ELECTRONIC NEWS, 3(3), 143160, 2009

Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

ISSN: 1931-2431 print / 1931-244X online
DOI: 10.1080/19312430903028563

A Comparison of Broadcast World News

Web Pages: Al Jazeera English,
BBC, CBS, and CNN

1931-244X
1931-2431 News
HELN
Electronic
News, Vol. 3, No. 3, June 2009: pp. 133

Comparison of Broadcast World News Web Pages

Loomis

Kenneth D. Loomis
Texas Christian University

Officials of an English language version of the controversial television network Al

Jazeera have been seeking distribution of it outside the Middle East. Those officials
at Al Jazeera English (AJE) claim its different from both its Middle Eastern
namesake and the Western networks against which theyre seeking to have it
compete. A content analysis of the World news Web pages of Al Jazeera English,
the BBC, CBS, and CNN compared features such as use of hyperlinks, videos, and
interactive elements as well as story selection and sources quoted. All four
networks covered essentially the same stories and quoted similar sources. Although
AJE had the fewest number of stories with a positive tone toward the United States,
its content was comparable to the other networks content in terms of treatment of the
United States and use of emotionally charged language. AJE was found to be similar
enough to the other networks that its unique perspective was difficult to identify.

Competition has increased between the major international news networks for
each others audiences. The BBC launched a new Arab TV network in March
2008 (Jaafar, 2008) in an effort to serve the same Middle Eastern audience it
relinquished in 1996 when the network it co-owned with the Saudi Arabian
government collapsed.1 Meanwhile, Al Jazeera is also broadcasting worldwide
through its own new affiliate Al Jazeera English (AJE). No longer content to
program simply to the Arab world, network managers are aggressively developing

1
The original Saudi-BBC network was dissolved in 1996. Al Jazeera emerged from the ashes of
this experiment when the emir of Qatar rebuilt the network using state funds and former employees
(Fahmy & Johnson, 2007, p. 249).
Correspondence should be addressed to Kenneth D. Loomis, Assistant Professor, Department of
Radio, Television and Film, Texas Christian University, TCU Box 298030, Ft. Worth, TX 76129.
E-mail: k.loomis@tcu.edu

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LOOMIS

opportunities for distribution across the map. Even though the new Al Jazeera
English channel is virtually unseen in the United States, officials there are
pursuing greater distribution in the United States and the West as AJE grows its
presence in India, Asia, Europe, and Australia (Al-Jadda, 2007).2
Now Al Jazeera has joined the BBC and CNN (both having long enjoyed
worldwide audiences) in competition for the global distribution of news product
(Barkho, 2007). Parks (2007) said these developments indicate the arrival of a
new global media economy in which the development of news stories is
intertwined with how the media systems of different countries portray the events
to each others citizens.
The idea that officials at news organizations understand the importance of
targeting different regional audiences isnt new (Shoemaker & Reese, 1991).
What is unique here is that now a news organization headquartered on the other
side of the world, with cultural perspectives decidedly different from those
dominant in the West, is targeting Western audiences.
It might seem almost inconceivable to many Americans that the Qatar-based
Arab news network Al Jazeera would be widely distributed in the United States.
After all, President Bush called it a source of propaganda (that) just isnt right, it
isnt fair, and it doesnt give people the impression of what were about (Pintak,
Ginges, & Felton, 2008). Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called Al
Jazeera vicious, inaccurate, and inexcusable (Al-Jadda, 2007).
Perhaps as a result of strong language from Americas leaders, it might be a
perception in the United States that Al Jazeera is itself a type of front for terrorist
organizations (Abrams, 2003). Another reason for this perception might be that
Al Jazeera has often served as a medium for distributing audio and video
messages by Osama bin Laden and other terrorists, and by the networks focus on
showing pictures of the casualties of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Perceptions being what they are, Al Jazeera English is a different network
from its Mediterranean parent. Many of AJEs employees are veterans of other
Western news agencies. The current managing director is the former editor-inchief of the Canadian Broadcasting System, the previous managing director was
a veteran BBC executive, and the reporting staff has continually had a healthy
mix of Western news organizations ex-patriots (Pfanner, 2008). Consequently,
subject matter is similar to Western networks content but reported from a
different perspective (Al-Jadda, 2007).
Some of the people whove written about what theyve seen on AJE have
indicted their surprise about the mainstream nature of the content. Lacking has

Meanwhile the U.S. government recently formed Al-Hurra, its own version of an Arab news
network, ostensibly to counter what it perceived as biased reporting by Al Jazeera and the other
dominant Arab network, Al-Arabiya based in Dubai.

