Is
Al-Jazeera a counter to Western media imperialism or a mirror version of Fox
News Style propaganda?
I
think it could be both, but I will explain that Al-Jazeera is a mirror version
of Fox News style propaganda here.
There was a difference in the news coverage of Iraq war between Al-Jazeera and Fox News. According to Wicks and Wicks (2004, p.8-9),
when a bombing happened in a restaurant in Baghdad in 2003 Spring, Fox News persistently
kept reporting about whether Saddam Hussein was inside and was killed or not,
while Al-Jazeera focused on mainly civilian casualties caused by the bombing. It seems that Fox News wanted to justify the
bombing by insisting that it targeted Saddam.
And Al-Jazeera might want to represent the war as abuses of human rights
by showing victims of innocent civilians.
El-Nawawy points
out that an importance of Al-Jazeera is “to let people talk” (2003, p. 50). Al-Jazeera is facilitating people to express
their opinions clearly and honestly. So
one of the reasons why Al-Jazeera focused on casualties might be because
Al-Jazeera wanted to stimulate viewers’ minds by showing bloody dead bodies and
lead them to public sphere to discuss and exchange how they felt towards the coverage. Probably the coverage of casualties could make the viewers symphathise with the victims and suspect that US was not actually assisting Iraq to be liberal.
So,
both of media try to enhance nationalism among people in US and Arab states and to justify their foreign policy. Also, Al-Jazeera tries to get international community and human rights
groups support Arab cultures. Therefore, Al-Jazeera is a mirror version of Fox
News style propaganda.
Iraq War Media Propaganda: Al-Jazeera Perspective part1
If you would like to watch part 2, here is the link
References:
El-Nawawy, M 2003, 'The battle for the Arab mind', Al-Jazeera, the history of the network that is rattling the governments and redefining modern journalism 2003, Westview press, Boulder CO, pp. 45-69.
Wicks, R & Wicks, J 2004, 'Televised Coverage of the War in Iraq on Al-Jazeera, CNN and Fox News.', Conference Papers - International Communication Annual Meeting, pp.1-28, retrieved 20 August 2012.
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