Listening Post: AJE's weekly show covering highlights in the global press

Al Jazeera English's daily program 'Listening Post' is an intriguing overview of the week's international news headlines. The segments are multi-dimensional and cover various aspects of different international news events and broadcasters' coverage:

For example, this week, the main coverage is of President Obama's Europe trip, including an overview on how the French, Turkish, Arab and American press covered his trip. There are interviews with various experts and journalists who comment on how his trip was received in the public, including both praise and skepticism. There is also commentary highlighting Obama not giving interviews to the press during the trip, briefly noting how his first interview as a President was with an Arab broadcaster. Following was 'Global Village Voices', which shows several commentaries submitted by viewers via web video.

The second segment of the show detailed several controversial topics happening throughout the world, including the beating of a 17 year old girl accused of adultery in Pakistan and a story about several Orthodox Jewish newspapers photoshoping out the two women in the Israeli cabinet.

The third segment highlighted the life and press coverage of Jane Goody, the British reality television star who generated mounds of press through her time on the show Big Brother, to her public diagnosis with cancer and up to her funeral. Listening Post thoroughly went through her story, the controversies and skepticism of her fame, Britain's fascination with her life and the debate on how she will be remembered.

Finally, Listening Post wrapped up this week's overview with a YouTube-esque video about Obama and his new Cadillac.

Morales is headline news

Today Evo Morales, President of Bolivia, ended his hunger strike to pass a law that will allow Morales to run for the December election, reserve 14 seats in congress for indigenous candidates and allow expatriates to vote.

If you read the New York Times, you will have to search for the term 'Bolivia' in order to get a paragraph from Reuters about the beginning of the strike, posted on April 10th.

CNN you'll find it buried under Latin American news.

On Al Jazeera English - front page.

Here is one example where AJE's mission to be the 'voice of the south' is realized.

Connection through music

Imagine a teenager, awake late at night, flipping through infomercials and talk shows on TV. In an alternate universe, if Al Jazeera English were a cable channel in North America, the teenager would be able to watch Richard Gizbert's show Playlist, a show that highlights bands from around the world, exploring how the bands came to be and their influence within their countries and worldwide.

Tonight, a teenager would have gotten insight on rock bands Junoon and Mizraab from Pakistan and seen examples of how traditional and modern forms of music are continually being combined by musicians from this country, creating a new style of music.

Although there is a strong debate on the validity of media effects, a simple question should be posed in relation to the fact that a television show, such as the one described above, does not happen in North America. How would the public reception of political relations with Pakistan change after watching different portrayals of people's lives in Pakistan? Would more commonalities, such as musical interests, be realized, connecting people across countries? How would these potential possible effects impact the reasoning behind not allowing an Al Jazeera English channel?

Format impacting perception

Visual format is an important element to consider when analyzing today's internet landscape. For braodcasters, different styles of formatting headlines and stories are used in order to cater to different types of readers and shape the way their information is viewed and (potentially) interpreted. This simple observation can be applied when looking at the difference between CNN's format of G-20 coverage versus Al-Jazeera English's formatting of their G-20 coverage.

CNN
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2009/news/g20.summit/

Al-Jazeera English
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/the2009g20londonsummit/

Questions to be answered about the visual presence include: What type of audience are the broadcasters attracting/ catering to? How does each format invite different reading styles? How do the formats implement or not implement Web 2.0?

Al Jazeera Global Distribution

Today several sites have reported Al Jazeera's global distribution of programming, which includes over 50 hours from Al Jazeera English's documentary strand Witness, the Arabic-language content includes Al Jazeera Documentary Channel's four-part documentary "Arab Christians" and, from the Al Jazeera Satellite Channel, "The PLO" - a 13-part documentary looking at the creation, establishment and existence of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation.

As the push of Al Jazeera, particularly the English station, for a more global audience continues, specifically in North America, there are several interesting aspects surrounding their initiatives, like the global distribution one above:

1.) The availability of high quality content is always an issue in broadcasting, whether it be news, in-depth investigating, entertainment, etc. In content distribution networks and companies, there is always a HUGE competition for dynamic content because it is often so scarce. In the wake of newspapers crashing, foreign news bureaus, both print and broadcast, being closed left and right, the footage made available by Al Jazeera should logically be in very high demand.

2.) As a "conciliatory media" (el-Nawawy & Powers, 2008), AJ pro-actively promotes a free-flow of ideas, as seen through their Creative Commons Repository. This is where Al Jazeera video footage is free and open for the public to use under special licensing. The concept of a creative commons promotes the theory of an open use of content in order to spur a dynamic flow and layering of new creativity. This approach steps away from the stringent, stifling and prevalent copyright paradigm running rampant in every creative industry today.

