83. Name: Sulaiman Jalloh Title: Reversing the North-South Flow: Viewing Al Jazeera’s Talk Show “The Opposite Direction” with Arab-Islamic Diasporic Audiences in Australia Institution: University of South Australia Country: Australia Date: 2011 Language: English Abstract: This study examines Al Jazeera’s unprecedented success in reversing the North-South flow of information. It argues that the channel contributed to a more balanced news flow, and in some instances, reversed the direction of international information. To test this assertion this study examines the channel’s most controversial talk show, “The Opposite Direction”. Content analysis is used to isolate the dominant and recurrent topics structuring debate on this show. Then, a review of the talk-techniques used in the show to see how far these highly popular debates preserve Arab-Islamic forms of argument and rhetorical positioning. Finally, with Al Jazeera so widely viewed by many in the Australian Arab-Islamic diaspora, the study investigates this complex and relatively closed community in order to establish the specifics of its reception of media programming. With little evidence available on the viewing habits of such communities, classic techniques like ‘uses and gratifications’ are employed. Viewers claimed to watch the channel regularly, especially its talk show “The Opposite Direction”. Some even indicated that they record it to watch later or lend it to friends with no access to the channel.
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