Al Jazeera and U.S. War Coverage »

Tal Samuel-Azran is a lecturer in the Sammy Ofer School of Communications at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzlia, Israel. He holds a Ph.D. in media and communications from the University of Melbourne and has published widely on Al-Jazeera and media globalization. He has also served as a reporter for several Israeli journals and newspapers. He recently co-edited the book New Media and Innovative Technologies (2008).

Since the eve of the war in Afghanistan, Al-Jazeera has become a global household name and a news source that cannot be ignored. Globalization theorists argue that Al-Jazeera promotes a cross-cultural debate, enforcing a counter-hegemonic perspective on the West not evident in former crises. Through a comprehensive empirical analysis covering the re-broadcasting of Al-Jazeera's images on major U.S. television networks since 9/11, this book draws an alternative picture, revealing that the advent of Al-Jazeera has actually eroded the counter-hegemonic debate in U.S. war reporting. It shows how the U.S. government persuaded television networks to systematically reformat legitimate war images from Al-Jazeera, labeling it a deviant network, in order to eliminate criticism of the war. Moreover, an examination of the U.S. reception by bloggers and network carriers of Al-Jazeera's English-language website and channel reveals the U.S. administration's continued resolve and ability to limit public discourse.

Foreword Professor Simon Cottle Cottle, Professor Simon

Introduction 1

Chapter One Al-Jazeera and The Media Globalization Argument 7

Chapter Two Al-Jazeera Re-Shuffles The Global Information Order 13

The Western media and "cultural imperialism" 14

Counter-hegemonic global news and the subsequent "information war" 17

Chapter Three Anti-Hegemonic Images In Us War Reporting 23

War images and the development of censorship 23

Chapter Four Is Al-Jazeera A Legitimate Network? 31

Al-Jazeera: An advocate of Qatar's interests? 31

Al-Jazeera: A religious network? 33

Al-Jazeera: Cross-cultural understanding? 35

Chapter Five Disregarding The Pain Of Others: The War In Afghanistan 41

The military frame 43

How the networks self-censored the biggest war story 47

Chapter Six The Enemy's Voice 53

The Administration's position on Al-Qaeda Messages 54

The Bin Laden videos and the debate re Al-Jazeera's credibility 56

CNN's expose of Bin Laden's Al-Jazeera interview 67

Chapter Seven The War in Iraq 73

Discrediting the message: The double standard in image censoring 77

Discrediting the messenger: Building the "Al-Jazeera is biased" frame 80

The Battle of Fallujah: "Why Show Civilian Casualties?" 86

The Abu Ghraib photos and the "Information War" 89

Chapter Eight The Darling Of The Alternative Media Web Sites: english.aljazeera.net 93

Re-presentation of english.aljazeera.net reports 94

What did Western internet users derive from Al-Jazeera reports? 96

Implications 99

Chapter Nine Al-Jazeera English In The Us 101

Chapter Ten Conclusions 113

Appendix A Methodology 117

Appendix B Discourses Of The Global Public Sphere 121

Appendix C Political Communication Theories Of War Reporting 125

Appendix D The Relations Between Qatar, Israel And The US 133

Appendix E The Impact Of Wartime Images On Public Opinion 137

References 141

Index 153