Founder of the creative commons, Lawrence Lessig sees Al Jazeera's efforts as, "teaching an important lesson about how free speech gets built and supported. By providing a free resource for the world, the network is encouraging wider debate, and a richer understanding." This seems to align with el-Nawawy and Power's exploration of how Al Jazeera "[opens] new venues for freedom of expression and [provides] a platform for dialogue", making it a broadcaster that is interactive with audiences rather than a one-way stream of information.

So why won't North American cable companies engage in this creative commons?

In a news environment that screams for more and more content, a connection with AJA & AJE seems like a sound business move. Al Jazeera was the only broadcaster in Gaza when it was under siege. And the audience not wanting Al Jazeera English is a fallacy in many respects. From November to January, during the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, the Web audience for Al Jazeera English shot up 22 per cent, 600 per cent when it came to video reports. (Vue Weekly)

So, using this blog to rant a little, my question to the North American broadcasters reading this is:

Why? Why not? Why not open up the airwaves to Al Jazeera?

Online coverage pushes AJE to the top

In an article yesterday on Foreign Policy in Focus, John Feffer discusses the heated 'war online' between Israeli and Palestinian bloggers, commenters, YouTubers and hackers. Accounting for all different sides, one of the most interesting observations is the overwhelming popularity of Al Jazeera English's online viewership.

"Al Jazeera benefited most from the large audience drawn from Twitter links and Facebook
groups. The Qatar-based network reported a 600% hike in hits from its online video stream
during the fighting. Al Jazeera's English station, while unavailable to most cable subscribers
in the U.S., drew significantly more viewers through the internet: in January, visitors to
YouTube watched more clips from Al Jazeera English than from any other English news
station."

Despite the fact that it still may not be carried on North American cable or satellite, with the amount of coverage of Middle Eastern affairs, particularly the Israeli-Palestine conflict, Al Jazeera English's online presence may be the only thing necessary to catapult it to number one.

Another Big Step - NRK Offers Torrents

From BoingBoing (emphasis added), 

Eirikso from NRK, the Norwegian public broadcast, writes to tell us that they've set up their own BitTorrent tracker, adding, "The tracker is based on the same OpenTracker software that the Pirate Bay has been using for the last couple of years. By using BitTorrent we can reach our audience with full quality, unencrypted media files. Experience from our early tests show that if we're the best provider of our own content we also gain control of it."

Remember Shawn's post about Al Jazeera going Creative Commons with their video footage from Gaza?  AJ's decision was a transformative moment in broadcasting that no one seemed to notice.  While I don't think what NRK did is as momentous, it is still a fascinating move.  It will be interesting to see if a non public IB follows suit and allows for the free download of their footage. At what point does control over content outweigh the potential loss of profits?

Al Jazeera Canadian Bureau?

As Al Jazeera English pushes for a presence on North American cable, when applying to the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission) for access to Canadian cable companies, the IB has said it would open a news bureau in Canada. This would be "the first, and only, international news channel to have a bureau in Canada. Not only would this bring increased coverage to Canada, but would also bring Canadian news to an international audience."

By making their 70th bureau in Canada, Al Jazeera can continue to brag about its commitment to extend the borders of world wide news coverage.

BBC Arabia or Al Jazeera?

Who will the US cable news watching audience see first: BBC Arabia or Al Jazeera?

In Rania Habib's (Kipp Report) interview of Hosam El Sokkari (BBC's head of Arabic services), there is mention of a deal "in the US with a cable company to offer BBC Arabic on cable there. BBC Arabic is not available on the current satellite provision there, although ART has started broadcasting a one-hour daily in the US, in anticipation of launching our 24-hour service on cable." ART (Arab Radio and Television) America is distributed on the EchoStar platform by International Media Distribution (Hagey).

Similar to Al Jazeera, BBC Arabia has had their share of controversy, most significantly when the BBC aired an episode of Panorama critical of the Saudi Arabian government, BBC Arabia's funders at the time, causing the entire broadcast to be canceled after just two years (Habib). El Sokkari had a brief stint at Al Jazeera, the network that the core of BBC Arabia staff went to work for in 1996 (Seib, 2005:601).

However, there seems to be a not-so-subtle explanation of how BBC Arabia is different from its (toughest) competitor:

"One of our key differentiators is that we don’t consider ourselves as party to the events;
we do not make the news. We do not have views, we report views. Our success lies in our
ability to take a distance and make it possible for various parties to express themselves
the way they want, and in our ability to bring detailed facts and comprehensive views."

