Who is Winning the Hearts and Minds of the Arab Public?
An examination of how Arab viewers judge the credibility of Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabiya, Al-Hurra and local Arab stations
BY THOMAS J. JOHNSON
MARSHALL AND SHARLEEN FORMBY REGENTS PROFESSOR COLLEGE OF MASS COMMUNICATIONS
TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY BOX 43082
LUBBOCK, TX 79409 [email protected]
(806) 742-6500 EXT. 253 (806) 742-1085
AND SHAHIRA FAHMY
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
TUCSON, AZ [email protected]
Thomas J. Johnson (Ph.D., University of Washington) is the Marshall and Sharleen Formby Regents' Professor, College of Mass Communications at Texas Tech University. His research interests include political communication and new media communication technology effects.
Shahira Fahmy (Ph.D., University of Missouri) is an associate professor in the School of Journalism at University of Arizona. Her research interests include new media, political communication and visual coverage of war and terrorism in the Middle East. Manuscript accepted for publication in International Communication Research Journal. January 2010.
Who is Winning the Hearts and Minds of the Arab Public? - 1
Who is Winning the Hearts and Minds of the Arab Public?
An examination of how Arab viewers judge the credibility of Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabiya, Al-Hurra and local Arab stations
Abstract / This study surveys Arab satellite television users through a questionnaire posted on
Al-Jazeeras Arab-language website to examine how credible they judge Al-Jazeera, Al-
Arabiya, Al-Hurra and local Arab stations. More specifically, this study compares and contrasts
the degree to which Al-Jazeera users judge the satellite networks in terms of depth, accuracy,
fairness, believability, trustworthiness and expertise. It also examines the degree to which
support for press freedoms, ideology, demographic, political measures and reliance predict
credibility of Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabiya, Al-Hurra and local Arab stations.
Keywords / Credibility/ Al-Jazeera / Al-Arabiya / Al-Hurra / local Arab stations, Arab media.
Who is Winning the Hearts and Minds of the Arab Public? - 2
Who is Winning the Hearts and Minds of the Arab Public? An examination of how Arab viewers judge the credibility of Al-Jazeera, Al-
Arabiya, Al-Hurra and local Arab stations
Al-Jazeera emerged as the dominant voice in Arab public discourse for opening its lines
to the Arab people and providing them a forum to voice their views. The station has also been
recognized as the CNN of the Arab World for its refusal to parrot the official line of Arab
government officials and its commitment to accuracy and balance while at the same time
showing an Arab perspective on the news (el-Nawawy 2003; el-Nawawy & Iskandar 2002;
Lynch, 2006). However, by 2004 the supremacy of Al-Jazeera was challenged by the emergence
of several satellite competitors including the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya and the U.S.-sponsored
Arabic language satellite station Al-Hurra.
While several studies have surveyed Arab audiences to examine the credibility of both
Al-Jazeera (Auter et. al, 2004, 2005; Johnson & Fahmy, 2008, 2009) and its U.S. competitor Al-
Hurra (Dabbous, & Nasser, 2009; el-Nawawy, 2007; Telhami, 2005, 2009; Wise, 2005), less
attention has been paid to credibility of Al-Arabiya, even though in some parts of the Middle
East, its ratings have surpassed Al-Jazeera (Snyder, 2006a, 2006b). Few studies have
systematically compared and contrasted credibility of Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabiya, Al-Hurra
(However, see Dabbous & Nasser, 2009) and local Arab media and no study could be found that
has examined what factors predict credibility of these Arab satellite stations.
This study surveys Arab satellite television users through a questionnaire posted on Al-
Jazeeras Arab-language website to examine how credible they judge Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabiya,
Al-Hurra and local Arab stations. More specifically, this study compares and contrasts the
degree to which Al-Jazeera viewers judge the satellite networks in terms of depth, accuracy,
Who is Winning the Hearts and Minds of the Arab Public? - 3
fairness, believability, trustworthiness and expertise. It also examines the degree to which
attitudes toward press freedom, demographics and political measures correlate with credibility of
Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabiya, Al-Hurra and local Arab stations.
