newscast created and broadcast daily from Al Jazeera’s newsroom. This brief and interactive broadcast aims to minimise any distractions while social networks attempt to keep up with daily events, and saves users from having to follow news on multiple digital media platforms (1) . All of Al Jazeera’s websites (AlJazeera.net, AlJazeera.com, Al Ja- zeera Centre for Studies, Al Jazeera Documentary, Al Jazeera Public Liberties and Human Rights Centre and Al Jazeera Media Institute) provide their media services on the most notable social media plat- forms (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat). These are part of today’s digital media world that concerns users as individ- uals and groups, and forms a primary source of news and information. On YouTube, Al Jazeera’s news channel now has more than 8.25 mil- lion subscribers, and the documentary channel more than 2.33 million subscribers and more than 14 million viewing hours in 2019, making it the largest documentary-focused Arabic channel on the platform. 4. Al Jazeera’s Leadership in Digital Products: AJ+ as An Example Media organisations faced a challenge as short videos gained trac- tion in both their numbers and circulation on social media platforms. Al Jazeera was determined to take initiative in this regard, and created one of the most innovative models in the digital media industry, AJ+, a dig- ital platform that began broadcasting in English in September 2014 on YouTube and Facebook. The Spanish and French versions followed in April 2015 and December 2017, respectively. This section of the chap- ter examines AJ+ rather than others for three reasons: - AJ+ is a model that cemented its presence in a large media land- scape where other, global networks had previously dominated. - AJ+ represents the spirit and demands of the digital age. - AJ+ is committed to preserving the network’s identity and work practices.
(1) “Al Jazeera Launches First Interactive News Service”, Al Jazeera , 31 December 2019, https://bit.ly/3aEmMbH (accessed 8 October 2020).
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