Al Jazeera; How to improve objectiveness of citizen journalists
Table of Contents
Introduction
Al Jazeera is a news provider launched in Qatar in 1996. The founder of the Al Jazeera network was Sheik Hamad, former emir of Qatar. The reason Hamad launched Al Jazeera was because he was disappointed with the lack of freedom of press in his country (Allied Media Corp.). The first rule in Al Jazeera’s code of ethics is that they “adhere to the journalistic values of honesty, courage, fairness, balance, independence, credibility and diversity, giving no priority to commercial or political over professional consideration.” (Al Jazeera, 2010), this rule has become the core theme of the Al Jazeera philosophy.
The political view of established media in most Arabic countries, were often on the upper hand of the Muslim governments. Because of this political rigidity, Al Jazeera has become very popular in the Muslim world by providing them a bit more controversial, but also more credible news source (Zayani, 2006).
In January 2013 Al Jazeera announced they were going to launch a new television network called; Al Jazeera America. Even though the channel has a current reach of 55 million households, it hasn’t been a big success yet with only 13 thousand viewer’s average per day (Atkinson, 2013).They promote themselves as “unbiased”, and “fact based” (Al Jazeera America, 2013), by doing this they tried to emphasize their differences with the traditional news stations in the US (Fox News, CNN, MSNBC etc.), who are often accused for having a biased agenda.
Important channels that Al Jazeera has to compete with over viewers are CNN and Fox News. According the a poll carried out by Gallup, eight per cent of Americans says Fox News is their main source of news, and seven per cent get their news from CNN (Saad, 2013). Another big news channel in the US is MSNBC. In comparison with Fox News and CNN, MSNBC was found to be the most opinionated (Pew Research Center, 2013).
Al Jazeera and their competitors have already integrated
Introduction
Al Jazeera is a news provider launched in Qatar in 1996. The founder of the Al Jazeera network was Sheik Hamad, former emir of Qatar. The reason Hamad launched Al Jazeera was because he was disappointed with the lack of freedom of press in his country (Allied Media Corp.). The first rule in Al Jazeera’s code of ethics is that they “adhere to the journalistic values of honesty, courage, fairness, balance, independence, credibility and diversity, giving no priority to commercial or political over professional consideration.” (Al Jazeera, 2010), this rule has become the core theme of the Al Jazeera philosophy.
The political view of established media in most Arabic countries, were often on the upper hand of the Muslim governments. Because of this political rigidity, Al Jazeera has become very popular in the Muslim world by providing them a bit more controversial, but also more credible news source (Zayani, 2006).
In January 2013 Al Jazeera announced they were going to launch a new television network called; Al Jazeera America. Even though the channel has a current reach of 55 million households, it hasn’t been a big success yet with only 13 thousand viewer’s average per day (Atkinson, 2013).They promote themselves as “unbiased”, and “fact based” (Al Jazeera America, 2013), by doing this they tried to emphasize their differences with the traditional news stations in the US (Fox News, CNN, MSNBC etc.), who are often accused for having a biased agenda.
Important channels that Al Jazeera has to compete with over viewers are CNN and Fox News. According the a poll carried out by Gallup, eight per cent of Americans says Fox News is their main source of news, and seven per cent get their news from CNN (Saad, 2013). Another big news channel in the US is MSNBC. In comparison with Fox News and CNN, MSNBC was found to be the most opinionated (Pew Research Center, 2013).
Al Jazeera and their competitors have already integrated