274. Name: Thomas Borghols Title: The Credibility of Transnational, English-Language News Media in the Middle East: From the Al Jazeera Effect, to the Press TV and the TRT World Effect? Institution: Leiden University Country: Netherlands Date: 2019 Language: English Abstract: Since their foundation, Al Jazeera and Al Jazeera English have revolutionized the Middle Eastern media landscape. This led to the coining of the term ‘the Al Jazeera effect’ by Philip Seib. While different countries in the Middle East have begun following Qatar’s footsteps by establishing English-language channels of their own, trust in the news media has declined. This thesis ties these two developments together by asking how Al Jazeera English, as well as two of its English-language competitors in the region, Press TV from Iran and TRT World from Turkey, go about establishing their credibility. This study analyzes YouTube materials on the Syrian civil war during the first five months of 2019 to compare the flagship current affairs programmes on these networks. The comparison between the three selected programmes, ‘Inside Story’ on Al Jazeera English, ‘The Debate’ on Press TV, and ‘The Newsmakers on TRT World, demonstrates that the latter two networks cater for their own ‘effect’ in the Middle Eastern news media arena. It also shows that the editorial policies of the three channels are aligned with those of their respective governments.
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