Al-Jazeera

The Al-Jazeera English channel was the most surprising news station that I watched. The channel may as well been produced by an American corporation it is so similar to news stations in the United States. My only previous encounter with Al-Jazeera is remembering the news feeds that American channels would get during the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I watched a piece on the economic growth in China and the impact on the countryside which did not help me get a crystal-clear picture on the channel but still gave me an idea on what they are about.

I watched long enough to get back to the main headlines and the most important story was the Iranian missile launch. Iran launched two missiles farther than they have ever launched any before. They seemed to get both sides of the story including Iranians in support of the launch and Westerners who were strongly against it.

1. I don't think providing free access via the internet will help provide viewership for Al-Jazeera because of its audience. The audience for Al-Jazeera is already set and they will set out to find the station. Al-Jazeera will not draw mass viewership from people outside its initial group of viewers. The audience will grow but not at the rate that Al-Jazeera would like.

2. I don't see any reason why Al-Jazeera English should not be shown in the United States and the rest of the Western world. What I saw was a newscast so similar to American broadcasts that I don't think people would have much of an objection if they watched the channel and gave it a chance.

3. The only difference I noticed which seems a bit odd was the anchor mentioned the reporting piece they did to promote his side to a discussion with a Chinese expert on the economic growth in China. He said something along the lines like "Our piece showed this side of the story" which doesn't seem very news-like.

4. The Al-Jazeera Code of Ethics seems so line up with what was shown on the newscast. The code was exactly what I would expect from any news organization. The one newsworthy story I saw (the Iranian missiles) tried to accurately describe both sides to the story and interviewed one person from each side.

The Al-Jazeera English channel was a lot different than the channel I was expecting to see when I turned it on. It had a very Western feel and, as far as I could tell, adhered to the Code of Ethics published on the Al-Jazeera website. I do think that the channel should be available in the United States but I don't think the viewership would be as prominent as Al-Jazeera expects it would. It is because the station is so similar to other channels already available that people would have a hard time switching over to Al-Jazeera.