The University of Cambridge & Al Jazeera: A Unique Partnership
In partnership with Al Jazeera’s film production team, we developed an interactive Infographic charting the 18 scholars and their work in each of our research countries, as well as the teams in Doha and Cambridge; published in both Arabic and English, along with over twenty-five talks and broadcasts on the project. The final publication, entitled Media and Politics in the Southern Mediterranean, fulfilled the ground- breaking goal Dr Salah and I had set ourselves to achieve. Not only were they for the first time able to share knowledge of their common areas of expertise at our workshops and conferences, but they developed into a network of media academics that itself was novel for the region. At the same time, and for the first time, we were also able to develop, based on field data, a new, locally specific theory of media, which we called Value and Status Negotiation Theory (VSN) which unlike all previous models, did not rely on Western paradigms to provide a framework for understanding the role and meaning of media in the Middle East. Both Al Jazeera, and Cambridge underwent unexpected and significant change as institutions during those years. Brexit and the GCC embargo are only two of the many pressures and transitions our two countries, and organisations, have weathered recently, not to mention the effects of the global pandemic.
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