Too bad. Al Jazeera America should have renamed themselves for the American market. Not to hide who they are, but to get past any initial negative impression.
Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April
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Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April
#52Every time there is news somehow connected to Gore, I can't help but think somewhere in a parallel universe, the supreme court stayed out of election politics, didn't hand the election to Bush instead of Gore
then 9/11 never happened the following year because he actually paid attention to the memo about "Bin Laden determined to strike in US" - then Iraq was never invaded - then the TSA was never created - Gitmo wasn't created - the NSA didn't abuse its power - then credit default swaps were stopped in their tracks before they destroyed the economy.
Imagine how incredibly different the US would be today if that series of events was alternated.
Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April
#53The article did not mention Al Jazeera deciding to remove their Internet streaming, and requiring that you can only view via your local cable provider. See this page with the big note to US people: http://www.aljazeera.com/watch_now/201146152255537258.html I used to check in on their coverage on the Roku channel, but they made a business decision to prevent that. I can understand their decision to make their success…
Furthermore are cable customers really Al Jazeera's target audience? Those folks sticking with cable are probably older, more traditional people - do they regard Al Jazeera as legitimate news source or is it "that terrorist news channel" in their eyes? Honest question, I've always enjoyed Al Jazeera, but as a european I don't know if they are mainstream enough to succeed in US cable networks.
> Furthermore are cable customers really Al Jazeera's target audience?
I think it was purely a business decision. The way the US cable model works is the content providers get however many cents a month per subscriber that has the channel. The individual amount isn't great, but the cable company does all the hard work of collecting the money and giving you a single nice bigger cheque.
It also helps with advertising, because they can now give aggregate demographic information to their advertisers such as income levels, locations, and others based on correlation (eg age). Advertisers really don't want to pay for non-target users. For example if targeting women in their 30s, they aren't going to pay for ads going to males in their 60s. The problem with Internet streaming is getting any demographic information, especially if you don't already have it (eg Google and especially Facebook do). This can be somewhat addressed by requiring accounts to view, but that is a big burden for getting new viewers (who wants a new account to view something you have never seen before?)
Ben Thompson of Stratechery (good site and reporting BTW) has a nice overiew article on the US cable tv ecosystem: https://stratechery.com/2015/changing-unchanging-structure-t...
Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April
#54"Al Jazeera America went on the air in August 2013 after it bought Al Gore’s Current TV for $500 million." Why did they pay half billion for Current TV? First mistake.
Maybe that bought them existing distribution deals worth that much (or more)? Can't think of another reason.
Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April
#55This is too bad. They were one of two sources of serious news on cable TV [1] and their global breath of coverage, including many important, original stories I didn't see elsewhere, was exceptional. I always held my breath a little, expecting some propaganda because Al Jazeera is owned by the government of Qatar, but I never noticed any even in Middle East coverage. That doesn't mean it wasn't there - the point of pr…
They do a good job of separating the regional channels from the main one. AJ English is quite different from AJ Arabic that at times I feel it's a different channel entirely. However as an Arab Muslim my goto is AJ Arabic as it focuses on the region and I feel covers important events and causes. It's documentaries and investigative pieces are awesome as well.
Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Russia Today (Though that's state sponsored so it might not be the best comparison) Al Jazeera is owned by the government of Qatar. However, I agree with you that it's not a good comparision. BBC also is state sponsored, but generally considered to be trustworthy. RT is propaganda run by a government that has propaganda as its modus operendi; I wouldn't trust their weather reports.
Regardless of their propaganda or slant, these outlets are useful specifically because they are not part of the US media cycle "play list". US audiences are in a filter bubble. Also some of the domestic outlets are too busy reposting Vines to cover enough stories in between sports and weather. Once encountering a story on those alternate sources, you can read with some critical thinking maybe, and then look for other…
You're trading one filter bubble for another. Unless you want to see how the population of another country experience propaganda, I don't see how it could be useful. You could do critical thinking on any source, not just alternates.
Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April
#57"Al Jazeera America went on the air in August 2013 after it bought Al Gore’s Current TV for $500 million." Why did they pay half billion for Current TV? First mistake.
Maybe that bought them existing distribution deals worth that much (or more)? Can't think of another reason.
Airlines have done it with routes and gate access in the past, so that does make sense.
Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April
#58The most funny take on Al Jazeera you'll read today:
http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2013/09/how_does_the_shutdown...
Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
Regardless of their propaganda or slant, these outlets are useful specifically because they are not part of the US media cycle "play list". US audiences are in a filter bubble. Also some of the domestic outlets are too busy reposting Vines to cover enough stories in between sports and weather. Once encountering a story on those alternate sources, you can read with some critical thinking maybe, and then look for other…
You're trading one filter bubble for another. Unless you want to see how the population of another country experience propaganda, I don't see how it could be useful. You could do critical thinking on any source, not just alternates.
Well I mean I can't say anything to Russia Today but Al Jazeera for instance is often the only english language network with reporters on the ground in a lot of middle east situations.
Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April
#60This comes as absolutely no surprise at all. It doesn't matter if you are the most accurate, informed, respectable news source in the world, because almost no Americans know what Al Jazeera is, and the name evokes the image backdrop of a middle eastern city most Americans can't find on a map, discussing topics of primary interest to American Muslims and few else, while the female anchors are veiled. Not to mention it…
I don't have a strong opinion about your larger point. It might be correct, I'm still thinking it through. But the Chevy Nova thing is an urban legend: http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.asp
This might be an urban myth; however, when we were travelling in Europe a few years ago, my Argentine wife just laughed and laughed when she saw a car "Pajero", which in Argentina means "wanker"…