| The Doha-based, pan-Arab "al-Jazeera Satellite News Channel" came to life on November 1, 1996 by a Qatari Emiri decree, and began a 24-hour operation on February 1, 1998. Although sponsored by an autocratic government that is similar to other Arab regimes in terms of the wide gap separating them from their masses, al-Jazeera has become, and continues to be, the most popular and trusted news channel in the Arab world.;Media scholars and commentators agree that the popularity of al-Jazeera derives mainly from its identification with the radicalism of the Arab public, as evidenced by the starkly anti-establishment tone characterizing much of the medium's discourses. There is a disagreement, however, over the meaning and implications of the Channel's antiestablishment discourses.;Some argue that al-Jazeera is radicalizing the Arab audiences; others argue that it is moderating the beliefs of both the Arab public and the Arab regimes. Not taking the Channel's radical discourses literally, however, a third group of scholars and commentators argues that al-Jazeera is in line with other official mass media whose primary objective is to advance and defend the interests of the host-government. Al- Jazeera, then, may help perpetuate Arab autocracy.;Alternatively, I argue that both the radicalizing- and moderating-effect perspectives do not provide an accurate interpretation of the Channel's anti-establishment discourses and their implications. I also contend that the third group's argument has more credibility. However, while the proponents of the third argument tell us what al-Jazeera does, they rarely tell us how al-Jazeera does it.;To answer this animating question, and in order to discern the true nature and motives of al-Jazeera's political rhetoric, I offer a close reading of the Channel's political discourses on issues that sharply divide the Arab pubic from the Qatari government and other Arab regimes.;Textual evidence indicates that by initially identifying itself with the viewers' radicalism, al-Jazeera, indirectly, deflects such radicalism and channels it towards nonviolent political ideologies that are conducive to the Qatari interests and polices. Furthermore, by indirectly connecting Qatar with the anti-establishment viewers, al- Jazeera re-invents Qatari autocracy depicting it as an acceptable form of governance. |