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been the carnage and terrorist propaganda associated with Al Jazeera. Instead,
they anecdotally speak of the high quality production characteristics, the
inclusion of stories not otherwise presented to Western audiences, and video content
no more graphic than what one would see on CNN (Potter, 2007; Rao, 2007).
However, Al Jazeera English hasnt yet gained wide distribution in the West,
particularly in the United States. While the network can be viewed on the
Internet, on YouTube, by subscription to Dish Networks International services,
and on a few solitary small cable systems, it remains outside the awareness of
most Americans. Whether this is because cable systems view Al Jazeera as a
political hot potato (Al-Jadda, 2007; Potter, 2007), watching news reported by
AJE isnt an option for most people in the United States.
This articles authors sought to discover what, if anything, American
audiences are missing by analyzing how news content on Al Jazeera English
might be different from other international news presenters based in the West.
We would do so through a comparison of the international Web pages of the
BBC, CBS, CNN, and Al Jazeera English, and would do so during a time without
a major crisis in the world so that stories could be analyzed through a prism of
what would be considered normalcy. The use of broadcasters Web pages to
understand the nature of those same broadcasters telecasts is increasingly
common given the growing repurposing of content in the converging media environment. Groshek (2008) showed how such an approach is valid by citing a
former CNN writer and producer who indicated television content is repurposed
to the Web as much as possible. He wrote that it is likely that even if CNN
coverage online does not exactly mirror what is broadcast, it nonetheless carries
the same range of topics in a similar fashion as their television networks (p. 53).
Barkho (2007), Boczkowski and de Santos (2007), and Dimitrova and ConnollyAhern (2007) are examples of other recent studies in which Web page content
was used to evaluate news organizations other mainstream media presentations.
A determination of the differences in the news available to the public through
competing news organizations is important for any modern society. If Al Jazeera
Englishs reporting of the news is indistinguishable from Western networks, then
one could argue its inclusion in the gate-keeping mix of competing information is
unimportant. However, if Al Jazeera English reports details of events important
to the interests of the Western world that the other networks dont report, then its
inclusion in the materials Westerners regularly access to gain information would
be important in their functions as informed global citizens.

PREVIOUS RESEARCH
Comparisons between news reported on Al Jazeera and that of other news
agencies have appeared since the beginning of the Iraq War. Most research has

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LOOMIS

focused on how the beginning of the war was covered by different organizations.
Analysis has also been performed on the features and attributes of different news
Web pages during that time.
Dimitrova and Neznanski (2006) content analyzed features of 26 international
newspaper Web sites during the early part of the Iraq war counting such
things as hyperlinks, graphics, and multimedia content and found the Web
pages generally to be lacking in attributes that would signal visible progress in
the convergence of different media platforms at one location. Possibly using
some of the same data, Dimitrova and Connolly-Ahern (2007) did a comparative
analysis of the Web pages of The New York Times, the U.Ks The Guardian,
Egypts Al Ahram, and Qatars Al Jazeera during the first months of the Iraq War
and found the Arab media to be more critical of the war through the use of
morally charged words such as massacre and by emphasizing human
casualties in their storytelling.
Barkho (2007) compared the language structures used on the Web pages of the
BBC, CNN, and Al Jazeera and found Al Jazeera generally used a more active style
of wording. An example of Al Jazeeras active style would be Israeli tanks have
killed at least 18 Palestinians. Alternately, the BBC might report a similar event by
saying, At least six people have been killed and 15 injured in an Israeli strike.
Barkho (2006) apparently also used the same data to write another article that analyzed the language structures in greater detail and determined much of the Al Jazeera
written narrative was based on embedded meanings of original Arabic words rather
than Western-language words translated into Arabic. This distinction apparently
enabled Al Jazeeras stories to more effectively connect with the Arab audience.
Fahmy and Johnson (2007) addressed the subject of what some consider Al
Jazeeras overemphasis on graphic violence in its portrayal of the Iraq and
Afghanistan wars. Through a self-selecting survey posted as a URL on the Al
Jazeera Web site, researchers found most respondents to the survey viewers of
Al Jazeera strongly supported the use of graphic violence. Indeed, viewers
interpreted the networks explicit visual imagery not as graphic but rather as
depicting the realistic outcome of war. Viewers also understood the content as an
important alternative perspective to other news agencies that would not otherwise
display those images.3
Groshek (2008) found viewers of an American Web page, CNN, generally
saw fewer stories than viewers of the same companys international Web page.
He concluded the international viewers were getting a richer perspective in terms
of the number of stories available to them.

Fahmy and Johnsons work is supported by other information that shows foreign news media in
general present more graphic violence than does the United States media (Ayish, 2002; Flint,
Goldsmith, & Kahn, 2003).

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The current study follows from the work just described in that it will compare
a product of Al Jazeera to its Western counterparts. However, this comparison
wont be an analysis the Middle Eastern Al Jazeera but rather the new Al Jazeera
English network designed to appeal to Western audiences. The analysis comes
years removed from the emotions of the wars beginnings that served as the context
for the earlier research. AJE is a recent arrival to the international news mix, and its
organizers seek to compete for an audience in a different social, political, and economic environment than does its mother organization Al Jazeera. Therefore, it represents a fundamental change in how news organizations compete against each
other in the global marketplace. Similar to what others have done in the past, this
studys authors will compare an Al Jazeera product (AJE) to the BBC and CNN,
but will also include one of the major U.S. broadcast networks, CBS.
Here, Web page features will be compared as well as the content and tone of
stories.4 The following research questions were presented for this study:
1. What online features, such as hyperlinks, photos, maps, etc., did Al Jazeera
English, BBC, CBS, and CNN feature on their Web pages?
2. How often were those features used by each Web outlet?
3. What were the differences in the story count, subject matter, story themes,
and regional emphasis among the different Web pages?
4. What were the differences in the journalistic sources used to tell the stories?
5. Was there a difference in the number of emotionally charged words in the
stories of the different Web pages?
6. When emotionally charged words were used, in which stories were they used?
7. Were there differences in how the United States was presented on each
Web outlet?

METHOD
To compare Al Jazeera English to other western media, this studys authors
would provide continuity to previous research by making the comparison to the

It is relevant to note Wojcieszak (2007) questioned whether content or framing analyses of Al

Jazeera are legitimate because such techniques were originally designed as measures of hegemony
whereby media systems would tend to legitimize embedded governments and institutions through the
telling of news stories. Because Al Jazeera technically operates independently of any Middle Eastern
state government, it would not normatively qualify as a media system beholden to embedded
interests. However, for the purposes of this study, Al Jazeera English will be evaluated within the
Western frames of hegemony because it is different from the Middle Eastern Al Jazeera, it wants to
exist in the Western media mix, and if widely distributed would be evaluated by the public
according to Western frames of reference.

