Al Jazeera

1.How effective do you think the Internet will be for Al Jazeera as it attempts to reach a U.S. audience?

I think that the internet is an extremely useful venue for Al Jazeera to reach an American audience.First of all, one is able to access the news station at any time with it's streaming of videos.Having that luxury is extremely convenient for anyone with a busy schedule that doesn't have time to tune into news channels. The internet is a growing venue that many Americans easily have access to. Even though Al Jazeera doesn't have the backing of any networks, I still think their voice will be heard over the internet.


2. Based on your own observations, do you think that Al Jazeera English should be allowed to broadcast in the U.S.?

Based on my watching of the news channel, I don't see the harm in airing Al Jazeera on American t.v. I think that as Americans, our news is very slanted, and I didn't even realize the lack of world perspective that we had in our news until I watched some Al Jazeera. When talking about Obama's speech on peace between Israel and Palestine, Al Jazeera gave perspectives from people in both Jerusalem and Palestine. I feel like sometimes we are lacking a world perspective. I do understand that sometimes the perspective of AL Jazeera can be skewed against Americans, but it is impossible to be completely unbiased about issues, and the only way for people to make up their own mind, is if they are offered many different perspectives.

3.What, if anything, do you notice about Al Jazeera's approach to telling the news? How is it different than the U.S.-based TV news outlets that you have experienced?

The reporters were very careful with the way they worded things. The mention of Barack Obama was completely neutral, so there was no positive or negative spin on his speech. They also didn't show the opinions of American politicians about his speech. I feel that oftentimes a network will report on a speech by the President and then show a clip of what the political opposition has to say about it. Al Jazeera does a much better job of staying neutral because they don't have the pressure from sponsors and networks' political convictions.


4. While on the Al Jazeera site, be sure to check out the network's published Code of Ethics. Based on your own observations, do you think they are adhering to them?

After reviewing the code of ethics, I think Al Jazeera does a good job adhering to them. As I have stated before, I think that it is impossible to be completely objective on an issue, and it was evident in some of the reporters, that they had opinions and biases. That aside, I think Al Jazeera did an excellent job at "distinguishing between news material, opinion and analysis to avoid the pitfalls of speculation and propaganda."