This comment is both very BBC-esque in its effort to promote 'objective journalism'. However, it clearly indicates its recognition of the problems concerning their competitor's 'objectivity', agenda-setting or side-taking.

With this in mind, as BBC Arabia regains prominence in IB, is it this distancing that makes North American cable companies more keen on making a deal?

IRINN's News Scrolls in English

I think it is interesting to note that while IRINN broadcasts in Persian, there is always a news headline scroll at the bottom of the screen running in English. This is not unusual given the fact that English is a lingua franca in many countries. In fact, there are usually  postings in both the Persian and English languages in major public places in Iran. The name of the broadcaster "IRINN" is itself written in English and it is displayed in the corner of the broadcast. On a last point, IRINN replays coverage from a diverse group of international broadcasters during segments of their program. The list of broadcasters includes: BBC, MSNBC, Al Jazeera, and Al Arabiya. News from other media are also referenced, such as the The Economist.

Here is a list of news headlines that have been displayed on IRINN: 

"Haaretz: West Bank settlement gets green light for massive expansion; Senator John Kerry says U.S. eager to talk to Syria; Civilian, solider gunned down in Mosul; Clinton criticizes Bush on N.Korea; Moscow again eyes Afghanistan 20 years after retreat; Hamas: dialogue, only way for internal reconciliation."

Modern day Orientalism in International Broadcasting

It is interesting to compare the technical manifestation of ‘freedom of the press’ in America and the actual.

This past week Al Jazeera, the Qatar funded broadcasting system that within the last couple of years has developed an English language network, began a campaign in North America to address ‘myths and misperceptions’ about their work. This is due to the fact that the majority of American and Canadian cable networks will not carry Al Jazeera, although this is supposedly slowly changing.

Al Jazeera is known for its presence in the Middle East and for coverage of world issues/events often from the ‘other side’, such as airing speeches by Osama bin Laden, etc. As seen in Al Jazeera’s PR campaign in the North America, how is the conception of ‘Othering’ (Hall; Silverstone) a present concern in international broadcasting? Is this a clear example of Edward Said’s analysis of ‘Orientalism’ but in a different medium?

The biggest questions are: Are all international broadcasts considered equal? If not, why not? And, who says?

What will Broadcasting 2.0 look like?

The Al-Jazeera Network is certainly trying to find out. Judith Townend reviewed AJ's ambitious efforts--known as Al-Jazeera Labs--to succeed in a world of Web 2.0.

AJ Labs started out a bit slow, but has recently picked up pace. One pillar of the Labs project is focused on making AJ's content available through as many mediums as possible. Along these lines, the webpage now features an application for the iPhone, a link to the newly revamped mobile webpage (designed for non-iPhone Smart phones), information on how to receive AJ's news via twitter, how to text or tweet in a question for Riz Khan to ask a guest on his show, a link to AJ's YouTube page, information on how to receive a RSS feed of AJ's news on your Sony Ericsson phone, a link to all of AJ's podcasts (available through iTunes), information on how to receive AJ's headlines through your Instant Message client, and, of course, AJ's Facebook application.

The second pillar of the Labs project is a bit more innovative. While AJ's coverage of the recent conflict in Gaza drew attention worldwide for its relative depth (AJE was the only international broadcaster that had English speaking journalists on the ground in Gaza), it also coincided with several innovative Labs initiatives that show much promise. Last November, AJE launched its citizen-journalism upload portal, a webpage devoted to "seeking eyewitness news reports from its vast international audience." During the conflict on Gaza, the Your Media webpage was flooded with photos and video from Palestinians in Gaza, much of which made its way to AJ's webpage and some of which was rebroadcast on the network's programming. In addition, the Mapping the War in Gaza feature was a big hit. Using software developed by Ushahidi, AJ created a map (based on Microsoft's virtual earth program) that integrated information submitted from its citizen journalists into a zoomable map of Gaza. Each nugget of submitted "news" from citizen journalists--be it a tweet, a video or a cell phone picture--was turned into a dot, categorized via color in order to differentiate the different events (dark blue dots noted a death of some sort, while yellow dots were references to news about international aid), and placed on the map. Citizen reports were vetted to ensure that they were indeed factual, and then integrated into reports from the mainstream media to ensure that the map was providing a comprehensive look at the events taking place.

