One of the reasons for these standards’ success and strength within the organisation is that they were developed from within this media environment, and not imposed from above. A standard should first and foremost make media work easier, not complicate it; thus, it is not the specification of the standard that is important but rather the agreement on its importance and feasibility. For example, the length of a news report, and whether it should be two minutes or two and a half minutes, is not something decided by the quality team, but rather by the editorial team. On the other hand, the quality team is responsible for logging what is agreed upon, and interjects only to reach an acceptable conclu- sion and remove any inconsistencies between values and the workflow, in turn making the entire monitoring process easier with the application of the standards. This experience was successful even though the hard- est documents are those written and edited by a group, because they demand many discussions and extra attention to the detail of the details. Normative Challenges I. Arab media, especially television, went through several histor- ical phases, most notable of them “guardianship television”, in which media was the gateway to rally, indoctrinate and impose direction. In this phase, media outlets of various types were mirrors of governmental authorities rather than the people. In the early 1990s, entertainment and consumer media, as well as drama channels, emerged. Then, in the mid- 1990s came the channel of the “The Opinion and The Other Opinion”, the first to reflect Arab peoples of all persuasions, ascribing to profes- sional codes of conduct and using the most modern media techniques. Arab satellite media, both the consumer and news types, launched from the Gulf with generous financing, professional management and openness to multinational Arab experiences. Since the dawning of this century, two competing value systems began to emerge in the media sector: the business and consumer model tied to advertisements, finan- cial pressures and increasing concessions; and Al Jazeera’s brand of media, which promises visual news according to the highest profession- al and technical standards, with a successful relationship between the owners and the organisation’s professionals.
117
EN2.indd 117
20/02/2022 4:14 PM
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter