Political Communication on Arab World Television: Evolving Patterns

Show the Truth and Let the Audience Decide: A Web-Based Survey Showing Support among Viewers ofAl-Jazeerafor Use of Graphic Imagery

“…Using an online questionnaire proved to have been the preferred method for this study as it allowed the researchers to directly survey Al-Jazeera viewers who spoke Arabic. Attempting to select a group of Al-Jazeera viewers through traditional means would be extremely difficult because most of the Arab governments restrict who can conduct surveys and because of the limited degree of freedom enjoyed in the Arab world overall (Ayish, 2002;Boyd, 1999;.ahmy & Johnson, 2007;Jurdi & Dashti, 19931994, Kalb & Socolovsky, 1999;Kazan, 1994;Rugh, 2004). .urthermore, because Internet surveys allow more anonymity than other survey techniques, respondents might be more likely to offer honest answers than through other survey techniques (Dennis, Chatt, Motta-Stanko, & Pulliam, 2005).…”

“…It has achieved credibility by adopting Western journalism techniques such as seeking out multiple perspectives on the news (El-Nawawy, 2003). Ayish (2002) explains that Al-Jazeera is the most prominent example of transnational news organizations in the Arab world that have increasingly attempted to emulate the Western concepts of journalistic values, practices, news structure, norms, and delivery. Its code of ethics stresses several traditionally Western news values such as fairness, balance, seeking out truth, and presenting diverse points of view (Hanley, 2004;Usborne, 2004).…”

“…In particular, U.S. officials and scholars have accused the network of sensationalism by transmitting graphic visuals picturing human suffering and death from conflict areas in the Middle East (Hanley, 2004). According to Ayish (2002), sensationalist visuals broadcast on Al-Jazeera television have highlighted casualties and consequences for Muslims, Palestinian, and Iraqi conflicts. .or example, Jasperson & El-Kikhia (2003) analyzed news coverage of the Afghan War on Al-Jazeera TV and found that most of the networks coverage focused on the humanitarian frames of the war, framing the issue in terms of the human toll and the personal sufferings of the Afghan people.…”

Globalizing Media Ethics? An Assessment of Universal Ethics Among International Political Journalists

“…Such comments need to be juxtaposed with Ayish's (2002) finding that Middle East media are "obsessed with politics as the most important news selection criterion given their constant coverage of the Palestinian struggle" (p. 151). A few journalists believed that they could write whatever they wanted to, but many were more skeptical.…”

Shifting journalistic roles in democratic transitions: Lessons from Egypt

“…It could even be argued that the emergence of very polemic TV hosts and polarization of US media is not that much different. In that regard, Ayish (2002) notes that there is a trend for Arab journalists to adopt an American-style journalism in Arab television through what he describes as the 'liberal-commercial pattern' (p. 137), a dominant mode of shaping the framing of events and issues in Arab television.…”