I was a media expert in 06'

media expert

November 19th, 2006 by abossone

Check out my website at bossonemedia.com

Apparently I’m a media expert, as I was quoted, albeit only once, in this article about the launch of Al Jazeera International:

Al Jazeera launches Englanguage broadcast

by Miret el Naggar

McClatchy Newspapers

16 November 2006

CAIRO, Egypt - After prolonged delays and an aggressive marketing
campaign, the English version of the controversial Al Jazeera
television channel finally debuted Wednesday with an ambitious message:
“Global media has changed forever.”

That sentence flashed across TV screens as an estimated 80 million
viewers in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East got their first
look at Al Jazeera International’s foray into the competitive market
for round-the-clock news.

But few American eyes got to witness the maiden broadcast. U.S.
distributors are still too wary of association with a brand that’s been
criticized as “the terrorist channel,” so it’s available only for a fee
via Internet services VDC (www.vdc.com) and Jump TV (www.jumptv.com).

For all the hoopla surrounding Al Jazeera International, known as
AJI, many viewers found the broadcast subdued and straightforward.
There were no grainy hostage videos or Osama bin Laden diatribes, the
kind of reports that created the Arabic-language version’s notoriety.
The channel broadcast for only 12 hours Wednesday; it hopes to begin
24-hour broadcasting in January.

Viewers saw in-depth reports on subjects that ranged from a tsunami scare in Japan to the Darfur crisis in Sudan.

“It looks and feels very much like BBC and Sky News,” said Lawrence
Pintak, director of the Cairo-based Adham Center for Television
Journalism, referring to two British satellite broadcasts. “The story
selection and approach is very akin to the BBC, and the emphasis on
Africa is definitely not similar to Al Jazeera. The real test will be
how they’ll cover a major story involving the Arab world.”

Many media analysts have hailed Al Jazeera as the catalyst for an
information revolution in the Islamic world, the first Arab-owned
station to challenge the region’s authoritarian governments as well as
their Western allies.

Critics, however, charge that Al Jazeera demonizes the U.S. presence
in Iraq and Afghanistan and whips up Arab anger with graphic footage of
bleeding Palestinians or dead Lebanese children, for example.

Like the original channel, AJI is owned by the emir of Qatar, who
allows the station independence that sets it apart from other satellite
stations in the Middle East.

The startup of the English-language spinoff coincides with Al
Jazeera’s tenth anniversary on air, and the first broadcast paid homage
to Al Jazeera journalists killed on the job. Footage showed the Al
Jazeera offices in Kabul, Afghanistan, and Baghdad, Iraq, which had
been bombed by U.S. forces.

“I’m happy to see an English channel with an Arab perspective,” said
Janet Sandle, who works at the American University in Cairo. “I thought
it looked very professional. They had coverage of breaking news,
although it was their launch. It had a full bulletin and a variety of
good stories.”

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict led the first newscast, with
anchors reporting on an Israeli woman killed by a Palestinian rocket.
They quickly juxtaposed that development with a reminder of the much
higher toll of Palestinians killed by Israelis in the Gaza Strip. Next
came the tsunami watch off the coast of Japan, the misery in refugee
camps in Sudan, and then updates on Iraq, Zimbabwe, Iran and Russia.

“I like how they have in-depth reports. It’s not just a short report
attached with a couple of pictures,” said Andrew Bossone, a writer for
a business monthly in Cairo. “For a major satellite launch, I’m very
impressed.”

The bulk of programming will still come from headquarters in the
Qatari capital of Doha, with the rest divided among broadcast centers
in Washington, London and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The new English-language broadcast employs about 800 people from
more than 50 nations. The lineup includes news, analysis,
documentaries, talk shows and a woman-focused program.

The channel recruited some big names in television: British
television legend David Frost, Emmy-winning “Nightline” veteran David
Marash, and Rageh Omaar, a Somali-born journalist famous in Britain for
his Iraq reporting. British Prime Minister Tony Blair has agreed to be
the first world leader interviewed by the network.

The months before the launch were marked with internal grumbling,
with some Arab employees of the original Al Jazeera concerned that the
new channel was hiring too many Westerners who would water down the
distinctive brand. They also complained that their AJI colleagues were
better paid and received more perks. AJI barred its journalists from
speaking publicly about the dispute, but it issued statements saying it
had formed a committee to bridge the cultural divide.

Nigel Parsons, the British managing director of AJI, has promised
that the new channel isn’t going to be simply a translation of the
Arabic version. It will have original programming and separate staff
and broadcast centers around the world.

“We are here to build on the heritage of Al Jazeera and bring their
brand of fearless journalism to a much wider audience,” Parsons told
McClatchy Newspapers in an interview last spring.