Al Jazeera English

1. Al Jazeera English will make its way to U.S. television because of the Internet. First, potential viewers don’t have an excuse not to watch because it is being offered for free on the Internet. There are probably many Americans who would like to see and judge for themselves if Al Jazeera is really the “terrorist news.”Another impact that the Internet will have on the Al Jazeera English channel is the buzz that can be created and spread quickly and effectively through the Internet. Online news articles and even blogs can spread information to a massive amount of citizens. This could create a higher demand for the channel to be offered on television. The Internet also has creative means for social marketing that marketers for Al Jazeera could utilize. They may shy away from this in order to be thought of as a credible news source. However, some do think the channel is just a speaking post for terrorists so creative tactics to get Al Jazeera noticed on the Internet may be helpful.
2. The beauty of America is that it is a free country. That is something most Americans treasure and hold dear. In order to avoid losing the values that define this country, there should not be a ban on Aljazeera English. It would benefit Americans to see news presented in a different way. Also the channel would give viewers a chance to make an opinion by themselves without political influences telling them what they should believe. The presence of the channel may make viewers call for a change in all networks to refrain from presenting the news in such biased ways. The strongest argument for Al Jazeera English is that a violation of American values would occur if there was a ban against the channel.
3. In watching Al Jazeera English and reading the news posts on the Web site, I noticed several things. First the content seemed more diverse than the content of a U.S. news source. There are definitely more Middle Eastern political articles. Readers can get a better sense the dynamics of the Middle East from a news source that originates there. Second, I noticed the titles of several news stories were suggestive and seemed to lean in certain directions because they were phrased in questions. I don’t usually associate a question style headline with hard/credible news. In the U.S. news a question headline signifies a feature-ish piece rather than hard news. Also, I didn’t see one positive story about Israel. The only stories I saw were negative. In U.S. news there is both bad and good stories about Israel. There are definitely more positive ones than in Al Jazeera. Last, the U.S. news almost never gives terrorists air-time to say their messages and an Al Quaeda video is only shortly spoke about or written about.
4. In the first rule on the Code of Ethics, it says that Al Jazeera will not give priority to certain political causes. This is obviously false because it broadcast messages from terrorist, conservative religious groups all the time. U.S. news does this as well though. Many news programs are widely known for their partisan leaning. In rule #9 it says the channel wants to avoid the pitfalls of speculation and propaganda through distinguishing between news, opinion and analysis. The propaganda of Al Quaeda is shown frequently by showing their video every time they make one. Al Jazeera does not live up to the Murrow Standard. There are some newsworthy stories but the channel is not a free channel in the sense that we know and does not adhere to its own Code of Ethics.