in understanding the work and function of Al Jazeera (1) . In 2006, the University of Pennsylvania launched a program for Think Tanks and Civil Society, which publishes an annual report rank- ing global research centres according to their importance and influence. For the last several years, Al Jazeera Centre of Studies has been ranked among the top ten research institutions in the Arab world and the Middle East at large. This index reveals another target audience for Al Jazeera, different from its usual audience interested in receiving news and me- dia related products. This audience is mainly composed of academics, students and researchers, political elites and policy makers, think-tank researchers and political analysts. In 2013, Al Jazeera Centre for Studies started a joint research proj- ect with Cambridge University on media in political transitions. The research lasted for three years and involved three research teams from Tunisia, Morocco, and Turkey. Among the outcomes of this project was a book titled “Media and Politics in the Southern Mediterranean” (2) pub- lished in 2020. Contributors to this collective work addressed, from different angles, the changing relationship between media and political systems during times of transitions. This form of influence adds to the above-mentioned examples, which all revolve around Al Jazeera being a subject of study. In this type of influence, Al Jazeera becomes a leader in developing and expanding academic research through partnerships and through its own research institution. Al Jazeera’s contribution to framing and theorizing academic re- search, particularly in media studies, is varied and multi-faceted. In this context, the network has maintained an open-door policy to help stu- dents and researchers who need to visit its headquarters and conduct fieldwork. This policy has resulted in an increasing number of students and university professors from various countries visiting Al Jazeera during the past quarter of a century. This encouragement and contin-
(1) Magdalena Wojcieszak, “Al Jazeera: A Challenge to Traditional Framing Research”, The International Communication Gazette , Vol. 69, No. 2, (2007).
(2) Roxane Farmanfarmaian (ed.), Media and Politics in the Southern Mediterranean: Com- municating Power in Transition after 2011, (Routledge, 2020).
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