Tal Samuel-Azran

Al-Jazeera, Qatar, and New Tactics in State-Sponsored Media Diplomacy:

The use of international broadcasting, a tool of public diplomacy since World War I, can be divided into two chronological periods. The first, which began during World War I and declined in the post–Cold War era, was characterized by international government-sponsored radio broadcasters. The second began with the emergence of privately owned global news networks (e.g., CNN, Sky News, and MSNBC) in the 1980s and 1990s, which were deemed more credible than government-sponsored stations. Based on an 8-year study of Al-Jazeera’s coverage of Saudi affairs throughout the Qatari–Saudi conflict, which revealed a strong correlation between Al-Jazeera Arabic’s tone toward Saudi affairs and the development of the Qatari–Saudi conflict, the article argues that Qatar invented a new model of public diplomacy by operating Al-Jazeera as a hybrid state-sponsored/private network, effectively transforming the network into a highly potent public diplomacy tool. Accordingly, the article discusses the interplay among news networks, ownership, and use of public diplomacy tactics in contemporary international broadcasting.

Political information repertoires and political participation

This study examines the relationship between various forms of media use and political participation. The major argument is that in today’s high-choice media environment, individuals and groups with the highest level of political interest are more likely to develop richer political information repertoires that involve exploiting both digital and traditional ways of searching for political information. Individuals and groups with richer political information repertories can be expected to have higher levels of political knowledge, efficacy, and participation. This article argues further that a clear connection exists between peoples’ informational and participatory repertoires and tests these propositions using a large, heterogeneous sample of the Israeli public during the 2013 election campaign. The analysis supports the claims of this study, with a few intriguing exceptions.

Aristotelian rhetoric and Facebook success in Israel’s 2013 election campaign

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the mapping of the social media discourse involving politicians and their followers during election campaigns, the authors examined Israeli politicians’ Aristotelian rhetoric on Facebook and its reception during the 2013 elections campaign. Design/methodology/approach – The authors examined the Aristotelian rhetorical strategies used by Israeli politicians on their Facebook walls during the 2013 elections, and their popularity with social media users. Findings – Ethos was the most prevalent rhetorical strategy used. On the reception front, pathos-based appeals attracted the most likes. Finally, the results point to some discrepancy between politicians’ campaign messages and the rhetoric that actually gains social media users’ attention. Research limitations/implications – The findings indicate that Israel’s multi-party political system encourages emphasis on candidates’ credibility (ethos) in contrast to the prevalence of emotion (pathos) in typical ...

Gendered discourse patterns on online social networks: A social network analysis perspective

Abstract The study examines the gendered discourse patterns on a popular online social network, TheMarker Cafe, using social network analysis. Overall, the findings strengthen previous analyses that report evidence of mens assertive and dominant discourse style and social role versus womens more cooperative and supportive discourse style. Men wrote more posts, while women commented on other peoples posts more often. Womens posts received higher rankings than mens posts, strengthening the notion that women receive more affirmations on online social networks. The study also examined the interplay between the structure of the TheMarker Cafe network and gendered discourse patterns. Our findings also confirmed a link between activity network structure and women content popularity.

Is there an Al-Jazeera–Qatari nexus? A study of Al-Jazeera’s online reporting throughout the Qatari–Saudi conflict

This article evaluates the high-profile accusations published on Wikileaks that Al-Jazeera was used as a diplomatic tool by Qatar, with the 2002–2007 Qatari–Saudi conflict serving as a case study. The analysis is aimed at revealing whether the conflict affected Al-Jazeera’s coverage of Saudi affairs, specifically whether Al-Jazeera Arabic (N = 285) and Al-Jazeera English (N = 220) websites increased the volume of articles casting Saudi Arabia in a negative light and decreased the volume of articles casting Saudi Arabia in a positive light throughout the conflict, relative to the pre- and post-conflict periods. The analysis of Al-Jazeera Arabic reveals a very strong relationship between the tone towards Saudi affairs and timing relative to the Saudi–Qatari conflict (χ2(14) = 101.57, Cramer’s V = 0.42, p < .001), with a dramatic rise in articles criticizing Saudi Arabia for human rights violations and support of terrorism during the conflict. By contrast, the authors found no significant differences between the conflict and post-conflict coverage of Saudi affairs by Al-Jazeera English. The study indicates that the Al-Jazeera Arabic output was highly coordinated with Qatari interests, casting doubt on its claim of independence from Qatari interests.

