On the media lists from the US that i am on people are more than aware of al-jazeera’s new channel and the alert to the fact that media channels are opting NOT to distribute it. HOWEVER then i went to progressive media sites www.fair.org, www.thenation.org and www.alternet.org and i did not find ANYTHING on the al-jazeera launch. What’s going on?
Today an APC member from the US posted this: “AlJazeera English To Launch in U.S.; Online Distribution Main Vehicle
AlJazeera, the controversial Arab channel, is launching an English language service in U.S., but it has been unable to get any major TV distribution, and instead is going for a primarily online push through its site http://english.aljazeera.net/News and through broadband video site http://www.vdc.com
The only TV deal it has here (in the USA) is with the Globecast satellite platform, which is a minor player.”
One of our APC members from Egypt asked “Can we at APC do any awareness raising about Al-Jazeera’s TV launch in the US with the media and other relevant groups?”
At first, my thought was what kind of awareness-raising is needed from APC, which works globally, not in the US and also mostly in developing countries? On the media lists from the US that i am on people are more than aware of al-jazeera’s new channel and the alert to the fact that many media channels are specifically choosing NOT to distribute it.
And fortunately ICTs seem to be doing their job – according to the article VDC.com to Launch Al Jazeera English Channel this deal with VDC.com will reach "60 million broadband users" – that’s 20% of all people in the US. Comcast which turned down ALJ has 21 million subscribers.
HOWEVER i must say that then i went to progressive media sites www.fair.org and www.thenation.org and www.alternet.org and i did not find ANYTHING on the al-jazeera launch. And i was shocked. What’s going on?
It seems our Egyptian colleague is right to ask what we can do.