New Kids on the Blog

The Rise of News Media Rockstars

Many of us know the feeling. Whether they were the Biff Tannens of the world or simply the cafeteria bullies fighting to grab quarters, dollar bills, and dignity from the George McFlys, the shy kids and the Trekkies, we’ve all seen it before. And in this televised, jumbled jungle of news, infotainment, and flat-out media flatulence, things are far from different.

Thankfully enough, Al Jazeera didn’t need Doc Brown to help them find their moment in the sun.

Just a few years ago, in the aftermath of 9/11 and amidst wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Qatar-based news network, founded in 1996, and its reporters faced consistent dosages of bomb threats, missile attacks, imprisonment, and suspicions that their reports of street-level citizen protests were spreading anti-American sentiment. Accordingly, U.S. forces held Sami al-Hajj, an Al Jazeera cameraman, hostage for six years under accusations of terrorism and associations with propaganda. Past Western attacks against the network include an artillery fire that destroyed their Kabul bureau and an attack against their offices in Baghdad that killed a correspondent..

In addition,White House transcripts from an April 2004 meeting show then-President Bush plotting to bomb the network's headquarters. However, then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair successfully talked him out of it.

The fact that the news network's English-language channel, Al Jazeera English, has seldom been broadcast over the airwaves of American cable and satellite networks only led to less Western exposure and more assumptions.

Prior to this year’s revolutions throughout the Middle East, the output of news from these regions was primarily controlled by state government interests, which were typically infused with propaganda that often denounced protests and their participants.

But what exactly has changed?

With the growth of citizen journalism and the ever-increasing capabilities of smartphones, blogging, and Twitter, word of protest has become more directly accessible to the public from its citizens, even in spite of attempted shutdowns. And as such, ideological unity has become more of a reality.

Hoping to ride the wave of social media, Al Jazeera has developed a Twitter dashboard that tracks Tweets mentioning or relating to Middle Eastern nations such as Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and Bahrain. In addition, the network has created a mobile phone app that provides users with a 24-hour stream of their newscasts.

As Al Jazeera continues to bridge the gaps between fights for independence, people around the world, from media analysts to everyday news followers, have begun recognizing the news outlet's power in setting the foundations for citizen involvement, a capability that many Americans often take for granted.

Since the rise of the protests in Egypt, online viewership of Al Jazeera English increased by a staggering 2500 percent, with half of new viewers coming from the United States. As such, there have been more efforts to include the channel in cable television lineups, alongside networks such as MSNBC, Fox News, and CNN, who similarly rose to prominence as a result of the Persian Gulf War.

"Now I feel like I work for the cool kids!," wrote Jane Dutton, a correspondent for Al Jazeera English who admits to having been accused of being a representative for terrorists, on the network website. "A group of Americans I get chatting to in a phone shop recognize me from my reporting in Cairo during the Egypt uprising. When they left, they thanked me for the impact our work has had on the world."

It's the ultimate story of grabbing the news, holding it up, and showing the bullies who's boss. Dare we forget the great words of Doc: "Go forth time travelers, and remember the future is what you make it!"

Al Jazeera English Website: http://english.aljazeera.net/

Twitter Page: http://twitter.com/ajenglish

Jane Dutton's Blog: http://blogs.aljazeera.net/profile/jane-dutton