light of a backdrop that included continuous coverage of local events in Arab countries, because local channels were closer to the “pulse” of their communities. Thus, the 2014 launch of local bureau social media sites was in direct response to, as well as in anticipation of, a new gen- eration that only knew digital media outlets. In turn, this created serious competition in local media. Al Jazeera was also the first channel that used the live broadcast technology on Facebook for news coverage. The network initiated several, varied social media pages including investi- gative, documentary, talk and news shows, as well as sports, health and business pages, among others. Continued content development is the key to Al Jazeera’s influ- ential presence, its extensive content production and interaction with users, whether in the field or in the newsroom, and whether it is tele- vision content or its electronic and digital platforms. For example, Al Jazeera English’s coverage of the Israeli aggression against Gaza from 27 December 2008 to 18 January 2009 during Operation Cast Lead was particularly notable. Israeli forces prevented journalists from entering Gaza; however, Al Jazeera English’s “new media” team created a new Twitter account, @AJGaza, with web teams and correspondents cover- ing the war on air throughout its entire duration. It was used to give live updates and became a sort of digital Gaza bureau for the network. Ev Williams, who was Twitter’s Executive Director at the time, remarked that Al Jazeera’s Twitter account was an innovative use of their compa- ny’s services. Al Jazeera’s use of social media expanded to Snapchat in Novem- ber 2015, with Al Jazeera being the first Arabic news channel to create an account on the application. This culminated in an expansive leap in consumers among Arab youth, particularly given the platform’s pop- ularity in the Arab world, and especially in the Gulf. Since the appli- cation supports short video blogging (vlogging), it was a substantive addition in the direction of visual content in the global social media world (1) . In 2019, the network’s digital sector, in cooperation with Al Jazeera news channel, launched a new news service, “Ijaz”, a very short
(1) “Al Jazeera Launches its Snapchat Account”, Al Jazeera , 12 November 2015, https://bit. ly/3FyIlIH (accessed 8 October 2020).
97
EN2.indd 97
20/02/2022 4:14 PM
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter