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Al Jazeera English (AJE) is an international 24-hour English-language news and current affairs TV channel headquartered in Doha, Qatar. It is the sister channel of the Arabic-language Al Jazeera.
The station broadcasts news features and analysis, documentaries, live debates, current affairs, business, technology and sports. The station claims to be the first global high-definition television network.[1]
Al Jazeera English is the world's first English-language news channel headquartered in the Middle East.[2] The channel aims to provide both a regional voice and a global perspective to a potential world audience of over one billion English speakers who don't have an Anglo-American worldview.[3] Instead of being run under central command, news management rotates around broadcasting centers in Doha and London. Complete news bulletins from Kuala Lumpur stopped on 30 September 2010 and from Washington, D.C. on 28 January 2011. These have been replaced by news from Doha, with news inserts from Kuala Lumpur ending in early 2011 and Washington D.C on 15 April 2012. Al Jazeera English is one of the few foreign media outlets to have agencies in Gaza and Harare.
The network's stated objective is "to give voice to untold stories, promote debate, and challenge established perceptions."[4
Philosophy
Al Jazeera English has stated objectives of emphasizing news from the developing world, of "reversing the North to South flow of information" and of "setting the news agenda" (also the channel's slogan). Some observers, including media scholar Adel Iskandar, have commented that this focus can be seen, in the eyes of Western viewers, as casting Al Jazeera English as a global "alternative" news network, though the entire Al Jazeera brand has been heavily mainstreamed in many parts of the world.[5] Other Al Jazeera English slogans and catchphrases include: "All the News | All the Time", "Fearless Journalism" and "If it's newsworthy, it gets on air, whether it's Bush or Bin Laden". Al Jazeera's Code of Ethics mirrors some of these statements.[6] Award winning Creative teams shaped the English brand identity,[7] the on-air studios and its "EVERY ANGLE | EVERY SIDE" promotional positioning, led by Director of Creative, Morgan Almeida, "to extend the Arabic heritage in a language familiar to diverse global audiences".
Launch and reach
The channel was launched on Wednesday, 15 November 2006 at 12:00 GMT (19:00 WIB). It had aimed to begin global broadcasting in June 2006 but had to postpone its launch because its HDTV technology was not ready.[8][9] The channel was due to be called Al Jazeera International, but the name was changed nine months before the launch because "one of the Qatar-based channel's backers decided that the broadcaster already had an international scope with its original Arabic outlet."[10]
The channel had expected to reach around 40 million households, but it far exceeded that launch target, reaching 80 million homes.[11] As of 2009, Al Jazeera's English-language service can be viewed in every major European market and is available to 130 million homes in over 100 countries via cable and satellite, according to Molly Conroy, a spokeswoman for the network in Washington.[12]
The channel is noted for its poor penetration in the American market, where it is carried by only one satellite service and a small number of cable networks.[13] Al Jazeera English has begun a campaign to enter the North American market, including a dedicated website.[14] It became available to some cable subscribers in New York in August 2011, having previously been available as an option for some viewers in Washington DC, Ohio and Los Angeles.[15] It is readily available on most major Canadian television providers including Rogers and Bell TV after the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission approved the channel for distribution in Canada on 26 November 2009.[16][17]
Al Jazeera English and Iran's state-run Press TV were the only international English-language television broadcasters with journalists reporting from inside both Gaza and Israel during the 2008–2009 Israel-Gaza conflict. Foreign press access to Gaza has been limited via either Egypt or Israel. However, Al Jazeera's reporters Ayman Mohyeldin and Sherine Tadros were already inside Gaza when the conflict began and the network's coverage was often compared to CNN's initial coverage from inside Baghdad in the early days of the 1991 Gulf War.[18][19][20]
The channel may also be viewed online. It recommends online viewing either via Livestation, a free software (live, high quality), at its own website[21] (live, low quality), or at its channel on YouTube.[22] Although Al Jazeera English is produced in High Definition (HD), the output is converted to 14:9 SD similar to BBC World.[23] Programs are shown on the Al Jazeera English YouTube channel in their original 16:9 format.
Al Jazeera America
On 2 January 2013, Al Jazeera Media Network announced that it purchased Current TV in the United States and would be launching an American news channel. 60% of the channel's programming would be produced in America while 40% would be from Al Jazeera English.[24
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