Al-Jazeera: Reporting from the Middle East

Note: The following essay is one I was assigned to write for a certain class. The professor posed a question over different material we had read and watched. The purpose was not to necessarily criticize Al-Jazeera, but to answer a specific question.


Al-Jazeera has been a lightning rod that has drawn criticism from many countries in the Arab world and Middle East as well as Western nations, especially the United States. Located in Qatar, Al-Jazeera is the most popular television news network in the Arab world. Those countries in the Middle East and northern Africa and surrounding areas that have criticized it have done so largely in part due to the news station’s condemning of certain government regimes. Unlike most media outlets in the Arab region, Al-Jazeera is not controlled by the government. It may seem strange that with so much criticism, the network has continued to enjoy such popularity. However, many Arab leaders who are sometimes opposed to it often appear on the network themselves, realizing the good opportunity to voice their opinions to a wide-spread audience. Even though sometimes castigated by its Arab counterparts, Al-Jazeera has, in a way, helped to bring the Arab countries together in a united front in opposition to European and American news agencies. There are, of course, differences among the Arab countries, hence cultural heterogenization. However, Al-Jazeera has been able to disseminate news (or propaganda as some think) across the whole region, thus providing some sort of common ground. (Hero or Heretic? Al-Jazeera and Arab Governments)

In Europe and even more so in the United States, there has been an outcry that Al-Jazeera has been focusing too much on anti-American propaganda. American criticism sharply increased during the early part of the Iraq War. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld accused Al-Jazeera of distorting the news and even of framing some footage in an attempt to incite animosity against the Americans. Rumsfeld argued that Al-Jazeera did not adequately and honestly show the American standpoint. Some have even criticized it as acting as a sort of mouthpiece for Osama bin Laden. Whether or not all of these allegations are true, the controversy illustrates Appuderai’s statement in his article “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy.” Appuderai stated, “The central problem of today’s global interactions is the tension between cultural homogenization and cultural heterogenization.” According to Appuderai, cultural homogenization has to do with one nation infiltrating and disseminating its ideas, culture, and policy onto another nation, sometimes forcing itself as an unwelcome bully. Cultural heterogenization on the other hand is on the opposite end of the spectrum. Heterogenization deals with the differences among cultures and stresses the independence of one nation from another. Al-Jazeera may have been afraid of their region being homogenized by the West and thus portrayed the Americans as trying to force their ideology or “cultural homogenization” on the Arab world. They criticized America for invading Iraq, dismissing Bush’s claim of liberating the people and overthrowing Hussein as a guise for exploiting the region for its oil and trying to build an empire. In the documentary “Control Room,” one of the Al-Jazeera staff complained about the American agenda, saying that their plan was to “Democratize or shoot.”

Some think that American leaders should take more opportunities to interview on Al-Jazeera to try to convince the Arab community that to “Democratize or shoot” is not their intent. The question remains: would Arabs listen and feel inclined to believe that the foreigners who invaded Iraq did so with intentions of liberty and goodwill? Or, would the Americans’ statements be distorted and twisted by a corrupt network bent on censuring the West?

To summarize, the global tension between homogenization and heterogenization continues. One instance is that there are some who believe the Americans are imperialists who wish to force their ways on others without respect to the intrinsic differences among cultures. The other side holds that Al-Jazeera is a corrupt network that encourages terrorism and anti-Americanism through propaganda and unbalanced reporting.