Source and Sponsor Credibility
Early persuasion research found that expertise and trustworthiness were the two main
factors influencing credibility of a source (Hovland et al., 1949, 1953). Expertise referred to the
degree to which the audience consider someone qualified to know the truth of a topic, while
trustworthiness referred to the degree to which the audience perceived the person was motivated
to tell the truth about that subject.
The emergence of the Internet focused attention on source credibility as well as expanded
the definition of what is considered a source (Metzger et al., 2003). Internet researchers
considered the websites themselves as sources of information.
Studies by Johnson and Kaye (1998, 2002) found that differences between online and
traditional versions of the same source were not significantly different, as people focused on the
credibility of the source itself rather than the way information is delivered. Other studies have
suggested that different news organizations are rated differently for credibility (Pew Center for
People and the Press, 2006).
Credibility in the Arab World
Until the mid90s, Arab people had little reason to trust the information they received
from their media as Arab governments held a monopoly over television. Arab governments
believed that television should promote national development goals. Therefore, television
stations operated within ministries of information and were funded by the government (Rugh,
2004). Journalists enjoyed few press rights because they were perceived as part of the
Who is Winning the Hearts and Minds of the Arab Public? - 4
government bureaucracy and should be working on behalf of the government (Fahmy &
Johnson, 2007b; Lynch, 2006; Rugh, 2004).
Scholars suggest the rise of satellite news networks, most notably Al-Jazeera, in the wake
of the Gulf War not only has caused Arab governments to encourage more Western style of news
gathering and presentations, but have also served as a political and cultural phenomenon that
have transformed the Arab region (el-Naway & Iskandar, 2002; Rugh, 2004; Seib, 2007).
Satellite news networks such Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabiya and Al-Hurra news have adopted a
more Western style broadcasting style with state-of-the art technology, advertising as a source of
revenue, and broadcasting a wide range of news and public affairs programming shows, as well
as entertainment and family-oriented offerings (Ayish, 2001; Seib, 2007).
Credibility of Al-Jazeera
As credibility scholars have demonstrated, credibility is a perception held by the
audience, not a trait inherent in a medium (Berlo et al., 1969). Therefore, credibility perceptions
can vary widely depending on who is asked. This seems particularly true for Al-Jazeera.
Al-Jazeera is condemned as a news source by both Arab governments and coalition
countries alike. Arab governments criticize Al-Jazeera for negative coverage of Arab leaders, for
interviewing Israeli and Western officials, and for covering taboo topics such as sex, polygamy
and government corruption (Jamal & Melkote, 2008; Zayani & Ayish, 2006).
Similarly, Western governments have accused Al-Jazeera of presenting the news,
particularly Iraq War stories, from a pro-Arab perspective, (Zayani & Ayish, 2006) and for
ignoring journalistic values by presenting graphic images of civilians injured or killed by
coalition forces (Fahmy & Johnson 2007a). Worse, coalition governments claim that the network
has aided terrorists because it has frequently aired tapes from Osama bin Laden and by al-Qaeda
Who is Winning the Hearts and Minds of the Arab Public? - 5
intermediaries (Seib, 2007). On the other hand, Al-Jazeera has been hailed by supporters as the
CNN of the Arab World for being one of the most important news organizations and a leading
political actor in the world today (Miles, 2005; Seib, 2007). The English-language version of Al-
Jazeera has been touted as a potential conciliatory medium that covers contentious issues as a
way conducive to cooperation, negotiation and reconciliation (el-Nawawy & Powers, 2008).
Although Al-Jazeera has been criticized by some for being less critical of the Qatar
government, which provides it with its funding (Zayani & Ayish 2006), Al-Jazeera has won a
loyal following as the first Arab news source to offer Arab viewers a largely uncensored 24-hour
news service that has provided them the opportunity to express their views through live phone-in
shows (el-Nawawy & Iskandar, 2002; Zayani & Ayish 2006). Consequently, studies have found
that Al-Jazeera ranks extremely high in credibility among Arab audiences (Association for
International Broadcasting, 2008; Auter et al., 2004), even more than CNN or the BBC (Johnson
& Fahmy, 2008, 2009)
