A Brief History of Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera is a Qatar-based news television channel that has over 80 million viewers worldwide. In 1994, BBC Arabic Television was created. This network quickly failed because its primary supporter, the Saudi royal family, ended their funding when BBCATV showed the documentary,"Death of a Princess", which was about the execution of a Saudi Arabian princess. Less than two years later the Emir of Qatar hired many of the former employees of BBCATV and funded the creation of Al Jazeera. Although it was temporarily shut down multiple times in various countries due to its content, Al Jazeera's popularity grew rapidly in Middle Eastern countries.


Viewers grew to an all-time high during the U.S. war in Afghanistan and Iraq when Al Jazeera was able to stay in Taliban territory after all of its competitors. Not only did Al Jazeera win more viewers during the U.S. war in Afghanistan and Iraq, they won more global viewers and became well known worldwide. It became best known for its videotapes of Osama Bin Laden which were seen across the globe. During the War in Iraq, the United States bombed Al Jazeera's Baghdad office in an air strike. Many believe that this was to prevent Al Jazeera's coverage of the war. While covering Afghanistan and Iraq, Al Jazeera also covered the conflict between Israel  and Palestine, making sure that each conflict was given equal time. With an English channel created in 2006, Al Jazeera continues to be a major news source today around the world, but especially in the Middle East.

Interesting Factoids about Al Jazeera:


-Soon after the War in Iraq began, the term "Al Jazeera" became the subject of three times more searches on major search engines than the word "sex" (Usually the leading search term on the Internet).
-Al Jazeera's world-famous logo was chosen by the Emir of Qatar as a part of a contest that allowed the general public to submit logos of their creation. It was drawn by a man in 20 minutes after he heard the contest announced on the radio.
-"Al Jazeera" means "the island", which refers to the Arabian Peninsula.

Al Jazeera: The Voice of the People

"I was immediately struck by the fact that the stories were told by ordinary individuals in their own words and perspectives, not by the reporters themselves," Bruce C. Swaffield states in Al Jazeera: Model News Outlet? (Swaffield 36). The Al Jazeera reporters do a great job of stepping aside and letting the people who actually experienced the story do the talking. This is a great news model because it prevents the reporters from interpreting the story, and allows the participants to tell Al Jazeera's 80 million viewers what really happened. Because Al Jazeera was the first independent news network in the Middle East, it made it possible for the Arab people to speak to the world instead of the reporters on the other news channels who were limited by the state because their channels were state-controlled.


When Al Jazeera gives the people its voice, it does not limit those who are interviewed to scholars, government officials, or others with the "right" credentials. Instead it gives its voice to the average citizen who has something interesting to say. Yes, when it is appropriate and applicable, Al Jazeera will interview a government official, scholar, or someone in power, but for the stories that affect the average citizen they allow the average citizen to do the talking.


Al Jazeera also covers stories that local news channels and U.S. news tend to ignore. For example, in December of 2006 Al Jazeera broadcast a story with Israel's Prime Minister where he admitted that they had nuclear weapons.  One would think that this would be a major story that the world would need to know. The story, however, did not even show up in the Washington Post here in America (Potter 62). Not only does Al Jazeera cover stories that the rest of the world doesn't, it covers many of its stories in more depth than the average news channel. A news story in America normally lasts five or six minutes. Al Jazeera, however, has multiple stories longer than ten minutes during any given news session. This allows the viewer to learn about the story in its entirety, rather than skimming over the basic information.


Al Jazeera's style of news coverage gives its viewers more in-depth information about world events from a more realistic viewpoint. By allowing the average citizen to speak, Al Jazeera allows its viewers to understand what really happens in the world and how it affects them. Also, because Al Jazeera broadcasts stories that other news channels ignore, the viewers receive a more complete picture of world events.

Al Jazeera's Global Perspective

"Al Jazeera is what the internationally-minded elite class really yearns for: a visually stunning, deeply reported description of developments of dozens upon dozens of countries simultaneously," Robert D.Kaplan states in his "Why I Love Al Jazeera" (Kaplen 55). He continues by suggesting that over the course of just a few days when he was actively monitoring Al Jazeera, that he saw multiple events in multiple countries. These events included Eritrean and Ethiopian involvement in the Somali war, an attack on a Sikh temple in Austria, the controversy between the Niger rebels and the Nigerian government in Southern Niger, floods in Bangladesh, problems with the South African economy, and foreign Islamic fighters in the Southern Philippines. Al Jazeera sees the world from a global perspective, and consequently reports news from every corner of the Earth. The news stories that Kaplan viewed when monitoring Al Jazeera are located over a vast stretch of land. From South Africa in the south, Austria in the north, and the Philippines in the East, Al Jazeera is sure to cover every part of the globe with any major event happening in it.


