Arabic Aljazeera Vs Britain’s BBC and

America’s CNN: A case history using online

submissions

Introduction

Aljazeera has flourished in a region straddling two continents – Asia and Africa –
and including 22 countries, stretching from Mauritania on the Atlantic Ocean, to
Iraq on the Persian Gulf. The area is approximately one and half times the size of
the U.S. Though exhibiting different political systems, these countries share a
common language (Arabic), religion (Islam) and cultural heritage (Arabic and
Islamic).

On this massive land live more than 300 million people with the highest illiteracy
rates in the world. Adult illiteracy rates in the Arab world are estimated at 43%,
higher than the average in developing countries (UNDP, 2002). Until very
recently, satellite dishes were banned in many of the 22 Arab countries where
government-controlled television channels have been almost the sole source of
news. Cable television is still a stranger to the region and a long time will pass
until any form of digitalization takes place.

But the thirst for news is probably the greatest among these 22 countries and
because of the high illiteracy rates most people rely on the spoken word they
listen to from their screens and the pictures shown on them. In the Arab world
we are face to face with a 2 predominantly oral culture where the spoken rather
than the written word plays a domineering role in the supply of information.

For this reason, satellite television has become a major source of information for
the Arabs. In the absence of reliable statistics, it is hard to estimate satellite
penetration in the 22 Arab states but a look at the skyline of any city, town or
village in the region will demonstrate that getting a satellite dish is a top priority
for many households. According to a BBC report (2005), the Arabs may be
hungry but for television and not food. Satellite dishes were banned under
Saddam Hussein and when his regime fell in 2003, the BBC says, there was a
sudden mushrooming demand for them. “New dishes sprang up on apartment
blocks. 7 million were sold in less than one year” in a nation of
24 million people, reports the BBC.

But the Arabic television went unnoticed until the US-led wars against
Afghanistan and Iraq in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. The two wars have
propelled Aljazeera to international fame through its ground-breaking coverage
and scoops that have made it the envy of international broadcasters like the BBC
and CNN.
Method of the study

Major Middle East-related stories run by Aljazeera, the BBC and CNN were
collected for the period from October 21 – 24, 2009. The news stories were
mainly those appearing on the web sites of the three television services. Both
the BBC and CNN have Arabic interactive services. While CNN has no Arabic
television broadcast, the BBC has an Arabic radio service. According to news
media reports, both networks are planning to launch their own Arabic television
channels in a bid to rival Aljazeera.

But the corpus was not confined to print news. Major news bulletins were
monitored over the same period to see how the three channels treated culture
specific events and terms. In the case of the English language broadcasts of the
BBC and CNN, an attempt was made to see how the two channels tried to render
into English and interpret the culture specific language used by Aljazeera
broadcasters. When examining the news the two western channels issued in
Arabic, the aim was to compare them to what appeared on the web pages of
Aljazeera.

Particular attention was paid to headlines, the leads and the first two other
paragraphs as these are the bits which usually appear in television news
bulletins. Apart from cultural contrasts, the headlines and leads were also
examined from a linguistic viewpoint to see what kind of structures each channel
would prefer in dealing with the same story. All in all 63 print stories were
collected and 24 news broadcasts examined. Only the news stories which the
three channels printed or broadcast were dealt with. The significance of a story
for a channel was assessed in the light of its place among the day’s highlights on
the web site and whether it was part of the major headlines in the televised news
bulletin.
Issues of style

In July, 2003, Aljazeera adopted a professional honour pact (Journalistic Ethics),

the first such move in the Arab World. It includes a pledge to adhere to
international standards of reporting with renewed emphasis on the core values of
accuracy, serving public interest, impartiality, independence and accountability.

From a purely production point of view, Aljazeera’s print stories and broadcasts
do not differ a great deal from those of the BBC, which the editors want to
emulate as far as style is concerned. It is worth mentioning that many of the
network’s editors were formerly employed by the BCC and left to set up the
channel when the BBC’s Arabic television foundered over editorial control in
1996, the year Aljazeera was established. While the BBC and CNN resort to the
passive voice and noun combination in their headlines, Aljazeera does not seem
to be fond of both grammatical structures, favouring the plain and direct active
voice, i.e.:

24th October 09

CNN: Dozens dead in fighting at terrorist ‘haven’

BBC: Heavy US bombardment of suspected insurgent positions
Aljazeera: American bombardment kills 45 people and injures more than 80

The following two samples, one on the situation in Iraq and the other on the
conditions in Palestine, clearly show the differences in reporting between the
BBC and CNN on the one hand and Aljazeera on the other. This does not mean
that both the BBC and CNN have the same approach when covering Arab and
Muslim events. Arab viewers and readers might find the BBC samples closer to
the reality of the situation in their eyes. On the other hand they may find CNN’s
samples as aloof. The Aljazeera’s include the simplicity, the warmth and culture
relevance that may please many Arabs.

