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Al Jazeera English in Southeast Asia: Prospects and Impacts

Trish Carter, Freelance Journalist and Former Bureau Chief, Asia-Pacific, Al Jazeera English; Marwan Kraidy, Associate Professor, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania; Drew McDaniel, Professor and Director, Center for International Studies, Ohio University; Veronica Pedrosa, Presenter, Al Jazeera English, Kuala Lumpur; Shawn Powers, Research Associate, Center on Public Diplomacy, University of Southern California;Atria Rai-Tene, News Producer, Trans TV, Jakarta; Roland Schatz, President, Media Tenor International

Date & Time

Monday
Apr. 7, 2008
1:30pm – 5:30pm ET

Overview

In November 2006, the Arabic-language Al Jazeera network launched Al Jazeera English (AJE), an English-language 24-hour international news channel. Today, AJE reaches an estimated 100 million homes in 60 different countries. AJE's presence is particularly strong in Southeast Asia—one of its four broadcast centers is housed in Kuala Lumpur (KL), while bureaus exist in Sydney, Jakarta, and Manila. On April 7, a conference organized by the Asia Program and Middle East Program sought to shine a light on AJE's operations, coverage, and potential impacts in this region.

The event's first panel provided an overview of Southeast Asia's media environment and of AJE's origins in Asia. Drew McDaniel described the historic interactions between governments and media in Indonesia and Malaysia. Following independence, state-controlled media policies were implemented in both countries to promote national unification. However, as non-state communications technologies—particularly satellites and the Internet—began entering each nation's media space, exerting state control over media became difficult. In response, the Malaysian and Indonesian governments awarded new private commercial broadcast licenses to friendly politicians and corporations. Today, satellites and the Internet remain prominent in both countries' media environments—and these technologies enable Malaysians and Indonesians to watch AJE.

Trish Carter reflected on her time as AJE's first Asia-Pacific bureau chief. She conceded that the job was "her hardest ever"—with no equipment or staff, she was obliged to set up the KL bureau from complete scratch, and later to deal with the squabbles about "power and influence" that prevail in "all media companies." Otherwise, her recollections were largely positive. She spoke glowingly of AJE's on-the-ground reportage—which literally places journalists in the middle of their stories—and of how AJE's news coverage in the Asia-Pacific "reversed the flow of information from West to East." Carter insisted, "hand on heart," that editorial interference was minimal—both from host governments and from the Al Jazeera network's headquarters in Doha, Qatar.

The second panel examined AJE's impact in Southeast Asia. According to Roland Schatz, one way of measuring this impact is to gauge how often the channel is cited by Asian journalists. His data—gathered from articles in newspapers across Asia in late 2007—found that AJE was cited considerably less than CNN or the BBC. Why, Schatz asked, is the station "not the main news source for Asian media"—particularly given that AJE accords considerable attention to news in Asia? The answer, he asserted, may lie in the nature of AJE's coverage. According to Schatz's content analyses of AJE, the channel emphasizes terrorism, "catastrophes," and international conflict. Such coverage generates a "negative tone" that may not be "for Asian ears"—hence the disinclination of Asian media to cite this coverage.

Other panelists considered AJE's effect on public opinion in Southeast Asia. Veronica Pedrosa declared that AJE's focus on "neglected stories" across Southeast Asia has "galvanized" its viewers. In November 2007, AJE broadcasted footage of anti-government protests in KL—as well as of the government's violent response. According to Pedrosa, AJE was the only media outfit to air coverage of this response. Shortly after the footage aired, Malaysia's information minister "called us up in a furor." Speaking live on AJE, he angrily denounced the protests and AJE's coverage of them. "This became the water cooler story of the week," Pedrosa recalled. "Al Jazeera was on everyone's lips." Several months later, the minister's ruling party was trounced in elections.

Shawn Powers presented a nuanced picture of public views toward AJE in Southeast Asia. He reported the results of focus groups and surveys he recently conducted involving AJE audiences in Jakarta and KL. While underscoring the significance of AJE's coverage of the Malaysia protests—Malaysian public opinion "turned against the government"—he also highlighted the dissatisfaction Malaysians expressed toward AJE's coverage of the Middle East. Conversely, the Indonesians surveyed by Powers pledged satisfaction with AJE's Middle East coverage—and unhappiness with its Asia reportage. Several lessons emerge from these findings, Powers noted. One is that "proximity matters"—the anti-government protests occurred just outside AJE's offices in downtown KL. Another is that AJE's coverage is best when challenging poor governance.

Atria Rai-Tene, focusing exclusively on Indonesia, argued that talk of AJE's "impact" in Southeast Asia is overstated. Penetration rates of both pay television and the Internet—presently the only means of accessing AJE in Indonesia—are low (2 and 20 percent, respectively). Significantly, most Indonesians with Internet access use dial-up—which is slow and not conducive for video streaming. Additionally, relatively few Indonesians understand English well enough to follow AJE broadcasts. Furthermore, Rai-Tene argued, ratings of Indonesian television coverage demonstrate that international news is less popular than local news. While acknowledging the existence of factors—such as the growing number of Internet users—that might boost AJE's future prospects in Indonesia, she pointed out that these very factors would also benefit AJE's competitors.

Marwan Kraidy compared AJE with the Arabic-language Al Jazeera channel. The two stations are immensely different, he noted, particularly in terms of the environments in which they were born. When launched in 1996, Al Jazeera enjoyed few competitors and therefore had time to grow and to learn from its mistakes. By contrast, AJE was born into a global media environment rife with competition. The two channels are also set apart by their institutional identities. While Al Jazeera comfortably regards itself as an Arab medium targeting Arabic speakers, AJE has struggled to reconcile its status as an English-language global network with its relationship to Doha. As a result, top AJE officials have issued ambivalent statements—such as the pronouncement of managing director Nigel Parsons that "we're not completely divorced" from Doha.

Even with the focus on AJE's operations in Southeast Asia, considerable conference discussion was sparked by the fact that very few U.S. cable television companies offer AJE (though several participants noted that AJE's clips on the YouTube website are watched by many U.S.-based viewers). Carter argued that AJE is "another consumer choice" people in the United States "should be able to have." And Pedrosa said she looks forward to the day when she can attend a conference in KL that covers AJE's impact—in the United States.

Drafted by Michael Kugelman, Asia Program Associate
Robert M. Hathaway, Director, Asia Program, Ph: (202) 691-4020

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Hosted By

Indo-Pacific Program

The Indo-Pacific Program promotes policy debate and intellectual discussions on US interests in the Asia-Pacific as well as political, economic, security, and social issues relating to the world’s most populous and economically dynamic region.   Read more

Middle East Program

The Wilson Center’s Middle East Program serves as a crucial resource for the policymaking community and beyond, providing analyses and research that helps inform US foreign policymaking, stimulates public debate, and expands knowledge about issues in the wider Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.  Read more

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