The Foreign Service Journal, May 2012

raelis in its coverage of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. When the Arab revolts began to pick up steam in late 2010 and early 2011, Al-Jazeera did something else be- yond traditional news reporting, wrote Philip Seib, direc- tor of public diplomacy at the University of Southern California. In a Sept. 27, 2011, “Snapshot” for foreign affairs.com, Seib observed: “Al-Jazeera made a point of aggregating social media content, repurposing YouTube video, reproducing Face- book material, and delivering Twitter messages to its TV viewers. Because many countries across the Arab world still have limited Internet access, but boast very high per- centages of satellite TV viewers, Al-Jazeera bridged a vital communications gap.” The Arab Public Opinion Survey of six countries re- leased in November 2011 (including Egypt but not Tunisia) found that Al-Jazeera is favored as a source of in- formation by 43 percent of respondents, followed by Al- Arabiya (14 percent) and Saudi-based MBC (12 percent). Arabs tend to watch multiple international channels, says Shibley Telhami, director of the poll. But, he adds, “Al- Jazeera is succeeding in large part because they are cater- ing to Arab identity.” Meanwhile, competition among pan-Arab broadcast- ers is intense. In addition to its main local rival, Al-Arabiya, Al-Jazeera faces challenges on around-the-clock coverage from international giants like the BBC. U.S.-funded Al- hurra is also an emerging choice in Egypt. A flash phone survey conducted amid the February 2011 revolt showed that 25 percent of respondents in Cairo and Alexandria watched Alhurra for coverage of the events. “When broader surveys were conducted in June and July 2011 in Egypt, 21.9 percent of respondents across the country named Alhurra as one of the stations they used to follow the Egyptian Revolution,” says Letitia King, director of public affairs for the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees Alhurra. The sta- tion is requesting $2 million for three new shows focused on Egypt for Fiscal Year 2013 . At least two more 24-hour news channels backed by M A Y 2 0 1 2 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 21 F OCUS