James Painter has just produced a study called Counter-Hegemonic News [download pdf] – looking at Qatar’s Al Jazeera English and Venezuela’s Telesur. I have to say, in the case of AJE, I think both the personnel and the traditions they draw on are simply those of conventional foreign news.
Mister Bays, my old colleague from Five News days, is now plying his trade at Al Jazeera English. James picked up a second place at the Monte Carlo TV Festival for his reporting from Afghanistan. Here he is from May, 2007:
My track record on industry gossip is so lamentable that I try not to pass on what little I hear. But this rumour of a personnel shift ahoy at Al Jazeera, has the ring of credibility – and it sounds like a sensible regrouping by the Middle Eastern news network. Word is that the bureau…