Al Jazeera's headquarters is located in Doha, Qatar, the capitol of a small country in the Arabian Peninsula. Because Doha, or Qatar for that matter, is not an area of major world power, Al Jazeera is able to report on other areas of the world instead of its own country and the nations that affect it. Also, because the Arabian Peninsula is located in the Middle East, a part of the world which produces a lot of newsworthy events, Al Jazeera is able to get a front row seat on the events taking place there. Also, because Qatar is generally a neutral country located in the Middle East, Al Jazeera is  allowed to stay longer than other country's reporters in areas of conflict. However, Al Jazeera does not focus solely on the major issues happening in the world, such as the War in Iraq. Instead, they focus on stories that many others may have ignored, such as an attack on a Sikh temple in Austria. Al Jazeera lives by their motto, "The opinion and the other opinion". This motto, however, could easily be substituted with "The major news and the other news." This "other news" is often happening in parts of the world that most international news stations are not covering, allowing Al Jazeera to have a stronger global perspective. 

CNN & BBC Vs. Al Jazeera: Battle Royale

Al Jazeera has become a major news station in almost every region of the world. There are, however, two major markets that Al Jazeera seems unable to get a substantial toe-hold in: the United States and Great Britain. With Western news channels such as CNN and BBC dominating the news industry in these countries, the citizens of these countries fail to see the news from a perspective besides their own. So what exactly are they missing?


As mentioned in previous entries, Al Jazeera has a global perspective. It brings its viewers news from all areas of the world, even the ones that do not affect the nation of Qatar. CNN and BBC, however, "don't cover foreign news so much as they cover the foreign extensions of Washington or London" (Kaplan 56). When you watch CNN and BBC you will see foreign news, but all of this news affects the United States or Britain in some manner. Common examples include the War in Iraq, natural disasters, and foreign government officials taking office. All of these affect America or Britain--at least indirectly--in some way, shape, or form. On the contrary, the attack of a Sikh temple in Austria would never be found on CNN or BBC. Why? Because it does not affect the U.S. or Britain any way, directly or indirectly.


Al Jazeera makes sure to let the citizens who experience the story do the talking. By doing this,  it gives Al Jazeera a stronger global voice that is untainted by the reporter. When interviewing a survivor of the Haiti earthquake and a Nigerian rebel in Niger, Al Jazeera has  increased its population of global voice by two. Also, by doing this they have increased their area of global voice to both Haiti and Niger. However, when CNN and BBC report these same events, but let their reporters do the talking, their global voice remains the same. Not only does Al Jazeera's global voice expand from interviewing citizens of foreign countries, it also expands from the multiple offices they have worldwide. Wadah Khanfar, the director general of Al Jazeera Network, states that, "We have an extensive network of almost 70 bureaus across the world. This allows us to go beyond the immediacy of headlines and bring a much deeper perspective to issues that incorporate the complexity of historical, social, political, and cultural context for a story,"a technique Al Jazeera calls "journalism in depth" (Swaffield 39).


America and Britain must realize the global news they are missing by refusing to incorporate Al Jazeeera into their TV networks. Yes CNN, and BBC contain international news, but the news is portrayed from a U.S.- and Great Britain-centric perspective. U.S. and British news networks fail to realize that "if you sit in Doha or Mumbai or Nairobi, the world is going to look starkly different than if you sit in Washington or London" (Kaplan 56)

The Effects News has on Society (A Little something to Think About)

When society wants to know what is going on in the world, they usually turn to the news on TV or the newspaper. Some turn to the Internet, but more than likely they are getting their information from websites owned by these same news channels or papers. With the majority of the population turning to these outlets for national and international news, the news organizations receive a lot of power. By choosing what they put on their programs, they control what the majority of the population is informed about. Furthermore, the biases that a news organization has can affect the population's opinion.


If news networks, such as Al Jazeera, portray their news from an in-country perspective and from the average citizen's point of view, its viewers are better able to create their own opinions about foreign issues. Because public opinion tends to influence political policy, news programs are able to influence political policy. Which leads us to the question, "Does the population really need access to a news organization like Al Jazeera that broadcasts events across the world in order to be an effective, informed citized when it comes to national and international politics?"


--Feel free to answer this question with your opinion in the comment space below

Works Cited

Kaplan, Robert D. "WHY I LOVE AL JAZEERA." Atlantic Monthly (10727825) 304.3 (2009): 55-56 Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 29 Oct. 2010.

Potter, Deborah. "What We're Missing." American Journalism Review 29.1 (2007): 62. Literary Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 29 Oct. 2010.

Seib, Philip. "Hegemonic No More: Western Media, the Rise of Al Jazeera, and the Influence of Diverse Voices." International Studies Review 7.4 (2005):601-615. Academic Search Complete.
EBSCO. Web. 29 Oct. 2010.


Swaffield, Bruce C. "Al Jazeera: Model News Outlet?" Quill 97.8 (2009): 36. Literary Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 29 Oct. 2010.