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THE WAR OF IDEAS
The latest weapon in the Middle
East is neither a missile nor a bomb. It is a television station.
Last month saw the launch of Al Jazeera English, a sister network
of Qatar’s Al Jazeera Arabic news channel. The 24-hour English-language
news channel hit the airwaves with a heavyweight cast of presenters
and correspondents itching to go head to head with their western
media giant counterparts.
It would be easy to underestimate the power of this tiny speck on
the global satellite scene. But don’t. The slickly produced
news broadcast is by all reckoning more powerful than the 170,000
coalition forces in Iraq. Al Jazeera English has the potential to
destroy administrations and topple governments, and can reach up
to 80 million people in their homes.
This new entry is a powerful weapon in the war of ideas, and likely
to be a thorn in the side of western governments. It could also
be the beginning of the end of western domination of the global
news space. At the very least, it is a sign that, as one local media
analyst observed, “the US no longer controls the script.”
It is becoming increasingly apparent that the world is no longer
portrayed through an American camera lens. Al Jazeera English adds
to the widening array of news perspectives that crowd the region’s
satellite airwaves – everything from Fox News at one extreme
to Hezbollah’s Al Manar channel at the other.
While Al Jazeera English undoubtedly has its own slant, it has made
an obvious effort to avoid being dismissed as mere propaganda tool.
Cynical viewers may be disappointed to find that the language, format
and presentation style are not that much different than the news
broadcast they’re used to watching. The Qatari channel telecasts
in English using familiar western formats, western-style graphic
imagery and even recognized western journalists, including BBC veteran
David Frost and former CNN correspondent Riz Khan.
The difference, of course, is the content. Al Jazeera English’s
perspective and story selection is fresh and non-western. While
the channel still needs to polish up its newsdesk, its field reports
and programming have so far demonstrated that it is a viable competitor
in the global news arena. Western governments will need to consider
carefully their political strategy – the world has a new perspective,
and it comes from the people on the receiving end of their foreign
policy.
CAM MCGRATH
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