Page 78 - Comparing Political Communication Theories, Cases, and Challenge

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DavidL.Swanson

have included Tony Blair, Ehud Barak, Shimon Peres, Condoleeza Rice,
and Donald Rumsfeld.
Al-Jazeera’s Western-style approach to news and political discussion
programs is controversial in the Arab world, particularly with Arab gov-
ernments, where the tradition of spirited debate is a private affair not
conducted in public media. Charges of bias have been made frequently
against Al-Jazeera, often from opposing sides of the same issue. Recently,
theAustralianBroadcastingCorporationquotedIsraeliForeignMinister
Shimon Peres complaining that Al-Jazeera incites hatred against Israel
(Australian Broadcasting Corporation 2002), while only a month ear-
lier the government of Bahrain banned the broadcaster from covering
Bahrain’s elections because Al-Jazeera is pro-Israel and “penetrated by
Zionists” (BBC News 2002). A former spokesperson for the President
of Egypt said on the U.S. television program, 60 Minutes, in late 2001:
“They are undermining us. They are undermining Egypt, undermining
Saudi Arabia, undermining all the Arab countries. They are separating
the Arab world. It’snogood” (60 Minutes 2001).
In a region of the world where media are government controlled
and do not give voice to opposition and criticism, Al-Jazeera’s Western-
style news has won a large following. Largely because of its editorial
independence, the broadcaster has attracted an audience estimated at
thirty-fivemillionviewersinmanycountriesandhascometoberegarded
by many as the CNN of the Arab world. Whereas Arab audiences once
turned to sources such as the BBC and VOA for credible reporting, now
many Arabs turn to Al-Jazeera. El-Nawawy and Iskander claim that “in
some respects, many feel the network ended the Western monopoly of
global dissemination of information” (2002, 197).
Al-Jazeera raises several issues concerning the conventional view of
political communication. One issue concerns whether, as has been al-
leged, the spread of transnational broadcasting necessarily undermines
local cultures and viewpoints, particularly in non-Western countries.
Al-Jazeera seems to be a clear counterexample to that general trend. It
presents a vigorous clash of opposing views on a wide range of issues but
framed within the Arab perspective. To be sure, some traditional views
are challenged in ways that Arab viewers may find shocking. But the Arab
perspective is reinforced, not undermined. The success of Al-Jazeera and
the political importance is has come to enjoy despite its relatively small
scale and audience suggest that international television news broadcast-
ing in the future may not be the monolithic force driving worldwide

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