What Prevented Successful US International Broadcasting To The Arab World After The9/11Terrorist Attacks？

Following the events of September11,2001, the United States stepped up itspublic diplomacy efforts in the Middle East, particularly the Arab world. So far, theefforts at countering the steep decline in the US image through internationalbroadcasting, i.e., Radio Sawa and Television Alhurra, have been mostly fruitless.During the Bush administration, the Arab attitudes toward the US worsened slightly.The thesis is aimed at answering two questions: why did Sawa and Alhurra fall shortof expectation in shifting public opinion in the Arab world? What factors made itdifficult for the US to redeem its tarnished image?These two questions are answered by examining the content of Sawa and Alhurratoward the Arab world during the War on Terrorism and by analyzing factors thatundermine their impact on the attitude of the target audience toward the United States.With the analysis, the author argues that the prevalent anti-American sentiment in theArab world was the consequence of the flawed US foreign policy for the region andthe deficient broadcasting efforts in the misdirected public diplomacy campaign. Themain drivers were such US policies as the War on Terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraqand the continued bias in favor of Israel, which, in turn, made the credibility of Sawaand Alhurra suffer. Weaknesses in broadcasting and the whole public diplomacycampaign also degraded the effectiveness of communicating the message out; butSawa and Alhurra may find a silver lining in this bleak picture if certain changes areenacted.