25th October 09

CNN: US strikes insurgency safe houses in Falluja

A US air strike targeted two safe houses used by followers of reputed terror
mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Falluja, US officials said.
BBC: AT least 17 die in Falluja raid
At least 17 Iraqis have died in a US air strike on the city of Fallujal, hospital
officials have said. US officials say the strike was a deliberate, “precision” attack
aimed at followers of the wanted militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Aljazeera: American raid kills 18 in Falluja
At least 18 people, among them three children were killed in an American air raid
targeting two houses in the residential district of al-Jubail in Falluja, west of
Baghdad.
The American army alleged in a statement issued yesterday that the raid
targeted hideouts of the followers of the so-called Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in what
has been described as a precision operation.

26th October 09

CNN: Palestinians: 15 killed in air strike

Israel says target was a terrorist training camp
Israeli helicopters fired four rockets at a camp in Gaza City where they believed
Palestinian militants were training, killing at least 15 people, Palestinian medical
sources told CNN. The Israel Defense Forces said the training at the camp was
led by senior Hamas terrorists who have been involved in carrying out deadly
attacks and attempted attacks against Israelis.
BBC: Gaza strike kills 14 ‘militants’
At least 14 people have been killed and 20 wounded in an Israeli air strike on an
alleged night training exercise by Palestinian fighters in Gaza City. The Israeli
defense force said in a statement it had “targeted a training field during training
of Hamas terrorists.”
Aljazeera: 15 martyrs fall as Israel targets Sheikh Yassin Stadium
Fifteen Palestinian martyrs have fallen when Israeli occupation forces backed by
tanks and Apache helicopters opened fire on the Sheikh Yassin Stadium in Gaza.
Meantime the Islamic resistance group, Hamas, vowed to revenge for the
martyrs of the massacre committed by Israel.
How to assess the impact?
Certainly the way media whether western or Arab tackle issues of Arab and
Islamic concern will have an impact on readers and viewers in the Middle East. If
the significance of a piece of news is determined by its position in the highlights
or the pages of a newspaper, then Aljazeera would be paying much more
attention to Arab and Muslim-related stories than both the BBC and CNN.

While the BCC and CNN give prominent coverage to international affairs, Arab
issues top their highlights only when the report is of an international caliber or of
immediate concern to America or Britain. For Aljazeera, the Middle East section is
the front page and has been the number one headline in the two-weeks in which
the corpus was collected.

To see what the Arabs read or heard more than anything else in the two weeks
the news reports and bulletins were collected, an attempt was made to count the
number and kind of verbs used in the Aljazeera headlines and leads. Almost all
the 42 verbs encountered were related to the verb ‘kill’ and its synonyms among
them the Arabic is ‘to martyr or become a martyr’.

But what is surprising and alarming at the same time is the fact that those killed
and martyred in the Aljazeera’s stories for the period in which the corpus was
collected for this study were mostly Arabs whether in Palestine or Iraq. The Arabs
did some killings, but theirs were mostly through primitive means like knifing,
beheading and suicide bombing while their enemies employ modern means like
laser-guided, smart bombs dropped from afar by helicopter gunships or
warplanes.

Conclusion

In the years since its launch, Aljazeera has not only transformed the Arabic
satellite television landscape but has made it the most significant and influential
element of how Arabs receive their information.

Aljazeera’s dominance of the Arabic television market illustrates that it takes a

little more than common and feasible economic policies necessary for the growth
and development of a television channel in the Middle East. Aljazeera’s rivals
may even have a better access to cash, equipment, personnel and satellites, but
they still dismally trail behind it in polls and ratings.

It seems the traditional means rivals have used to compete with Aljazeera do not
hold in a region where culture, religion and history still play a pivotal role in
driving the society. While rivals strive to meet international production
standards, they usually lack Aljazeera’s warmth or cultural relevance.

However, given the current divide in opinion regarding outstanding conflicts in

Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and Chechnya, it is hard to imagine western-
sponsored satellite channels beaming to the Arab World adapting to the realities
of the region as Aljazeera does or matching the network’s attempt to be as
responsive to popular aspirations in the region as possible.

Bhanu Joshi