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LOOMIS

internationally successful BBC and CNN but would also include a popular
American over-the-air broadcast news site, CBS, in the analysis.
Web page content analyses comparing Western and Middle Eastern media
have utilized the strategy of gathering a census of information during a fixed
period of time (Barko, 2006, 2007; Dimitrova & Connolly-Ahern, 2007;
Dimitrova & Neznansky, 2006) when its perceived enough information can be
gathered to make appropriate comparisons (Wimmer & Dominick, 2006). It
was determined such a strategy would be useful for this study because all
weekday stories of the four networks during a given month would be gathered
and analyzed. This information could provide a snapshot of the four networks
at a fixed point in time. March 2008 proved to be a good month for such an
analysis because, while there was conflict in the world (e.g., riots in Tibet, controversial elections in Zimbabwe, provocative statements by President
Ahmadinejad of Iran), there were no major events such as terrorist attacks or
natural disasters that could have changed the tone of how news would normally
be covered. One could then potentially see how each network reported news
during a normal monthly news cycle.
During March 2008, the Web pages of each of the four broadcast networks
selected for this study were accessed each weekday between 3:00 pm and 10:00 pm
U.S. Central Time for a total of 21 days in the sample. To facilitate a
meaningful comparison, only stories on the international section of each site
were downloaded and copied each day. Those would most likely be stories
the Web sites would have in common on a given day. On the BBC site, all
stories featured on the World News page were copied, along with the regional
stories under the News Front Page sidebar. On the CBS News site, all stories
featured on the World page were copied. On CNN.com, all featured stories
on the World News page were copied along with all daily stories under the
Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe, and Mid East regional sidebars. On Al
Jazeera English, all front page stories, Around the World daily stories, and
Also in the News daily stories were downloaded and copied. These categories
represented the entirety of stories available on the international pages of the
Web sites each day.
The unit of analysis was the individual story. A priori coding was employed to
identify categories used by previous research. Nine categories emerged from
prior research that were appropriate for this study. They were:
1. Web page AJE, BBC, CBS, or CNN.
2. Web page features individual photos, photo montages (links to a collection
of photos of an event taken by a photographer), videos, audio recordings,
maps, charts, interactive features (links to a converged page where the user
could interact with maps, timelines, historical, geographical, political,

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COMPARISON OF BROADCAST WORLD NEWS WEB PAGES

3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

8.
9.

149

and economic information about a particular subject), feedback links

where the reader could respond to a story, related links to similar stories,
background links to information about the participants in the story, links
to the story participants own Web pages, and links to other news
services covering the story.
Authorship the networks own reporter/s, the Associated Press, other
wire services, or a combination of the above.
Region of the story Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Eastern Europe,
Western Europe, India/Pakistan, Middle East, North America, South America.
Subject of the story Iraq War, Afghanistan War, Israel and the Palestinians,
Tibet, Zimbabwe Elections, and so forth.
Themes of the story fighting, terrorism, protests, diplomacy, legal
systems, government authority, and so forth.5
Sources quoted government leaders (presidents, administrators, and other
politicians speaking from a particular political interest), military,
insurgents and counter-military, bureaucrats (individuals in embedded
government offices), diplomats (individuals in offices created to communicate with other countries), individuals in business and industry, union
leaders, legal authorities (attorneys and judges), analysts and experts
(professors, researchers, historians, etc.), other journalists, citizens/
observers, law enforcement authorities, religious authorities, humanitarians (those in nonprofit organizations devoted to assisting relief efforts
and helping the needy), and activists (individual protestors as well as
spokespeople in organizations devoted to drawing attention to specific
political or social issues).
Emotionally charged words and phrases words that might spin a story
such as massacre, lies, mutilate, and warmongers.6
Overall image presented of the United States by the story positive, neutral, or negative.7

All coding was done by the lead author. To establish reliability, 144 stories
(11.3%) were randomly chosen for re-coding of the potentially subjective
elements of story tone and emotionally charged language. Holstis reliability was
calculated at .92 after the re-coding.

5
Many of the items for categories six and seven were used by Al-Saggaaf (2006), Dimitrova and
Neznanski (2006), and Dimitrova and Connolly-Ahern (2007).
6
Dimitrova and Connolly-Ahern (2007) labeled these words negative moral terms. Their effect
is to create a strong response against a perceived injustice.
7
Dimitrova and Connolly-Ahern (2007) used the phrase dominant tone to identify the same
three-part typology. Aday, Livingston, and Hebert (2005) used a five-point scale.

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RESULTS
During March 2008 there were 1,269 weekday stories on the International pages
of the four broadcast networks Internet homepages. The BBC covered the most
stories (454), followed by AJE (357), CNN (304), and CBS (155). Figure 1
shows stories about the Middle East received most of the attention on each network (the middle group of bars). CBS devoted a significantly greater proportion
than the other networks to Middle East stories with 38.1% of its story count,
followed by AJE with 28% and the BBC and CNN with approximately 20%
each. Other than CBS strong emphasis on the Middle East (balanced by its
decided lack of focus on Africa), all four networks devoted similar attention to
news from the worlds different regions.8
Figure 2 shows the different sources each network used to gather stories.
Stories were coded by whether they came from the networks own staff reporters,
the Associated Press, wire services other than AP, or a combination of the above.

