Al Jazeera and the DoD: The Need for Greater Engagement

2006

Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing this collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden to Department of Defense, Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports (0704-0188), 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington, VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to any penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number. PLEASE DO NOT RETURN YOUR FORM TO THE ABOVE ADDRESS.

2004

Public reporting burden for the collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to a penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number.

The Political Economy of Communication, 2022

On 1 November 2021, Al Jazeera celebrated its 25-year-anniversary. Since inception, it has been beset with an astonishing number of threats and attacks that were supposed to intimidate the network and prevent reportage in one of the world’s most conflict-stricken regions. Al Jazeera has been a trailblazer in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, putting forward stories and perspectives that would have otherwise never been covered by local or regional media. The network has tapped into a 350 million plus audience of primarily Arab-speaking viewers in more than 22 countries. The network’s championing of democracy and human rights amidst popular uprisings has attracted the ire of dictators in the region. Here it is important to acknowledge the international context. Since the collapse of the first, second, and third worlds and the globalisation of media communication, framings of geopolitical reality have become essentially contested. Such was evident in Al Jazeera’s daring coverage of the 2000 Intifada, the 2001 War on Afghanistan, and the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. In the latter context, the human cost of the war and the despoliation of Arab/Muslim sovereignty and heritage was emphasised. Significant airtime given to anti-war reactions and oppositional worldviews exemplified the de-Westernisation of global media communication. In this commentary, all these aspects will be examined as will the corporate, socio-political, and geopolitical complexities surrounding the rise of this resilient news media organisation.

Public reporting burden for the collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to a penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number.

2007

Public reporting burden for the collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to a penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number.

2009

Public reporting burden for the collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to a penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number.

2005

Public reporting burden for the collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to a penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number.

2003

Public reporting burden for the collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to a penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number.

2019

Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing this collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden to Department of Defense, Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports (0704-0188), 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington, VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to any penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number.

2010

CIMA is pleased to release a new report, The Pentagon, Information Operations, and Media Development, by Peter Cary, a veteran journalist with extensive experience reporting about the U.S. military. As part of its post-9/11 strategy, the Department of Defense has launched a multi-front information war, both to support its troops on the ground and to counter the propaganda of radical Muslim extremists. The DoD’s global public relations war, however, has fostered criticism that the department has over-reached and tarred the efforts of non-DoD Americans doing media development work abroad. While the DoD cannot be criticized for trying to protect the lives of its soldiers, it has spent vast amounts of money on media operations–which can tend to be conducted in secrecy and whose effectiveness often cannot be measured. This report examines the impact of DoD information operations on international media development efforts and offers recommendations– including that the DoD leave media activities that could be considered public diplomacy to the State Department.

Middle East Quarterly, 2012

The Two Faces of Al Jazeera by Oren Kessler O ne of the principal beneficiaries of the Arab uprisings has been Al Jazeera television. Viewers are praising the English and Arabic channels' comprehensive coverage of the revolts while the Obama administration continues to court the network as part of its signature foreign policy goal of improving ties with the Arab and Muslim worlds. On August 1, 2011, Al Jazeera English (AJE) began broadcasting to two million cable subscribers in New York-the third major U.S. city to carry the station after Houston and Washington, D.C. 1 AJE's gutsy, driven reporting-one commentator aptly commended its "hustle" 2-has won it friends in high places: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lauded the channel as "real news," 3 and Sen. John McCain (Republican, Ariz.) said he was "very proud" of its handling of the so-called Arab Spring. 4 Lost in the exuberance is the fact that a vast gulf still separates the channel's English iteration from the original Arabic, which fifteen years after its birth continues to inflame Arab resentments in its promotion of anti-Americanism, Sunni sectarianism and, in recent years, Islamism. As AJE debuts in New York, many viewers who do not speak Arabic will presume the station to be a direct or approximate translation of its parent network in Qatar. 5 But to appreciate what Al Jazeera English is, it is critical to remember just what it is not-even a remote likeness of its Arabic-speaking progenitor.

2004

Public reporting burden for the collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to a penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number.

2002

Public reporting burden for the collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to a penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number.

Global Media and Communication, 2011

Just as the highly debatable concept of 'the CNN Effect' denotes that visual news coverage can drive foreign policy, the Al-Jazeera Effect is 'a paradigm of new media's influence' on global politics (which includes satellite television, the internet and all other networked information technologies). As a symbol of our new 'media-centric world', says Seib, Al-Jazeera 'fosters unprecedented cohesion in the worldwide Muslim com-munity' (Seib, 2008: ix). The concept of the Al-Jazeera Effect, suggests Seib, is used to describe all the uses of new media in global affairs, including democratization, terrorism and 'virtual states', by pushing at the limits of free media expression in the Arab/Muslim worlds. While the CNN Effect concept mainly assumes media-driven foreign policy in the West, the Al-Jazeera Effect concept generally refers to the direct impact of satellite television and the internet on Arab politics, including processes of Islamic-led change, the proliferation of terrorism and 'virtual states' (such as Al-Qaeda and Kurdistan), and possibly the fostering of democracy. This article aims to clear up the confusion by addressing some of the misconceptions (that have even attained the status of myth) related to: (1) the nature of the Arab media in the age of the satellite; (2) the Al-Jazeera Effect and socio-political change; and (3) Al-Jazeera's relationship to Al-Qaeda, and its place within Al-Qaeda's media strategy. The Arab media landscape There is a widely held assumption that the 'persistence of authoritarianism is the result of an uninformed citizenry, and that access to information will serve to enlighten the oppressed Arab people' (Fandy, 2007: 122). The myth of the Al-Jazeera Effect promotes the idea that the channel is 'the only free Arab independent station' and 'the most credible source of information for the Arab people'. As for the myths regarding