A pan-Arab 24-hour satellite news and commentary channel set a new model of interpreting the political and social aspects of the Arab World, presenting in a controversial manner issues of Arab concern. Al Jazeera emerged in an Arab media context where “audiences were used to monolithic media performances” (Rinnawi 2006, p. 97), capturing both Western and Arab attention through its “uncensored news and free access to information” (Byrd and Kawarabayashi 2003, p. 2). Before Al Jazeera, the Arab public regarded Arab media as an extension of their governments. Moreover, the Western popular broadcasts in Arabic (BBC, Radio Monte Carlo and Voice of America) were perceived as foreign sources of information aiming at serving the purposes of their countries (Bahry 2001).
With this background, Al Jazeera had immediate success with its forum on sensitive political, cultural and economic issues. It became the leader in the Arab public sphere . The channel “struck like lightning” (Bahry 2001, p. 90), not only influencing the evolution of broadcasting in the Middle East, but also developing itself as an important player in shaping the Arab public opinion by introducing intriguing topics on Arab politics. The channel’s form of reporting has led to diplomatic crises within the Middle East and to criticism from British and American government officials. At the writing of this chapter, four Arab countries—Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt—are still imposing an air, sea and ground blockade against Qatar since June 5, 2017, asking it, among other things, to shut Al Jazeera.
Moreover, with its capacity to challenge the Western domination on news flow, Al Jazeera became a major player in the global media scene. This chapter is concerned with the evolution of Al Jazeera within the context of the North-South debates on news flow, the New World Information and Communication Order and the regional media landscape.
The Development of the Arab Media
The pan-Arab media, constituting press, television and new media, are capturing scholars’ attention due to intense developments. The French invasion of Egypt in 1798 and the Ottoman domination of Arab lands (1517–1918) spread rudimentary forms of media across Arabia (Lahlali 2011). In the late nineteenth century, the media outlets were used to spread religious and propagandistic messages. The oral culture of the Arab communities was the main factor which contributed to the rise of radio as the most popular media outlet (Lahlali 2011). The pan-Arab media included two forms, press and radio. However, in the period between the 1950s and 1980s, media were perceived as the voices of governments. Such was the case when talking about the Egyptian Voice of the Arabs, the Libyan Voice of the Great Arab Homeland, the Lebanese newspaper Al-Hawadith and the Egyptian magazine Al-Musawar (Rotheray 2010). In the 1970s, the Arab television systems were facing an insufficiency of local program production, governmental censorship of news content, and shortages in human capital and financial resources (Ayish 2001).
Ayish (2001) categorized the evolution of the Arab media into three main historical periods: the colonial period, the post-colonial period and the 1990s period. The colonial period saw the development of the Arab media upon the propagandistic pillars of the colonial powers, while the post-colonial era transformed media into an instrument to promote nationalism and independence. Two distinct phases characterize the post-colonial period: the first phase is concentrated around the growth in literacy rate which led to the creation of training centers and academic courses to train journalists; the second phase is marked by the revolution in the expansion of digital information via new media technologies. In 1976, the Arab Satellite Communication Organization (ARABSAT), “one of the world’s top satellite operators and by far the leading satellite services provider in the Arab world” (as it describes itself ), propelled Arabs into a new level of media innovation. ARABSAT currently holds four satellites and more than 350 TV channels and 160 radio stations which transmit information to the Middle East, Africa and Europe (Rotheray 2010).
In the 1990s, satellite television increased in popularity as Arabs were looking for representative voices of their issues, not of their governments. Technological progress, in time, led to creating such representative voices. Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990 had a major impact on international and Arab media, revealing the importance of television in providing information in real time during armed conflicts. CNN broadcasting of the Baghdad attack represented the first live television war, introducing a new behavior among the Arab audience, which developed an appetite for rapid access via television to new pieces of information (Al-Jaber 2004). Moreover, the Gulf War stimulated the Arab viewers to look for new sources of information other than the governmental ones, which were no longer credible. CNN’s images of the bombings and smart weapons dominated the television screens globally (Khatib 2009). Following the “CNN effect” (Powers 2009), the developments of the Middle Eastern media occurred at a fast pace and included an increase of channels and physical expansion of satellite capacity (Sakr 2001).
Therefore, the Arab media landscape changed in the 1990s, when Arab satellite channels started to multiply, reaching the number of 60 in 1997. ARABSAT was established in 1976 and, in 2000, two other satellites, NILESAT and THURAYYA, were contributing to the information transfer to public and private sectors (Lahlali 2011). Many television channels started to flourish, and the following networks were established: Middle Eastern Broadcasting Centre (MBC), Arab Radio and Television Network (ART), Orbit Television, Radio Network, The Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC), Arab News Network (ANN), Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya.
The increasing number of privatized channels and social media sites within the globalization phenomenon led to the enhancement of the Arab public sphere . Technological developments enabled the Arab public to access satellite channels and to create a forum where the exchange of information and news included raising queries and challenges to the totalitarian nature of the Arab regimes. The Arab virtual sphere emboldened the citizens to cooperate and unify their voices as a reaction against the malpractices of their governments.
Historical Overview of Al Jazeera Arabic
The unsuccessful attempt to establish BBC Arabic Television stimulated the Qatari royal family in 1996 to set the basis of a new and controversi...