Perhaps most interesting was AJ's decision to release its raw Gaza footage under the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution license, functionally making the footage available for all commercial and non-commercial use, free-of-charge. This means that news outlets, filmmakers and bloggers will be able to easily share, remix, subtitle or reuse the footage (see previous post on this here). While I don't think that this move was publicized enough, and probably came too late in the conflict (over two weeks in), I do think that it shows promise. By giving up the rights to control and profit from the footage (and keep in mind that footage was not easy to come by during the conflict since journalists weren't allowed to enter into Gaza), AJ said to the world that they thought that news and journalism should not be dictated by the market, and that political efforts to suppress AJ's broadcasts in the West and elsewhere would not stop the images from Gaza from getting out.

Governments around the world continue to suppress the free media. Burma, Iran and China offer just a few examples of how effective governments have been at controlling their information environments, despite revolutions in communications technologies. If this model of releasing footage of events under a creative commons license becomes routine during conflicts (or other, hard-to-cover events), it may be a defining moment for the age of information. Governments will struggle to be able to suppress all of the different ways in which creative commons videos can be distributed. And while today videos are spread daily around the Internet, Al-Jazeera's viral footage would offer a marked difference given that it comes with a certain level of respect and authenticity (AJ was ranked as the 5th most influential brand in the world in 2005, prior to the launch of AJE).

Hopefully, other international news outlets will follow suit. The combined potential of BBC World Service and the Al-Jazeera Networks raw footage, and the possibilities of mashing the two together, would be a bold step in the direction of fostering a truly global and democratic communications ecology.

Finally, Qtel, Qatar's cell phone provider, announced today a their Mozaic Mobile TV service, offering programming from up to 23 channels available to be streamed to any of its mobile phones.

"The full range of International and Arabic channels includes news (Al Jazeera and Al Jazeera English, CNN International, CNBC Europe and CNBC Arabiya and BBC World), Islamic (Iqra), sports (ESPN Europe, ART Sports Channels, and AlKaas), entertainment (AsianNet, B4U Music, Al Safwa, Arabic Series Channel and Rotana Moussica) and children’s television (Cartoon Networks, Boomerang, Al Jazeera Children’s Channel)."

Now, that's broadcasting 2.0.

NHK World? Not so much....

Recently re-launched NHK World (of the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation) may want to reconsider the "World" part of its name. While we had previously speculated about what NHK World niche would be, after spending some time on their website, I'm not sure if they know either.

I assumed that NHK World would try to focus on news related to the global economy given Japan's heightened interest and strength in economic issues. Think again. There is not a single story about the Congressional Bailout, which is making headlines on all other broadcasters (even Press TV thinks this is news worthy). Nor is their a reference to the state of the global economy more broadly, something that is of heightened relevance given the continued global economic decline.

The top story listed on the homepage, and I couldn't even make this stuff up if I wanted to, is an announcement for a European conference on protectionism that will take place in March. So much for "opening a new window on the world's most exciting region, Asia" (via the press release announcing the relaunching of NHK World).

Notably lacking from the top stories is any mention of anything going on the Middle East. Nothing. News of the Israeli election results is at least among the top stories at Russia Today, AJE, Press Tv, and everywhere else I've looked. Most broadcasters also are still keeping close tabs on Gaza (like the resumption of UN aid, BBC), general Arab reactions to the Israeli elections (VOA), and the possible warming of ties between the US and Iran (Russia Today), not too mention today's attacks in Iraq (AJE). NHK World? Not interested. Even after a thorough exploration of all of the articles posted on the website (don't give me too much credit, there really aren't that many), there is little mention of the Middle East, and when there is, the stories are less informative that a Reuters newswire. There certainly is not a unique Japanese perspective offered on global events, or a window opened to Japanese culture or society. Also lacking, sans a very short story about Sudan, is NHK World's coverage of the entire African continent. This is despite today's swearing in of Zimbabwe's new Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, which even the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation found interesting. Also, the website is about as high-tech as this blog (no offense intended to Blogger).


I'm not writing this to trash NHK World, or at least that wasn't my initial intent. NHK World claims to want to compete with global news giants such as CNN and the BBC, and I was thus genuinely intrigued to see what they would bring to the broadcasting table. It may be the case that the actual broadcasting is far superior to the content on the website, though that seems to beg some larger questions of NHK's understanding of today's media environment.

Is the UK becoming too Insular?

Via Phil Harding (former director of news and English networks at the BBC World Service) at the Guardian:

In a report called The Great Global Switch-Off, commissioned by Oxfam, Polis and the International Broadcasting Trust, I come to a disturbing conclusion on the future of one of the most distinctive aspects of Public Service Broadcasting, television's coverage of international issues and stories. Unless urgent action is taken now, such programming could, in effect, have disappeared in four years' time - and this at a time when, from the credit crunch to migration to climate change, understanding the world around us has never been more important.