“Our” Criminals—Israeli Press Coverage of Domestic Political Criminals

The study examined media coverage of Israeli citizens convicted of committing political crimes against the state in order to determine how the media portrays such perpetrators, ultimately to discern what these framing choices suggest about citizens involved in political crimes. In contrast to external acts of political crime for which the explanation provided by the media is clear, mainly that the perpetrator, “the other,” is evil and acting against “us,” this study found that when the perpetrator is “one of us” there is a profound need in the media to find a multidimensional explanation for the act. This study found that the Israeli media applies a personalized news frame to portray each of “our” criminals differently and explain their motivations to the public.

“You too, Second Screeners?” Second Screeners’ Echo Chambers During the 2016 U.S. Elections Primaries

This article examines second screeners’ conversations during the 2016 U.S. election primaries. Over a 2-week period, we collected Twitter mentions of 3 top cable news shows (N = 49,568) posted while these shows were broadcast. Using social network analysis, we reconstructed the social network of second screeners (N = 27,811) and found that the network exhibits ideological homophily with few cross-camp interactions. Our findings strongly indicate the existence of echo chambers in the second screen realm, with more confined echo chambers identified in networks of Twitter followers in comparison to second screeners. The study provides one of the most comprehensive mappings of the second screening phenomenon during an election campaign to date.

Al-Jazeera Sport’s US Twitter followers: sport-politics nexus?

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to contribute to analyses of the sport-politics nexus by identifying whether the demographics of Twitter followers of Al-Jazeera Sport in the USA (rebranded in 2014 as beIN USA) can be associated with a specific political orientation. Design/methodology/approach Based on selective exposure theory, which posits that people follow news sources that reinforce their existing views, the authors identify the news outlets followed by beIN Twitter followers. To put the findings in perspective, the authors compared the results to the news outlets followed by the Twitter followers of Al-Jazeera America, Al-Jazeera’s second US outlet. Next, to understand the nature of the beIN and Al-Jazeera America communities, the authors used social network analysis to analyze the distribution of retweets within these communities. Findings The analysis shows that whereas Al-Jazeera America Twitter followers follow significantly more liberal than conservative news outlets, beIN’s followers were not identified with a specific political orientation. Analysis of beIN’s followers’ retweets shows a greater degree of connectivity among beIN’s followers than among the followers of Al-Jazeera America, indicating a more connected social network. Research limitations/implications Findings indicate that beIN’s Twitter following is characterized by more diverse and more strongly connected audience than Al-Jazeera America on Twitter, highlighting sports as a non-politicized realm on Twitter. Practical implications For practitioners, the study illustrates that controversial non-western media networks such as Al-Jazeera can gain access to diverse populations in the West by operating in the sport realm rather than the news realm. Originality/value This study offers a pioneering indication of the extent of a sport-ethnocentrism nexus on Twitter.

The Boston Game and the ISIS Match Terrorism, Media, and Sport

The world is becoming largely interconnected. This notion has thought-provoking implications due to the fact that this interdependence affords terrorist organizations opportunities to perpetrate attacks. It is inevitable that an increased risk of terrorism, especially on the forefront of megasporting events, is on the rise due to the global publicity such attacks receive. This article focuses on the Boston Marathon Bombing and the Islamic State and illustrates how high-profile news coverage and coverage on social media (through user-generated content or “terrorist organization”–generated content) advance terrorist groups’ attempts to use large-scale sporting events to leverage their agenda and ideology.

Promoting Terror or Sport? The Case of Qatar’s International Image

Qatar’s successful bid for hosting the 2022 soccer World Cup is regarded as one in a series of attempts to change Qatar’s image as a terror-sponsoring state. To understand the power of hosting megasport events to rebuild a country’s international image, the present study compares the coverage of Qatari sport affairs with concurrent terror-sponsoring allegations, via a sentiment analysis of coverage of Qatari affairs by three international networks (SKY, CNN, and ITV) between August 20, 2013 and December 31, 2014. Surprisingly, the analysis found that terror-related articles contained significantly more positive sentiment than articles on other issues, whereas the tone toward Qatar in sport-related articles was significantly less positive than other topics. The study illustrates the limits of using sport as a soft power strategy, and underscores the superiority of on-the-ground efforts to deflect terror allegations as a strategy for improving a country’s image.