16. Name: Nam-Doo Kim Title: Making News out of Al Jazeera: A Comparative Content Analysis of American and British Press Coverage of Events and Issues Involving the Arab Media Institution: University of Texas at Austin Country: United States Date: 2006 Language: English Abstract: In the recent years, Al Jazeera satellite television has become both an important source of news and a controversial actor challenging U.S. foreign policy. This cross-national study compares journalistic responses to the rise of Al Jazeera in the U.S. and Britain, considering both newspaper editorial policy and national context as possible reasons for differentiation. From multi-theoretical perspectives, the study examines the extent to which the two countries’ newspapers diversified use of Al Jazeera as a source of news, expanded the range of non-official voices in coverage of issues involving Al Jazeera and employed normative ideas about journalism including Arab journalism or problematize the U.S. handling of Arab media. The findings indicate that the differences between the pro-war and anti-war press were far more pronounced than were the differences between U.S. and British press, not only in their editorial view of Al Jazeera but also in other features of reporting. The results of a thematic analysis show noticeable differences between the two countries’ anti-war newspapers as the New York Times invoked themes ‘defending’ Al Jazeera, while the Guardian favored themes ‘attacking’ the U.S. government.
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