DOHA: A report carried by this newspaper on April 25 titled ‘Al Jazeera on decline in Arab Spring nations’ was based on the results of a survey of top media outlets in the region carried out by the Northwestern University in Qatar.
The survey, on ‘Media use in the Middle East’, and the tables for eight countries, including Qatar, said that “Al Jazeera is the top news source in the region overall, but in varying levels by country”.
However, we based our report only on the figures for three countries, namely, Tunisia, Bahrain and Egypt as we discovered that Al Jazeera had four percent share in Bahrain, nine percent in Tunisia and 20 percent in Egypt.
This, despite the fact that the popular Doha-based channel was in the forefront of covering uprisings in these countries and it was widely believed that it would be one of the leading (if not the leading) news sources in these countries.
It goes without saying that Al Jazeera remains the most popular channel in countries like Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan and Lebanon (that are covered in the survey) but, then, they are not Arab Spring countries.
Reacting to our report, Al Jazeera has asked in an email how we could simply make a comparison and say its popularity is on the wane in Arab Spring countries when no previous figures were released.
The Northwestern University in Qatar also reacted to the report. Robb Wood, Media and External Development Strategist at the university, said: “I can confirm that we did not state that Al Jazeera is on the wane. Our study drew no conclusions about increases or decreases in the popularity of Al Jazeera”.
Al Jazeera, as we know, was the first Arabic channel to cover the revolution when it began in Tunisia that triggered the Arab Spring, so the figures for Tunisia were quite shocking for us at least (see table).
The channel quite actively covered the uprisings in Bahrain, so, again, the figures for this country (a mere four percent!) were quite low.
Al Jazeera says, referring to the tables, that the eight-country study showed it was the overall number one news outlet across the media — television and online. We haven’t disputed this fact and have only drawn our own conclusions based on the figures for the three Arab Spring countries. We have every right to be analytical.
Moreover, we didn’t say that our comparison was based on previous figures. It was based on our own conclusion that since Al Jazeera spearheaded the Arab revolution and was the most watched channel in the Arab world, it was natural to expect that it should be the most popular TV station in the three countries as well.
So was the case with Egypt where the Northwestern University in Qatar’s survey showed it trailing at number four slot after Al Hayat, Al Kanat Al Oula and CBC.
The Northwestern University has an enviable reputation and for the first time conducted a survey on the media situation in the Middle East, so it was natural for us, as a Qatari newspaper, to give it wide coverage.
Al Jazeera has, in a rejoinder to our story, said the figures quoted in the survey are based on a question members of the public were asked about their first source of news. “This is completely different from total viewer-base and market share.” We don’t believe this is true because surveys always reflect the viewership and market share, and if the Northwestern University hasn’t intended to pick the market leaders, the survey has actually done so. The Channel must appreciate the fact that surveys always reflect market realities.
Al Jazeera also suggested that we should have checked the facts and figures with it before publishing the story. There is no need to cross check with the channel the results of a survey where respondents have given their preferences. Though it has the right to dispute those figures, a newspaper has the right to report them. The channel claims it believes in ‘Opinion and the Other Opinion’, and so why can’t it expect us to do the same?
We are reproducing here the tables for Tunisia, Bahrain and Egypt, leaving it to our readers to decide whether our April 25 report was based on facts or speculation. Readers are the best judge.
The Peninsula
