ABSTRACT
This dissertation focuses on the role of Al Jazeera in the recent Arab Spring uprisings. Al Jazeera has been widely recognized as a catalyst for the events that took place. Notably, Al Jazeera became heavily involved with citizen journalism, where the local people in the Arab countries were able express themselves with regard to events happening in their society. It is against this background that this study will investigate how Aljazeera Arabic and English covered the uprisings collectively known as the Arab Spring, how effective (in terms of accurate, impartial coverage; impact on vents; and dissemination) the coverage was, and the challenges faced.
In answering these research questions, this study conducts a review of literature from scholarly journals, books, and commentaries to establish emergent themes related to this investigation. After this, content analysis is carried out to evaluate the emerging themes concerning the three research questions. It is important to highlight that my review of literature reviews is based on sources and citations in the English language. This study reveals the role of mainstreaming media in the dissemination of accurate, timely, impartial news. The approaches used by Aljazeera Channel in providing live and hard news to the Middle East region and the entire world could act as a framework for other mainstream media entities in covering emergent political unrest around the globe. Aljazeera Channel capitalized on new satellite television and communications developments in its coverage of the uprisings in the Arab spring. Therefore, an analysis of how this mainstream media was able to cover the Arab Spring uprisings using these new approaches can contribute to future refinement of the accrual and dissemination of timely, instant, impartial news.
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