increasing number of studies have addressed the ruptures Al Jazeera effected within its media environment. Some of these ruptures are ad- dressed in the following section, through the professional experience of Al Jazeera’s journalists themselves. a) Pluralism, Freedom, and News Values For many decades, the official Arab media have been and predom- inantly still are, a tool in the hands of governments rather than a pub- lic vehicle for social expression. Authorities control the content and censor it and whoever broadcasts it. News bulletins in these types of media outlets often start and end with news of the rulers and their activ- ities. The audiences generally do not trust the content they receive; they would rather turn to international media for real news and information. Government media dictated what people knew and how they thought (1) . However, Al Jazeera “put an end to propaganda and censorship in news bulletins and talk shows that aim to serve the policies of the countries in which they operate. There were no more red lines in reporting news. The channel accommodated different viewpoints, making it possible for the majority of those who had no platform or a voice to express their opinion” (2) . Consequently, Al Jazeera broke free from the unilateral nar- rative and moved towards telling the story with its different dimensions, making it the voice of the “other”, whose existence the world did not know of or had long forgot. In this context, many studies that dealt with the influence of Al Jazeera on the Arab media scene refer to what they call the “revolu- tion” the channel brought about across the Arab media environment by broadcasting what other outlets in the past would not dare broadcast; about the daunting realities of life in Arab countries (3) . Accordingly, it
(1) Philip Seib, The Al Jazeera Effect: How the New Global Media Are Reshaping World Politics , translated by Ezzeddine Abdelmoula, (Beirut: Al Jazeera Centre for Studies and Arab Scientific Publishers, 2011), p. 7.
(2) Jafar Abbas, phone interview, Ibid.
(3) El-Nawawy and Iskandar, Ibid., p. 29.
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