The unprecedented success of the Al Jazeera experience is seen in the space it gives its viewers and guests to freely express themselves, a factor that led several other news channels to emerge and replicate this model, competing with Al Jazeera for the hearts and minds of Arab audiences. Some of these included the Saudi Al Arabiy a, the Emirati Sky News Arabia , BBC Arabic , DW Arabic in Germany, RT Arabic in Russia and CCTV in China. This means that not only did Al Jazeera succeed from the values and editorial standpoints, it also obligated its competitors to come meet it on its own turf. In this phase, phrases such as “the Al Jazeera effect” and “the Al Jazeera Revolution” became com- mon, as did “The Al Jazeera Phenomenon”. These were all signs of international interest in the channel and its role in balancing the flow of information and news from the global south to north, and from the east to west, as opposed to the traditional north to south approach to news (1) . However, with rapid calls for development within the network in recent years, new discussions emerged on the balanced standards on which Al Jazeera was built. Now, the discussion was not external be- tween Al Jazeera and its competitors, but rather internal, in which some called for an increase in “fun content” and a decrease in the “gloom- iness of the screen”, to meet the demands of a new segment of its au- dience. The Quality Control unit’s administration responded to these discussions to lessen the tension between professional requirements and expansion goals, without allowing business and consumer values to impose themselves on the function of truth seeking. We believe that this was a successful effort, with a balance between what both sides de- manded: expansion in terms of quantity while preserving overall media quality and its development. As digital media expanded, this tension about values obviously became more intense. Digital media, in its very essence, is interactive and closer to the spirit of theatre, and even presents itself as such, mak- ing up the “fourth dimension” in drama. It is an imaginary dimension,
(1) Mohammad Morsi and Mohammad Hassan, “Complementary Media Platforms in the Newsroom: An Empirical Study on Al Jazeera Mubasher”, Doha Institute for Graduate Stud- ies , 2017.
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