Al Jazeera Tells its Story: In-Depth Studies

AJ+ platforms, in their various languages, are increasing in impor- tance due to their professionalism in producing original content using creative narrative technologies. The target audience is digital platform users, especially among young people who no longer get their news from traditional television sources. This service is provided using an innovative and new template that highlights Al Jazeera’s values and distinguishes it through its content, further enhancing Al Jazeera’s cor- porate identity in the digital media field. Al Jazeera’s investments in digital products are essentially traced to the emergence of a new gener- ation whose base is expanding in the digital environment and its related technological and communications innovations. This new generation prefers following and interacting with events on their mobile phones, tablets and social media platforms, rather than television screens or even Facebook. This audience continues to expand, and no media company can afford to ignore it. The network has also managed to present some of its television content using innovative digital platforms that allow it to reach new followers. Many consider AJ+ a major success story in the digital media field, despite its relatively short time on the scene. Only a year after its launch, it made a name for itself and became one of the leading publishers of content on Facebook and Twitter. (1) In 2019, Tubular Labs ranked AJ+ as 19th worldwide among more than 31,000 digital content providers. It also gave AJ+ an hon- orary award based on the ranking of its videos among the top ten most watched across the world in 2016. In 2017, AJ+ was ranked fifth glob- ally on Facebook in the news and politics category (2) . In May 2019, AJ+ won 18 Telly Awards for a number of its programmes and videos in different categories. AJ+ Arabic is a unique model of digital media in the Arab world, as noted by researcher Lahsan Sukoor, especially given that the platform, after only a short existence, managed to reach a new audience on social media who was no longer satisfied with traditional media platforms. Its pillar of existence was providing responsiveness (1) Janko Roettgers, “How Al Jazeera’s AJ+ Became One of the Biggest Video Publishers on Facebook”, Variety , July 30, 2015, https://bit.ly/2YFi62w (accessed 11 October 2020). (2) “AJ+ Fourth Strongest Digital Publisher Worldwide”, AlJazeera.net , 27 March 2017, https://bit.ly/30eFtk7 (accessed 11 October 2020).

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