FIGURE 1 Articles by region (total N = 1270).

Note. *The difference in the number of CBS stories about Africa and the Middle East were Chisquare significant at p = .000 compared to the number of its stories about other regions.

8
Figure 1 lists only the top five regions of each news service There were 10 regions total in the
survey as itemized in the Method section. CBS and CNN covered fewer North American stories on
their International pages because, being American companies, those stories were presented elsewhere
on their Web sites.

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151

FIGURE 2 Sources of articles (total N = 1270).

Note. *The difference in the number of BBC stories written by its own staff (100%) and AJE
stories developed from other news services (72%) were Chi-square significant at p = .000 compared
to the number of those types of stories developed by the other networks.

Al Jazeera English apparently developed 72% of its stories from a compilation of

information from other news services. Its not known how much, if any, of that
information came from the AP because AJE didnt cite specific information on
the other wire services its journalists used to write their stories. CBS and CNN
each identified AP specifically as the source of various stories when appropriate. In any case, AJE provided the fewest number of stories generated entirely
by its own reporting staff (3.7%). This differed markedly from the BBCs total
reliance on its own reporters (100%) and CNNs 56.9% of stories written by its
own people. This finding would prove to be important in this studys final analysis
of AJEs content. Similar to Al Jazeera English, CBS also relied heavily on the
work of outside sources with only 5.8% of its stories credited to its own reporters.
Each Web page provided photos on the first page of each story. Table 1
shows the sources of the photos. Al Jazeera was the only Web site not to rely
primarily on the American-based Associated Press for its photos (only 3.1%),
choosing to mostly show the work of the France-based AFP photo service.
German-based EPA and UK-based Reuters also were used more than the
Associated Press by AJE.
This was the major distinction found in this study between AJEs stories and
those of the Western networks. Table 1 demonstrates that AJEs reliance on EPA

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TABLE 1
Photo Sources (Total N = 1842)
Source
AFP
EPA
Reuters
Getty
Unidentified
AP
Other

AJE %

BBC %

CBS %

CNN %

54.2%
17.9%*
11.5%*
7.4%
3.7%
3.1%*
2.2%
AJE N = 459

32.5%
0%
0%
8.0%
17.0%
38.3%
4.2%
BBC N = 652

.4%*
0%
0%
0%
1.4%
92.5%
5.7%
CBS N =280

29.7%
0%
0%
16.6%
1.8%
39.3%
12.6%
CNN N = 451

Note. *Indicates Chi-square significant at p = .000.

and Reuters was unique because the other three networks used no photos from
those sources on weekdays during the period of this study. Concurrently, AJE
avoided using photos from AP, as AP was the number-one source of photos for
the BBC, CBS, and CNN.
Table 2 shows the combinations of videos, photo montages, interactive
elements, maps, charts, etc., offered by each network. Here, the BBC was superior with more than four times as many elements as runner-up CNN (941 versus
228). This is significant because the BBCs total story count was only 33%
greater than CNNs (454 versus 304 from Figure 1). Even a casual visitor to these
four Web sites would likely sense the breadth of elements offered by the BBC
compared to the others. The numbers validate that impression. The BBC had
significant advantages in four of the seven Element categories.9 Regarding Al
Jazeera English, the site offered significantly more charts and embedded
feedback links than did CBS and CNN but provided the fewest videos, photo
montages, audio links, and interactive links.
Figure 3 shows the links to additional information provided with each
story. Links included related stories about the same topic, background
information about the subject matter, links to the home pages of the subjects involved (institutions and/or individuals), and links to other news
sources reporting on the same story. Again the BBCs superiority is evident
in the sheer quantity of what it provided as available supporting information (N = 6397). One will notice it was the only Web site to offer links to

9
The table indicates no Feedback links on the CBS News Web page. This may be deceptive
because CBS did offer links to discussion bulletin boards after numerous stories. However, the Feedback link item in Table 2 itemized feedback links embedded in the stories themselves. The BBC,
CNN, and AJE all embedded feedback links within the stories narratives; CBS did not.