An amazing finding given the role that the BBC World Service has as a global leader in international news. Also interesting references to AJE. Perhaps the report fails to credit the role that the Internet (and Internet broadcasting) has on how Britons get their international news? Full report can be downloaded here. We'll revisit this when we discuss media globalization on April 9th.

Israel acting to restrict Al-Jazeera. UPDATED: "Israel's frosty relationship with AJ is headed for a deep freeze"

Update (2/4): Dion Nissenbaum is reporting that Israel is considering declaring AJ a "hostile enemy." If effective, the result would be the removal of all AJ reporters from Israel. Question: would this also mean that AJ reporters would be out of Gaza, or would they be able to remain? If AJ's reporters remain in Gaza, won't this encourage one-sided coverage, given the difficulty that contacting Israeli officials will be? Seems like this move could only hurt Israel's image in the media.

The BBC is reporting that:

Israeli officials say they are taking measures to restrict the work of the Arabic television network, al-Jazeera, inside Israel. It follows a decision last month by al-Jazeera's owners, the state of Qatar, to cut trade ties with Israel. The work visas of some al-Jazeera employees based in Israel will not be renewed, according to reports. Al-Jazeera's journalists will have limited access to Israeli news conferences and briefings.

Yet another example of the line between politics and journalism being blurred. It is unclear of the restrictions will be applied only to the Arabic side of AJ, or the English branch as well.

AJE's new advertising campaign.

Note anything funny on Foreign Policy's Passport? Also on Marc Lynch's FP blog?

BBC/Firewall Update: Not so much (Updated 1/26)

Tony Benn (Britain's Secretary of State for Energy) to BBC: "If you wont broadcast the Gaza appeal then I will myself." He's also has publicly argued that the BBC has betrayed its public service obligations following its decision not to broadcast a public appeal for funds for Gaza, adding:

"I appeal to the chairman of the BBC Trust to intervene to reverse this decision to save the lives of those who are now in acute danger of dying through a lack of food, fuel, water and medical supplies."

So much for editorial independence...

UPDATE: AJE gets into the mix. I wonder if AJE's support of broadcasting the call for humanitarian aid actually makes it less likely that the BBC will reverse its decision? From The Peninsula, via Kim Andrew Elliot's blog:

DOHA: Al Jazeera English has contacted the UK’s Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) to support their call to broadcast announcements for humanitarian aid for the victims of the Gaza War. Al Jazeera English has pledged to run public service announcements in UK prime time on Al Jazeera English at no cost in support of the Committee’s appeal. The announcements will begin running tomorrow. The appeal will be broadcast to UK citizens both in the UK and across the world with Al Jazeera English’s global reach to over 130 million households. “We launched the Gaza Crisis Appeal as the devastation inflicted in the Gazan territory was so huge that British aid agencies were compelled to act and we are pleased with Al Jazeera’s support to broadcast the humanitarian aid appeal announcements,” said Brendan Gormley, Chief Executive of the Disasters Emergency Committee. Al Jazeera English can be seen in the UK on Sky Guide number 514, on Freesat 203, and online at www.livestation.com/aje.

Update (2): Is the BBC's decision to not air the DEC appeal actually generating more attention to the cause than it would have had there not been any controversy? Those clever brits!

The BBC has been on the receiving end this weekend of some fairly heavy criticism for not broadcasting an appeal from the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) for donations to help people in the Gaza region. The Archbishop of Canterbury, a group of 50 MPs launching an Early Day Motion, 11,000 viewers and protestors outside Broadcasting House have urged the corporation to reconsider its stance...As such, there’s an argument that the BBC’s refusal to broadcast the charity’s appeal is generating even more coverage for it.

11,000 viewers came out to protest an editorial decision? Really? I'm going to look for some photos of this...

AJE Surges in the US

Reuters is reporting that AJE's online viewership surged during the conflict in Gaza, which is no surprise. But the US audience grew by 600%......begging the question of just how long American cable providers can continue to argue that they aren't carrying AJE because it is not "commercially viable."

Livestation said Al-Jazeera English footage viewed on its site jumped to 17 million minutes worldwide over a two week period during the Gaza conflict, up from 3 million minutes in a similar time period before the conflict began.

The service did not break down those numbers by specific country. But it said that over one full week of the Gaza conflict, the number of U.S. viewers to Al-Jazeera English on Livestation surged by six times the usual level.

The boost in viewership was also reflected on YouTube where viewers can watch individual television reports. Over the past month during the Gaza crisis, Al-Jazeera was the most viewed English-language traditional news channel on YouTube's "News and Politics" category.