Arabic News Channels - Essay Example

"They're challenging the hegemony of the American media." Al Jazeera broadcasts 24/7, and is becoming increasingly present and important throughout the Arab world. It is Qatar-based and reaches out to over 45 million people that live in Arab nations. It also was the center of controversies during the Iraqi War. The first controversy accused Al Jazeera for broadcasting views of the conflict going on that were very different than media and news stations that resided in the United States (Sharkey, 2003).

According to Sharkey (2003, pg. 1),"While U.S. television news media focused on military operations, Al Jazeera was "presenting something of the violence, the effects, the emotion" of the conflict, says Leila Hudson, assistant professor of Near Eastern studies at the University of Arizona, who monitored war news on U.S. and Arab networks. This led to charges by U.S. officials and conservative commentators that Al Jazeera was airing propaganda. Untrue, says Lamis Andoni, a journalist who has worked for print and broadcast media in the Middle East and the United States.

Al Jazeera broadcast statements from U.S. government officials, showed the Central Command briefings and had a reporter embedded with U.S. troops, Andoni says. The network showed "a broader picture" of the conflict than U.S. news organizations, she says, because it also showed civilian casualties and the destruction of water, electrical and hospital facilities." Skeptics believe that neither Al Jazeera nor the United States demonstrated an accurate portrayal of the war in Iraq. They failed to analyze it properly, including the causes and reactions to it.

People are concerned that Arab satellite stations are too busy broadcasting the prospective of the Iraqis without pretending to be objective, and that this in turn harms their own audience (Sharkey, 2003). According to Sharkey (2003, pg. 1), "Media analysts say television news operations in the Arab world and the United States would never present events or issues from the same perspective, because they are trying to reach audiences with different cultural experiences and frameworks. The fact that Al Jazeera offers "a different perspective than CNN" should not be regarded as a problem, says Mohammed el-Nawawy, a Stonehill College professor who has written about coverage of the Middle East.

"Each network is trying to appeal to its audience." U.S. network executives say the different perspectives offered by Al Jazeera and other Arabic-language networks are valuable in their deliberations about how to cover events in the Arab world." News media stations in the United States keep a watch on Al Jazeera 24/7. He says this is done to remind them how other people in the world perceive the same news and stories. Believe it or not, Al Jazeera works with CNN and other United States networks.

The same sort of scenario is present in the Arabic world. Footage from both sides could be seen on television for each area of the world.According to Sharkey (2003, pg. 1), "Although U.S. government spokespersons have disparaged Al Jazeera's coverage, it has been an intelligence tool for the United State