation in Darfur, neither Turabi’s name not the Islamist involvement has been featured much in the media coverage of the conflict. How the media handles crises can be descriptive; “..the crisis will become front-page, top-of-the-news story. Print and television reporters, photographers and camera people flood the area.” Victims, villains and heroes are created and “the crisis dominates coverage of international news, and for a while even domestic events.” It becomes the focus of debate in congress moral guide to the nation. “The success of that morality play story line rests on the fact that it is easy to understand and appreciate.. The set piece is ideal material for television and superficial print coverage” The superficial and exaggerated press coverage is clear, many news reports have accepted propaganda and are uninspiring.
Shaheen, Jack. “The Media’s Image of Arabs.” Writing on the River. 3rd ed. Boston: McGraw,
The media vilifies the Arab states e.g. Iran, Iraq, Syria even when it was America who installed the dictatorships in the first place for fear of single Islamic entity forming, and they support Israel who are in the process of genocide against Palestinians.
Gerner, Deborah J., and Philip A. Schrodt. "Middle Eastern Politics." Understanding the Contemporary Middle East. 3rd ed. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2008. 85 -136. Print.
Gerner, Deborah J., and Philip A. Schrodt. "Middle Eastern Politics." Understanding the contemporary Middle East. 3rd ed. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2008. 85 -136. Print.
One of the fundamental roles of the media in a liberal democracy is to critically scrutinise governmental affairs: that is to act as a watchdog of government to ensure that the government can be held accountable by the public. However, the systematic deregulation of media systems worldwide is diminishing the ability of citizens to meaningfully participate in policymaking process governing the media (McChesney, 2003, p. 126). The relaxation of ownership rules and control, has resulted in a move away from diversity of production to a situation where media ownership is becoming increasing concentrated by just a few predominantly western global conglomerates (M...
One way in which government achieves this objective, is by its ability to misuse the media’s ability to set the agenda. Contrary to popular belief, media is in fact an enormous hegemony. In fact, separate independent news organizations do not exist. Rather than creating an independent structured agenda of their own, generally lesser smaller news organizations adapt to a prepared agenda, previously constructed by a higher medium. Based upon this information alone, it is quite apparent that media functions in adherence to the characteristics of a hierarchy.
Shaw, Anup . Media, Propaganda and September 11 . 26 July 2002. 27 Mar. 2004 .
The Middle East is a place often portrayed by violence and terrorism. Often times we allow the media to misconstrue our minds and we fall into and believe the typical stereotypes imposed on us. To say you truly understand the conflicts and issues that occur in the Middle East, I believe you must have had to physically been there or have experienced it. In the fictional novels, The Sirens of Baghdad by Yasmina Khadra and De Niro’s Game by Rawi Hage, we are given two different portrayals and views of the lifestyle that goes on in the Middle East. Although the stories are fictional, many would say that there is some truth behind there “stories”.