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COMPARISON OF BROADCAST WORLD NEWS WEB PAGES

TABLE 2
Elements (Total N = 1512)
Feature
Videos
Feedback links
Photo montages
Maps
Charts
Audio links
Interactive links

BBC

CNN

CBS

AJE

379
190*
156*
93*
83*
36
4
BBC N = 941

179
10
8
14
12
0
5
CNN N = 228

47
0
49*
5
0
3
87*
CBS N = 191

33
63*
4
16
36*
0
0
AJE N = 152

Note. *Indicates Chi-square significant at p = .000.

FIGURE 3 Links to additional information (total N = 9273).

Note. *The difference in the number of BBC links to subject home pages and links to other
networks stories about the same subject were Chi-square significant at p = .000 compared to similar
links on the AJE, CBS, and CNN Web pages.

other news services stories about particular events. While AJE provided
the second-highest total of links to additional information (1299), almost
all were links to related stories in the Al Jazeera English database. It provided few links to sources of additional information compared with the

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LOOMIS

other networks. Therefore, it seemed the network gave little effort to providing users with additional information beyond what it had previously
included in its stories.
Another piece of information this study sought to identify was differences
between the sources quoted in the Web pages stories. The top half of Table 3
shows the sources quoted most on each Web page; most of which came from
government sources (see Item 7 under the Unit of Analysis description in the
Method Section for distinctions between these categories).10
The bottom half of Table 3 shows, perhaps contrary to what one might
expect because of its stated purpose, that AJE did not give greater exposure
to alternative sources such as activists. Instead, it used fewer of those sources
proportionally than any of the other agencies (3.2% versus CNNs 5.5%, CBS
3.63%, and BBCs 3.61%). Simply based on the types of sources quoted, AJE
seemed comfortably within the typical mix of other Western news agencies. All
told, AJE quoted the traditional news sources in roughly the same proportions as
did the others (46.4% to BBCs 42.4%, CBS 52.8%, and CNNs 51%).
AJE nevertheless managed to quote more individuals in its stories than did the
others (826 versus BBCs 743, CNNs 606, and CBS 440). Again, even a casual
reader of the four Web sites might likely notice AJEs emphasis on quoting a
number of different individuals in its stories. However, as shown in the table,
even though AJE quoted more individuals they tended to be the same traditional
institutional sources as the other agencies used.
The last areas of inquiry in this study dealt with the image presented of the
United States and the amount of emotionally charged language in the stories.
TABLE 3
Sources Quoted (Total N = 2615)
Source
Govt. leaders
Journalists
Citizens
Subtotal
Activists
Humanitarians
Union
Insurgents
Subtotal

AJE %

BBC %

37.2%
9.2%
0%
46.4%
1.50%
85%
.73%
.12%
3.20%
AJE N = 826

32.2%
10.2%
0%
42.4%
1.87%
1.20%
.54%
0%
3.61%
BBC N = 743

CBS %
31.5%
6.1%
15.2%
52.8%
1.83%
1.80%
0%
0%
3.63%
CBS N = 440

CNN %
39.8%
0%
11.2%
51.0%
1.60%
.50%
1.50%
0%
5.50%
CNN N = 606

10
CBS and CNN interestingly provided substantial space to quoting private citizens and bystanders, both of which were less in evidence on AJE and BBC.

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FIGURE 4

155

Story tone toward United States (total N = 1270).

Using Dimitrova and Connolly-Aherns (2007) three-part typology, in Figure 4

the authors compared the Web sites treatment of the United States. Clearly,
the great majority of stories on each Web page presented the United States in
a neutral manner.11 AJEs neutral treatment of the United States in 83.8% of
its stories was well within the mix of what the BBC and CNN did and was
above CBS 76.1%. It did have the second-highest proportion of stories with
a negative tone toward the United States (AJEs 13.1% was higher than the
BBC and CNN but lower than CBS 16.8%) and had the fewest number of positively toned stories about the United States.12 In sum, one would be pressed to support the notion Al Jazeera English presented a dramatically different tone than its
Western counterparts based on the evidence in Figure 4.
The final area of investigation involved the use of emotionally charged
language. Table 4 shows the results by region where stories were most likely
to include emotionally charged language, and the subject content of those
stories. The table shows AJE used emotionally charged words and/or phrases

11

To establish reliability, 144 stories (11.3%) were randomly chosen for re-coding the potentially
subjective elements of story tone and emotionally charged language. Holstis reliability was calculated at .92 after re-coding.
12
None of the differences between networks on Tables 3 and 4 and Figure 4 were significantly
different according to Chi-square comparisons.

