Television, New Media Fight For Shifting News Role

Michael Hedges January 31, 2011 Follow on Twitter

Everything about the process and delivery of news changed with the rise of the Web and mobile media. Something, too, changed with the way news is used. Floating between these two fundamental changes is either anarchy or democracy.

The Egyptian government formally ordered “all activities” of satellite news channel Al-Jazeera to stop its wall-to-wall coverage of demonstrations and riots. On Sunday morning (January 30) Information Minister Anas al-Fikki, himself fired but not yet replaced, ordered “suspension of operations of Al-Jazeera, canceling of its licenses and withdrawing accreditation to all its staff, as of today,” said a statement released by State news agency MENA. By Sunday afternoon there was no satellite signal from the Al-Jazeera Arabic-language service but the online English-language service was continuing reports.

Egyptian authorities ordered internet service and mobile phone providers to shut down shortly after midday Friday (January 28). Social network platforms Twitter and Facebook appear to have been specifically targeted as well as the video-sharing site YouTube. Mobile phone data services, necessary for smartphone Web access, were disrupted in major cities.

The scale of the new media clampdown is unprecedented. More than 90% of internet traffic in and out of Egypt was shut within minutes reported internet monitoring agency Renesys, quoted by the San Francisco Chronicle (January 29). In 2007 the Burmese generals attempted something similar.

News organizations, including Al Jazeera, felt the effect of disruptions in internet and mobile phone service and moved forward using Skype and promoting its coverage on Facebook. “The outside world was starved of first hand accounts when the internet went black in Egypt,” said the Al Jazeera presser. “Al Jazeera filled the void with live reports from across the country as the world flocked to our website for the latest developments on the ground.”

Sensing a competitive edge over other international television news outlets, Al Jazeera broadcast a press release (January 29) touting 26 million minutes of its English livestream viewed on Saturday “putting more pressure on US cable platforms in particular to air the channel.”  Many international news channels have been and continue to broadcast from Egypt since demonstrations turned serious. UAE-based satellite channel Al-Arabiya reportedly resumed broadcasting (January 29) after authorities forbid live coverage.

Hard figures on social media usage in North Africa and the Middle East are hard to come by. If Facebook sign-ups are an indicator, something has attracted attention. Data from Socialbakers.com crunched by  blog Memeburn.com (January 28) shows Facebook users in Tunisia increased 11.4% in a month. It was January 4th that vegetable seller Mohamed Bouazizi committed suicide by torch and flame setting off riots that led to a change in government. During the same period, first of January to present, the number of Facebook users in Egypt also jumped more than 10%, by about 500,000.

While new media supporters herald the role of Twitter and Facebook in popular – or populist – revolutions, governments sensitive to internal and external pressures are straightforward in response. Chinese authorities have blocked, according to AP (January 29), the search term “Egypt” on social networking sites. Al-Arabiya reported erroneously (January 28), followed by others, that the Syrian government had cut internet access.

Commentators and analysts – not to forget government leaders worldwide – have been reaching for history to describe the bursting public demonstration in Tunisia and now Egypt. “This is the Arab world's Berlin moment," said London School of Economics Middle East Centre director Fawaz Gerges to Reuters (January 30). Media significantly influenced pressures leading to the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall leading to the collapse of the Soviet Union and restructuring of Europe as well as global geo-politics. News media, too, has never been the same.

“The media will focus on the concept of reformers staging a revolution in the name of democracy and human rights,” said intelligence advisor Stratfor in a special report (January 29). “These may well have brought numerous demonstrators into the streets, but revolutions, including this one, are made up of many more actors than the liberal voices on Facebook and Twitter.”

Championed from its 1996 launch as “the BBC” of the Arabic-speaking world, Al-Jazeera’s populist, largely pro-Islamic point of view invites comparison with similarly populist, pro-“teabagger” US channel Fox News. Both reflect the “silo-thinking” phenomenon of news users seeking not objectivity but biased confirmation. Audience ratings and Web traffic prove their power.

The effect is not lost on governments that value authoritarian stability over popular democracy. The Tunisian government, such as it is, closed Al-Jazeera’s bureau in the capital Tunis in response to coverage. Kuwait’s government closed Al-Jazeera’s local office in December after coverage of opposition rally. Last October the Moroccan Ministry of communications withdrew accreditation of Al-Jazeera’s reporters and staff and suspended its operations following “numerous failures” following “the rules of serious and responsible journalism.” The government of Bahrain did the same last May.

Last week Al-Jazeera embarrassed Palestinian authorities by reporting leaked details of negotiations with Israeli officials. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh called on Qatar’s Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani (January 27), who owns Al-Jazeera, to “intervene…to calm the situation and not resort to provocation, falsification of facts and exaggeration.”

“The closing of our bureau by the Egyptian government is aimed at censoring and silencing the voices of the Egyptian people,” said the Al-Jazeera statement (January 30) after the Egyptian government imposed curbs. “Al-Jazeera assures its audiences in Egypt and across the world that it will continue its in-depth and comprehensive reporting on the events unfolding in Egypt.”

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