cast to serve a specific purpose or objective through misrepresentation, distortion, the misuse of information, or the use of images out of con- text. We have noticed some of this in the coverage of a number of in- ternational satellite channels of the war in Afghanistan, in which they focused on the “cleanliness of war” by concealing its destructive nature on the country and the Afghan people. On the other hand, said chan- nels highlighted the power of the military machine of the U.S. army that overthrew the Taliban government, rendering their coverage a mis- representation and perversion of facts and an attempt to “whitewash” the war or cleanse it of its scourge. It became a model for advertising. Meanwhile, Al Jazeera managed to avoid this propaganda through its balance and objectivity. Instead, it focused on the human aspect and the effects of the war on Afghan citizens. This was also seen in the chan- nel’s coverage of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the wars waged by Israel on the Gaza Strip, as well as in other regions of the world. Third: The News Approach to Coverage The news approach to coverage at Al Jazeera is a process of me- dia treatment and representing events and facts and the structure of the cognitive map to deal with the news, issues and dossiers covered by the channel. The first thing that attracts our attention in this approach is the spirit of coverage itself and the perspective that frames the process of media treatment, through an “Arab identity” or with an “Arab flair”, as Krishan notes, “that corresponds with an Arab disposition. Al Jazeera is not a “cold” American or French channel; it covers the events with a different spirit and mental and cultural legacy” (1) . Therefore, it had to avoid, for example, what is known as the “parachute journalism”, that had the majority of the Western media producing a fragmented and dis- torted picture of reality due to the lack of integration of the three basic dimensions of coverage: field, depth and context. Being in the field has been an essential component of Al Jazeera’s approach to its news coverage. The field dimension of coverage is one of the main requirements of the news agenda, as Al Jazeera English correspondent Hashem Ahelbarra points out. The reporter’s role is very
(1) Ibid.
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