Al Jazeera Tells its Story: In-Depth Studies

the new media team began to train their journalist colleagues to use the application with a Nokia phone. With its GPS capabilities, the appli- cation pinpointed the location of Al Jazeera’s correspondent, Dorothy Parvaz, who disappeared in Syria a few days before the trainings as she was covering the Syrian revolution for Al Jazeera (in May 2011). The GPS feature showed that she was in Iran. After a 19-day disappearance and multiple campaigns by the network, it was exposed that she was de- ported to Iran 48 hours after she disappeared in Syria. This application had the double capability of saving not only the network’s employees, but also the truth. When the Bali, Indonesia bombings happened, Al Jazeera was able to cover the events through the application even after its photographer was arrested. This highlighted the application’s impor- tance, as the reporter was able to continue sending breaking news and snapshots, which was a breakthrough at the time. There are a number of historical events that occurred between 2006 and 2018, such as the Gaza War and the Arab Spring, as well as import- ant elections in a number of nations. The impact of the technology de- veloped by the new media team changed the rules of the game for the network, and it excelled in covering these events. Some of the things the new media team accomplished in this time period are listed below: 1. Live television broadcasts on the network’s websites (2007) 2. YouTube channels (2007) 3. Podcast versions of all shows (2008) 4. Websites and mobile apps (2008) 5. iPad magazine on the Arabic website (2010) 6. Correspondent application to create reports directly on their personal mobile phones (2008) 7. Twitter “bureau” for Al Jazeera English during Gaza War (2008) 8. Ushahidi platform known as citizen journalism (2009) 9. Sharik, a site made-up of user-generated content (2011)

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