Al Jazeera Tells its Story: In-Depth Studies

purpose, to see how successful they have been in targeting and engag- ing the Arab public.

Audience : in this section, we will analyse the views of the Arab audience, particularly those of the political elites and their evaluation of Al Jazeera’s performance. In addition, we will look at the nature and function of the Al Jazeera-audience interaction to understand the inter- nal logic driving such an evolving relationship.

1. Al Jazeera and its Audience: Relationship and Limitations

A number of previous studies have addressed the role of Al Ja- zeera in building an Arab audience that is different from the one built during the domination of state-controlled TV services, during which a one-way relation of submission and indoctrination prevailed (1) . Despite how sound and solid the notion of a “specific Al Jazeera audience” is, and how the Network played a defining role in shaping new attitudes among the Arab audience, such a simplistic perspective should not go unquestioned. The media-audience relation is more complicated and awareness-building processes are always subject to multiple interacting factors. Even before Al Jazeera, the Arab public has been longing for a change in the Arab media scene, and sought out independent outlets that enabled it to contribute to a social and political change. These types of public awareness, reasons and objectives converged soon after Al Jazeera was launched and a new relationship began to take shape. The Arab viewers are smart, remarks Al Jazeera’s former Director, Moham- med Jasim Al-Ali, “We treat them as an intelligent audience rather than the conventional idea that they will take whatever you give them” (2) .

(1) For more details, see Chapter 9 of this volume, “Al Jazeera in Academic Studies” by Ez- zeddine Abdelmoula.

(2) Mohammed Jasim Al-Ali, Interview with Abdallah Schleifer and Sarah Sullivan, Transna- tional Broadcasting Studies , No. 7. (Fall/Winter 2001).

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