Al Jazeera in Academia Ezzeddine Abdelmoula
Introduction The world of academia has shown a great interest in the Al Jazeera phenomenon since the network’s launch in 1996. This early fascination in Al Jazeera’s content and news reporting style was not just limited to journalism schools, it also extended to the field of political science, international relations, social sciences, arts, and all other relevant areas. The sheer number of literature, studies, reports and books published on the network clearly reflects the deep global interest in its journalism as well as its impact. This chapter explores Al Jazeera’s presence in aca- demia and looks at its effect on academic research using a descriptive and analytical approach. The amount of examined literature spans more than twenty-five years of published and unpublished university theses, books, and refereed essays. The chapter will also examine the effect of Al Jazeera on academia in four aspects. The first is the unprecedented interest it garnered as a media phenomenon that has translated into an extensive collection of literature in world universities and research centres. The second aspect is the comparative studies, since Al Jazeera has evolved into a global media organisation competing with other networks. The third aspect is the development of research on Al Jazeera from general themes to spe- cialised studies on news coverage, talk shows, and various institutional components. The fourth strand is how Al Jazeera transitioned from just being the subject of research to playing an active role in supporting and improving academic research.
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