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TABLE 4
Proportion of Stories That Contained Emotionally Charged Language by Region and Subject
Web Page
AJE
AJE N=90/25%*
BBC
BBC N=95/21%
CBS
CBS N=52/33.5%

CNN
CNN N=85/28%

Region

Percentage

Subject

Percentage

Middle East
N. America
E. Europe
W. Europe
Middle East
W. Europe
Asia, India/Pakistan,
N. America (t)
Middle East
Asia
S. America
India/Pakistan, N.
America (t)
Middle East
W. Europe
Africa
Asia, India/Pakistan (t)

27.8%
16.7%
13.3%
12.2%
17.9%
15.8%

Israel/Palestine
Iraq
Columbia
U.S.
Israel/Palestine
Columbia
Iraq
Tibet
Israel/Palestine
Iraq
Pakistan
China, Columbia (t)

10.0%
5.6%
5.6%
4.4%
7.4%
5.3%
4.2%
4.2%
13.5%
13.5%
7.7%
5.8%

Iraq
Tibet
Israel/Palestine

10.6%
5.9%
4.7%

14.7%
32.7%
17.3%
11.5%
9.6%
21.2%
21.2%
11.7%
10.6%

Note. *AJE had 90 stories that contained emotionally charged language. Those 90 stories were
25% of all AJE stories in this survey.

in 90 different stories, which represented 25% of the agencys total story

count. One will notice 27.8% of Al Jazeera Englishs stories with emotionally charged language were stories about the Middle East. Of those emotionally charged Middle East stories, 10% had to do with the Israeli/Palestinian
conflict.
In its entirety, Table 4 shows here as well that Al Jazeera English was
operating with a mix similar to that of the other networks. CBS had the greatest
proportion of stories with emotionally charged language at 33.5%, with CNN
second (28%), AJE third (25%), and the BBC fourth with 21%. Like AJE, the
other networks stories with emotionally charged words were mostly about the
Middle East, with a comparable combination of stories from the other world
regions. Stories about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict were most likely to contain
such language, primarily followed by stories about Iraq.

DISCUSSION
In its pursuit to be distributed in the West, Al Jazeera English has attempted to
make clear two attributes of its service: (1) AJE isnt the same network as its

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Qatari parent because its designed to serve a different audience. Its tone and
story selection are different from what Middle Eastern audiences view on Al
Jazeera. (2) Its committed to providing Western audiences with a different
perspective, with stories covered from a different point of view (KolesnikovJessop, 2007; Rao, 2007).
Based on analysis of the Web pages conducted here, AJE has likely been
successful on the first point but apparently not as successful on the second point.
The network does seem different from the reputation of its Middle Eastern
parent, particularly in its lack of graphic depictions of violence. There was little
on AJEs Web site at the time of this study that would likely offend Western
audiences. As already discussed, the tone of some of the stories on Al Jazeera
English was less moderate than on the BBC and CNN but was more even-handed
than stories presented on CBS. AJE had fewer positively toned stories about the
United States than the other agencies did but had fewer negatively toned stories
than CBS and ranked third behind CBS and CNN in its use of emotionally
charged words (see Table 4 and Figure 4). All this created a sense that AJE might
have indeed been successful in addressing the negatives of its parent company as
perceived by Western audiences.
However, perhaps the emphasis on distancing itself from the personality of its
parent had been so concentrated that AJE had yet to establish a philosophy upon
which to give Western audiences a unique perspective. From the information
gathered here Westerners wouldnt necessarily be getting a richer perspective of
the world if AJE, as currently constituted, were to gain wide distribution. The
content, other than unique but still generic-looking photos, was mostly indistinguishable from the other networks.
Most stories on AJE had been borrowed from other news services and simply
rewritten for the AJE Web page (see Figure 2). If only 3.7% of AJEs stories
were produced entirely by AJEs own staff, it wasnt surprising that the networks stories lacked a unique perspective in the other measures evaluated for
this study. In clear contrast, 100% of the BBCs stories were written entirely by
its own people.
Despite the networks claims of commitment to expanding its workforce and
coverage (Pfanner, 2008), evidence here indicated it used fewer of its own reporters to gather information than any of the other agencies. It did quote a greater
number of sources in its articles, but those used were from the same traditional
institutional sources used by others.
Regardless of how one might feel about the Arabic Al Jazeera, theres little
question that the network often has a passion in its reporting that comes from its
commitment to broadcast perspectives different from those of the established
Western media organizations and those of the Middle Easts embedded political
regimes. If its serious about giving Western audiences a different perspective,
perhaps AJE should place a greater effort on presenting stories from the unique

