Introduction Al Jazeera Tells its Story…In-Depth Investigations coincides with the twenty-fifth anniversary of the first international Arabic-language news channel and provides a documented account of its journey. In- terest in Al Jazeera’s path began early on, as a result of the wide press coverage it garnered in the Arab world and beyond, and the continuous debate about its unique character, unbiased and objective news and pro- gramme content, and editorial policies. Al Jazeera also garnered a lot of interest in the academic community, with an abundance of research and studies on the channel in an attempt to understand, analyse and draw comparisons. Interest in Al Jazeera in the past quarter of a centu- ry has produced various narratives on this unprecedented phenomenon and impact on the world’s media and political environment. Moreover, despite the amount of literature on Al Jazeera, there are still some ques- tions about its experience, some ambiguous aspects, and common mis- takes that need to be corrected. In this context, Al Jazeera Tells its Story presents the Network’s journey in its own words, distinguishing it from past individual and collective works written by outsiders. The contributing researchers all work for Al Jazeera, and have lived this experience. They followed its path from the beginning and used their familiarity to advance their re- search. Before the chapters took their final shape, an editorial commit- tee headed by the Network’s Director General spearheaded a long re- view and revision process. In addition, the book addresses common and repeated mistakes among researchers, others interested in Al Jazeera, and even its own employees; as well as answers questions about the Network’s foundation, background, and developmental stages. While the methods may differ from chapter to chapter, they all converge in adopting descriptive analysis to present the story of the network. The information gathered by the book’s contributors comes partly from official documents, oral narratives, and interviews with personalities from administrative, editorial, and technical departments. The narrative presented in this book is comprehensively and scientifi-
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