Al Jazeera ‘Wasn’t Built in a Day’
Al Jazeera ‘Wasn’t Built in a Day’ Mohamed Sidi | Head of Corporate Communication, AJMN
Seeking instant rewards is a human instinct, but sacrificing short term gains for long term success requires greater willpower. The factors behind Al Jazeera’s achievements over the past quarter of a century are hard to dissect. Its success is a product of a wise vision coupled with the synergy of all those who believe in it – the dedicated journalists who embrace Al Jazeera’s mission and values. We, at the Corporate Communications Department, receive many questions about our editorial policy; our worldwide bureaus; our challenges and successes. However, the most frequently asked question is: ‘What is the key factor behind Al Jazeera’s ground-breaking success?’ Many wonder if it is the wide margin of freedom or widespread network of correspondents and bureaus. But other media outlets also have these and yet have not matched Al Jazeera’s achievements. So, what is the secret then? It does not take a genius to figure it out. A visit to Al Jazeera’s newsroom offers the answer: the diversity of our dedicated journalists, who speak different languages and come from different cultures, and are nestled in a network of offices all over the globe.
This unique mixture enables Al Jazeera to cover events whenever and wherever they occur with total impartiality and credibility. Al Jazeera covers the story from all angles with the human side at the core. Most other media outlets focus their coverage on a particular geographical area or populations; some are influenced by those funding them; others are advertiser-oriented. Al Jazeera’s staff hail from more than 90 countries and operate from 70 cities across the globe. According to a study published by Journalism Review in 2019, US newsrooms suffer from a structural flaw, namely a lack of ethnic and cultural diversity. Although minorities make up about 40 percent of the entire US population, that number falls to just 17 percent in media outlets’ editorial teams. Many experts in the US emphasise that this imbalance in the media workforce has not only had a negative impact on their content output, but also confounded their coverage. This is most obvious in events involving ethnic minorities. By contrast, Al Jazeera has created a universal mosaic that encompasses diverse cultures and deep experiences. This no doubt enriches Al Jazeera’s daily coverage and content. It also enables the
network to provide in-depth analysis of every event or story and to consider all the possible consequences. This rich diversity of tongues and cultures is reflected in Al Jazeera’s coverage. Not only does it help streamline deployment, but it also provides a wide range of coverage possibilities. A US- born journalist would not face any difficulty in pronouncing the name of a remote village in the Libyan desert when a fellow journalist from that area is sitting next to them.
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