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LOOMIS

Middle Eastern vantage point that has made Al Jazeera so widely known
(Barkho, 2006). Those stories would of course need to be presented without the
vitriol that has occasionally offended Western sensibilities but would also need to
be created from a Middle Eastern understanding of which few in the West seem
to have access.
One way this could be accomplished would be to expand the information
available on its Web page links and in its broadcast stories. At the time of this
study, most all story links on AJE simply connected to other, older AJE stories
about the same subject. The audience was given little or no opportunity to gather
background information from additional sources. Here AJE has the opportunity
to provide Western audiences with information not otherwise readily available.
For example, links to information about Middle Eastern history and philosophies
from an Arab point of view would be useful background for a Western audience
whose own networks have little reason to provide such perspectives with regularity. Barkho (2006) wrote that Al Jazeeras use of original Arabic language
communicated unique meanings to the Arab audience. Al Jazeera English might
consider finding a way to tap into some of those references as it presents stories
in English. If a way to do that cant be found, the network should investigate
other ways of taking advantage of its unique Middle Eastern perspective when
telling its stories.
Managers at Al Jazeera English are faced with a predicament as they seek
wide distribution outside the Middle East. On the one hand, they must present
AJE as a more moderate voice than that of its parent company. On the other
hand, it must tell quality stories from perspectives not already told to Western
audiences. It could be, regardless of political or economic circumstances, Al
Jazeera English was still trying to implement the tactics of this strategy at the
time of this study. If so, its product could have been a work in progress.
With ongoing studies, researchers could continue to monitor the network as it
seeks distribution and an audience. Future research could replicate this study to
identify changes as they develop. Other researchers could ask new questions such
as: even though AJE quoted similar sources (heads of state and government
leaders), were the people quoted the same individuals? When quoting the same
person, did AJE report different quotes than the other services? Was AJEs
emotionally charged language different from the other news services?
Future research might also investigate the American publics knowledge
and interest in alternative sources of news. What are the differences between
Americans who are open to news from alternative sources and those who are
uncomfortable with that notion? How might Middle Eastern paradigms be
introduced to new audiences without appearing confrontational and
offensive?
The limitations of this study are typical of any online content analysis. The
results are limited to the sources investigated, the time frame of the investigation,

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and the observations of the author. Its also possible the tone of each networks
content could vary based on the time of day. Such variations might conceivably
affect validity because all the information for this study was gathered at a
particular time each day. Also, results cant be generalized to other news
agencies and time periods. The results are limited to the actual content selected
for observation.
At the time of this writing, The New York Times had recently published a
story about a potential cooling in the heated global political climate of the
past decade (Slackman, 2008). The story offered Europes diplomatic
overtures to Syria, high-ranking but secretive diplomatic exchanges between
the United States and Iran, and the tentative stabilization of events in Iraq and
Lebanon as evidence adversaries in the Middle Eastern conflicts had
determined diplomatic engagement was temporarily more productive than
military engagement. This environment would bode well for the potential of
international news services such as Al Jazeera to reach new audiences and
markets. The Al Jazeera English observed here was different from how Al
Jazeera was described in recent previous research of the same type, indicating a more conciliatory tone of news reporting was possible across cultures.
However, as with any strongly branded product, Al Jazeera must find ways to
adapt its image to new markets without sacrificing the strengths of its identity
that made it successful to start.

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