The opinion and the other opinion: A seminal study of Al-Jazeera's agenda setting effect in the Arab-Islamic public sphere

Many communication scholars are very conscious of the Western ethnocentric bias in the discipline (especially in journalism). They acknowledge that the role and the influence of the press is interpreted along the Western understanding that the press is very influential with the public because it is mainly instituted to inform and perhaps even set the agenda for it.;Any form of communication is a cultural construction. The same should hold true for communication theories; agenda setting being a leading one. Today, there are more than 350 agenda setting studies, some examining non-Western cultures. These studies are based on contingent factors that are in most cases unique to Western societies. Cross-cultural studies rarely try and adapt the theory to the cultural, political and social variations present in different societies. In turn this might lead researchers to incorrect conclusions.;The idea that news networks do set the agenda in politics and diplomacy is not a new one. However, some networks have greater influence than others. CNN is one of those networks that has risen to global prominence because of its coverage of the first Gulf War. It is the network that moves world leaders to take action in remote parts of the world and sets the agenda for the public---hence the CNN effect. Today scholars claim that Al-Jazeera yields the same influence in the Arab/Islamic world. Therefore, it is appropriate to say that there is an Al-Jazeera effect. However, this claim does not rest on any empirical data. This dissertation examines the agenda setting role Al-Jazeera plays in the Arab/Islamic world. This research also looks at the contingent factors for agenda setting theory in the Arab/Islamic world.