The emergence of Al-Jazeera in the Middle East

Résumé du document

Olfa Lamloul, in her book entitled Al-Jazeera, Defiant and Ambiguous Mirror of the Arab World wrote, ‘The short history of the disrespectful Arabic channel Al-Jazeera, broadcast from the emirate of Qatar,provides valuable reference points in the maze of Middle Eastern issues in the post-Cold War period.' In this presentation, we will study the emergence of the Al-Jazeera network in the Middle-East and abroad and the questions arising from such a media development.

First of all, Al-Jazeera, meaning ‘the Island' or ‘the peninsula' in Arabic, was launched on November 1, 1996 in one of the smallest Arab countries by its area, Qatar. The network was created by the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa. Currently, the chairman of the board of the station is Sheikh Tamir Al-Thani, a member of the ruling family. Initially, Al-Jazeera only broadcasted 6 hours of airtime each day but it rapidly became a medium that could no longer be ignored. Indeed, in 1999, it became a channel transmitting around-the-clock information.

To get an idea of its importance, today, Al-Jazeera has 1,400 employees all round the world, 450 journalists of 15 different nationalities, 24 daily newsletters, 7 live broadcasting programs of debate, 15 channels and 2 websites in Arabic and English.

Tags: Al-Jazeera, Middle East media, censorship

Extraits

[...] One of the reasons of Al-Jazeera's popularity is that it signed the resurrection of panarabism. It may be seen as a place where all the interests of Arabs and especially the one of an Arab state are represented. BUT we must have in mind that Al-Jazeera was not the first media to express a public opinion and panarabism. Indeed, the radio La Voix des Arabes under Gamal Abdal Nasser already did it and had a great audience. Then, Al-Jazeera was able to modernize itself and use new technologies to increase its diffusion and diverse itself. [...]

[...] Arabs turned to the transnational level for political debate as it was less constrained. Media like Al-Jazeera offered them a place to express themselves. We can speak of a deterritorialization of the Arab public sphere. The new public sphere has fewer frontiers and is alimented by the Diasporas all around the world thanks to the new networks of communication and information. We saw it, the emergence of new media and especially Al-Jazeera totally reshaped the global media sphere in the Arab world. [...]

[...] In what ways can we link them to the emergence of new media, especially Al-Jazeera? II. The real revolution: the emergence of a supranational public sphere Just to make a recap, the public opinion is closely linked with the notion of public sphere. According to Marc LYNCH, the public sphere refers to those sites of communication within a society in which members of an identifiable public discuss matters of collective concern before an imagined audience. ( ) It makes more sense to conceive of multiple public spheres that emerge around particular issues and in various settings Here we will see that the new media and especially Al-Jazeera and the general context allowed the emergence of a supranational public sphere. [...]

[...] From the creation of Al-Jazeera to the emergence of a transnational public sphere I. The birth and emergence of Al-Jazeera: a revolution in the Arab world? Al-Jazeera was born from the Arab BBC based in London. In this way, we can say that the channel was inspired by Western media. These inspirations allow Al-Jazeera not to have a point of view exclusively based on the Qatar or on the Arab world. It also deals with international issues above all when we know that Al-Jazeera now has aerials all around the world. [...]

[...] It was for instance the first Arab channel to have a show of political debate in live like the ones you can see in the USA. Above all, when Al- Jazeera created its website in 2001, the possibility of self expression increased tenfold. This breaks with the tradition of censorship and media state-control. Furthermore, it is one of the first channels of continuous information of good quality. Olfa Lamloul says that the channel literally turned the media sphere upside down and competed with the Mosque that was the privileged place of the dissenting discourse. [...]