Aljazeera America debuts Tuesday at 3pm eastern

[Smeagol]

"Arabic-sounding name? Must be terrists!!!"
- Millions of people who have never actually watched AJ.

I sure hope people aren't that narrow minded. Boxing great Muhammad Ali, entertainer Paula Abdul and even the President of the United States have "Arab sounding names" and they're not terrorists. That said, having an Arab sounding name shouldn't offer cover for actively instigating terrorism by having a convenient card to use whereby anyone raising concerns over such reports must be simple-mined hicks implying the only thing they've considered is the Arab sounding name and not reports of instigating terrorism.

Lastly, you don't have to watch AJ in order to have a suspicion if there have been published reports from respected news organizations that indicate possible cause for concern. Besides, I presume few people here are fluent in Arabic anyway and many of the Middle East based news services are careful to sanitize their reporting over their English language services. My personal concerns are with reports relating to content on the Arab language channel. If the English language channels and the Arab language channels are owned by the same people and the Arab language channel has a track record of promoting anti-Americanism in the Middle-East, maybe there might be an agenda of some type with respect to their new American Channel. All I'm saying is lets wait, see and hold them to scrutiny.

 

[Andalublue]

Looks like they did a reasonable job with the launch. The crits seem fairly positive on the whole.

Of course, that's just Day One out of the way. Once their adrenaline rush has subsided they need to maintain focus on creating the brand that they want to sell, not just the one that they think people will buy. There's a big difference. If they do the latter then they will fail in a market that is not short of cable news offerings that all look pretty much the same.

The surprising thing about US cable news channels isn't the huge ideological gap between FNC, through CNN to MSNBC; it's the fact of just how similar they are, how samey, visually, tonally and rhetorically. AJAM has to pull of quite a clever trick: to be familiar enough not to alienate, and distinctive enough to attract viewers alienated by the Punch and Judy show of the opposition. They want to be a serious alternative to FNC and MSNBC, so they will have accepted that they will never out-rate them.

Their business model will be looking at audience profile, not share. They'll be looking to attract an upmarket audience, which I guess will be East-West coastal predominating. Another major challenge will be the try to ensure that that upmarket audience, which I think they can get, isn't skewed too old. Old people aren't influenced by advertising. That's a problem.

Anyway, interesting that they've launched and I wonder what everyone else thinks of the channel.

 

[humbolt]

Dang! I missed it. I don't know how I could've allowed myself to miss that.

 

[Hard Truth]

I´ll be surprised if enough of our media gate keepers will make Al Jazeera available for it to reach a significant audience. We can also expect our government to shut it down as illegal foriegn propaganda if it ever has enough impact to influence public opinion when war with more Muslims is planned. Despite claims of having a free press, the USA has never allowed free expression by our opponents during a major war.

By the way, for those looking for alternatives to the usual centrist views that dominate mass media, try Democracy Now on TV and Pacifica radio.

 

[Sherman123]

What I dont get is, why an Al Jazzera America? Al Jazzera in English brilliant should be more than enough for Americans... Only reason I could see them doing an American version, would be to compete on domestic news.. and that is brain dead.

No what they should do is run Al Jazzera in English and add in an America news program during prime time.. that would have made it much more popular imo. What they are doing is doomed to fail, alone because of the stigmata of the name and the ignorance of most Americans.

As I recall from an interview with one of the project initiators the goal is to deliver specific content to an American audience because of the unique importance of the American media demographic and electorate. It is a specific reaction to America's prominence and the perception that events are not being fully and accurately reported in the US. Whether they are correct or the marketing angle works is another matter.

 

[Smeagol]

Looks like they did a reasonable job with the launch. The crits seem fairly positive on the whole.

Of course, that's just Day One out of the way. Once their adrenaline rush has subsided they need to maintain focus on creating the brand that they want to sell, not just the one that they think people will buy. There's a big difference. If they do the latter then they will fail in a market that is not short of cable news offerings that all look pretty much the same.

The surprising thing about US cable news channels isn't the huge ideological gap between FNC, through CNN to MSNBC; it's the fact of just how similar they are, how samey, visually, tonally and rhetorically. AJAM has to pull of quite a clever trick: to be familiar enough not to alienate, and distinctive enough to attract viewers alienated by the Punch and Judy show of the opposition. They want to be a serious alternative to FNC and MSNBC, so they will have accepted that they will never out-rate them.

Their business model will be looking at audience profile, not share. They'll be looking to attract an upmarket audience, which I guess will be East-West coastal predominating. Another major challenge will be the try to ensure that that upmarket audience, which I think they can get, isn't skewed too old. Old people aren't influenced by advertising. That's a problem.

Anyway, interesting that they've launched and I wonder what everyone else thinks of the channel.

So far I actually like it. If I didn't know they were Aljazeera...:lamo In any even, I think we need more news sources, not fewer. I would hope their American venture would cause them to moderate their Arab language channel to the Middle East as I'm sure American interests will be monitoring, translating and letting the American people know what they're up to over in the Middle East.

 

[Smeagol]

Dang! I missed it. I don't know how I could've allowed myself to miss that.

They might repeat it over the weekend. Search "This is Aljazeera."

 

[Andalublue]

As I recall from an interview with one of the project initiators the goal is to deliver specific content to an American audience because of the unique importance of the American media demographic and electorate. It is a specific reaction to America's prominence and the perception that events are not being fully and accurately reported in the US. Whether they are correct or the marketing angle works is another matter.

I think this is right. Just because AJ already has an English-language service on air doesn't mean that that service will appeal to American viewers, just as the American cable news stations do not appeal to non-American viewers, even if they are English mother-tongue speakers.

I worked for a long time 'translating' - we call it 'reversioning' - US documentaries into British and international English for a non-American audience. Cultural references, colloquialisms, style of presentation, accents, visual grammar and syntax are all very different from country to country. You couldn't watch any American news channel and not know it was American, just like you couldn't watch AJ English and believe it was intended for a US audience.

 

[Peter Grimm]

What I dont get is, why an Al Jazzera America? Al Jazzera in English brilliant should be more than enough for Americans... Only reason I could see them doing an American version, would be to compete on domestic news.. and that is brain dead.

No what they should do is run Al Jazzera in English and add in an America news program during prime time.. that would have made it much more popular imo. What they are doing is doomed to fail, alone because of the stigmata of the name and the ignorance of most Americans.

1.) It's "stigma," broseph, "stigmata" is something totally different. :lamo

2.) Al Jazzera America is going to fail because most Americans are ignorant? :doh Yeah, seems legit. :roll:

 

[Dooble]

I've already set my DVD to record. They claim they'll be all about news and now opinionating. Should be interesting. Stand up comedy that American TV viewers will have to turn to Aljazeera to get not biased information that isn't secretly or openly trying to manipulate their audiences thinking.

Thank heavens. Now everyone will see that the Islamofication of America is just a bunch of conspiracy hogwash.