Al Jazeera Tells its Story: In-Depth Studies

among those who were concerned with viewership and ratings. From here it was designated that new players in the media space, such as Al Jazeera and its counterparts, whose professional beliefs were obsessed with quality, to apply their own special approach in this fog of concepts, directions and applications” (1) . In its approach to media quality, Al Jazeera chose a method that combined values, audience and innovation. The formula guarantees expansion, while still ensuring this grouping of multiple values and measures of quality does not result in the emergence of any type of contention or conflict between these elements. Al Jazeera established a system of logging these standards, approving them, then following up on them daily and monitoring implementation through experts in mon- itoring quality journalistic and media quality levels. In addition to this, the organisation designed a system of monitoring through the activation of its training and qualification levels. Origin and Establishment In 2004, Al Jazeera established the first foundations of media qual- ity regulations, which became known as the professional conduct man- ual (2) . This was the first step in verifying Al Jazeera’s vision and spec- ifying its moral and professional direction in the media world (3) . Eight years after its establishment, Al Jazeera considered dedicating a unit for media quality, called “Quality Assurance”. Jafar Abbas was head of this media division, and its leadership decided the division’s experts should (1) Yasser Abu al-Nasr, “Regulating Quality and Difficult Questions: Al Jazeera as a Model”, Television Media in Al Jazeera’s Experience , edited by Mohamed Daoud et. al. (Al Jazeera Media Network, 2016), p. 396. (2) In a verified statement to Al Jazeera, and according to an unpublished paper written by Yasser Abu al-Nasr for Quality Control, Jafar Abbas says, “Quality Control was administra- tively under the satellite channel’s Director General at the time, Wadah Khanfar, and included five media teams and an administrative coordinator. Care was taken in their selection in terms of their media experience at Al Jazeera. The unit was led by Jafar Abbas, who created the first code of professional conduct”.

(3) “Editorial Standards”, Quality Control and Editorial Standards , (Al Jazeera Media Net- work, 2015), p. 14.

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