Abstract
Al Jazeera’s motto, “The opinion and the other opinion,” is the natural starting point for a review of its mission to widen the boundaries of public conversation in the Arab world and the world. All responsible mass media have a similar motto or goal: to represent and discover the many voices that comprise one’s community, to provide a place and context for the expression of opinion and to lead in the granting of mutual respect. The world-regarded social responsibility theory of the press holds this goal as its core. Any conversation about media mission and vision includes the metaphor: voice of the voiceless. What range of voices does Al Jazeera broadcast as duty, privilege for purposes of peace? What voices would Al Jazeera never cover, and why? How does Al Jazeera keep itself accountable to the “mission of voice” as it negotiates the challenging political, religious and developmental ecology of the Middle East? Finally, what can Al Jazeera teach other media companies and constituencies as it continues to grow and articulate its own mission? Couldry’s (Why Voice Matters: Culture and Politics After Neoliberalism. London: Sage, 2010) perspective on the importance of the voice is pertinent in its argument that recovering voice challenges the dominant neoliberal politics opposed to Al Jazeera’s contra flow.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Al-Khalil, M. (2016). Interview with the Authors. Doha, Qatar.
Al-Naimi, R. (2018). Interview with the Authors. Doha.
Barkho, L. (2006). The Arabic Al Jazeera vs Britain’s BBC and America’s CNN: Who Does Journalism Right? American Communication Journal, 8(1), 1–15.
Black, E. (1996, April 8). Journalism Tests New Definition of Involvement. The Star Tribune, pp. A1, A8.
Calabrese, A. (2005). The MacBride Report: Its Value to a New Generation. Quaderns del CAC, 21(38), 23–25.
Christians, C. G., Glasser, T. L., McQuail, D., Nordenstreng, K., & White, R. A. (2009). Normative Theories of the Media. Journalism in Democratic Societies. Urbana/Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Couldry, N. (2010). Why Voice Matters: Culture and Politics After Neoliberalism. London: Sage.
El-Nawawy, M., & Powers, S. (2008). Mediating Conflict. Al-Jazeera English and the Possibility of a Conciliatory Media. Los Angeles: Figueroa Press.
El-Sheikh, A. (2016). Interview with the Authors. Doha.
Goldstein, R. A., Macrine, S., & Chesky, N. Z. (2011). Welcome to the “New Normal”: The News Media and Neoliberal Reforming Education. Journal of Inquiry & Action in Education, 4(1), 112–131.
Gunaratne, S., & Hasim, M. S. (1996). Social Responsibility Theory Revisited. A Comparative Study of Public Journalism and Development Journalism. Journalism at the Crossroads, 3, 97–107.
Harvey, D. (2005). A Brief History of Neoliberalism. New York: Oxford University Press.
Horwitz, B. R. (2004). On Media Concentration and the Diversity Question. University of California-San Diego. Retrieved from http://communication.ucsd.edu/_files/onmedia.pdf
Krichen, M. (2017). Interview with the Authors. Doha.
Lambeth, E. B. (1994). Review of Good News, Social Ethics and the Press by Clifford G. Christians, John P. Ferre and P. Mark Fackler. Media Development, 41(4), 50–51.
MacBride, S. (1980). Many Voices, One World: Towards a New, More Just, and More Efficient World Order. International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems.
McChesney, R. W. (2001). Global Media, Neoliberalism, and Imperialism. Monthly Review, 52(10).
McQuail, D. (1983). Mass Communication Theory. London: Sage.
McQuail, D. (1987). Mass Communication Theory: An Introduction (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Merritt, D. (1995). Public Journalism and Public Life: Why Telling the News Is Not Enough. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Miles, H. (2006). Al-Jazeera: How Arab TV News Challenged the World. London: Abacus.
Negm, S. (2017). Interview with the Authors. Doha.
Nordenstreng, K. (1997). Beyond the Four Theories of the Press. In J. Servaes & R. Lie (Eds.), Media and Politics in Transition. Cultural Identity in the Age of Globalization (pp. 97–110). Leuven: Uitgeverij Acco.
Norris, P. (2001). Giving Voice to the Voiceless: Good Governance, Human Development & Mass Communications. Harvard University. Retrieved from https://sites.hks.harvard.edu/fs/pnorris/Acrobat/Voice.pdf
Powers, S. (2009). The Geopolitics of the News: The Case of the Al Jazeera Network. Los Angeles: University of Southern California. Retrieved from http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p15799coll127/id/283824
Puddephatt, A. (2006). Voices of War: Conflict and the Role of the Media. International Media Support. Retrieved from https://www.mediasupport.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/ims-voices-of-war-2006.pdf
Sakr, N. (2005). Women, Development and Al Jazeera: A Balance Sheet. In M. Zayani (Ed.), The Al Jazeera Phenomenon. Critical Perspectives on New Arab Media (pp. 127–150). London: Pluto Press.
Sen, A. (1999). Development as Freedom. New York: Anchor Books.
Siebert, F. S., Peterson, T., & Schramm, W. (1956). Four Theories of the Press: The Authoritarian, Libertarian, Social Responsibility, and Soviet Communist Concepts of What the Press Should Be and Do. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
The Week. (2017, July 4). Al Jazeera: Free Speech or a Voice for Extremists? Retrieved from http://www.theweek.co.uk/qatar/86317/al-jazeera-free-speech-or-a-voice-for-extremists
Ungerleider, C. (2006). Government, Neo-Liberal Media, and in Canada. Canadian Journal of Education, 1(2006), 70–90.
Zayani, M. (2015). Networked Publics and Digital Contention: The Politics of Everyday Life in Tunisia. New York: Oxford University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Sadig, H.B., Petcu, C. (2019). Voices from the Periphery. In: Sadig, H. (eds) Al Jazeera in the Gulf and in the World. Contemporary Gulf Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3420-7_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3420-7_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-13-3419-1
Online ISBN: 978-981-13-3420-7
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)