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Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

nytimes.com

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Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#71

Post by alsetmusic »

gardano wrote: post #60
afshin wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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"…

One of the biggest names in tech changed the branding for a service in certain markets where the English title translated into profanity. It's the responsible move if you're operating globally.

Apologies for ambiguity, but this is a case where I can't be any more specific.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#72

Post by lbotos »

rogerbinns wrote: post #53
thirdsun wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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,…

>The problem with Internet streaming is getting any demographic information

Is this a problem in 2016? I'm pretty sure you can get _MORE_ data from internet tracking vs. otherwise.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#73

Post by david-given »

hackuser wrote: post #32
andrewclunn wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. Moving away from service chord cutters at this point was just odd. Embracing alternative media has done wonders for outlets like Russia Today (Though that's state sponsored so it might not be the best comparison).

> 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.

The Al Jazeera that we get in the UK is apparently run by a lot of ex-BBC people, and uses a lot of the BBC house style, which means and news report will instantly look respectable to a big British market segment. Not that I've ever met anyone in the UK who's ever watched it, of course.

This is the best run-down of the BBC house style I've seen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHun58mz3vI

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#74

Post by rm_-rf_slash »

chris_wot wrote: post #34
rm_-rf_slash wrote: post #16

This 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…

...if you fail to appeal to people's simple desires, fears, and impulses, you will fail entirely. I would argue that in that case the failure is not with the ones trying to make change, but the ones who won't accept it.

"To a large degree the press...all conform to the demands of the public. But to an equally large degree the public responds to the influence of these very same mediums of communication."

Edward Bernays, "Crystallizing Public Opinion"

Fault is a mirage. There is only success or failure

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#75

Post by rm_-rf_slash »

kobayashi wrote: post #36
rm_-rf_slash wrote: post #16

This 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…

Are you asserting that AJA was accurate and informed?

It doesn't matter whether they were or not because their branding was ineffective. It's the old saying about a tree falling down in a forest and nobody being around to hear it.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#76

Post by VLM »

As a percentage of the population almost no one watches cable news. Fox's best nights sometimes approach a significant fraction of one percent of the nations population, usually less. And all other channels are far, far lower ratings.

Another thing to consider is MSNBC is also nearly unwatched. If you thought 28K AJ viewers during daytime was bad, imagine MSNBC at exactly half or 14K viewers. Given deep enough pockets, AJ could have continued.

Narrowcasting is strange, watching channels fight over almost no viewers is like watching academics fight over nothing. Yet supplying the almost no viewers with an internet feed would require quite a few gigs/sec of internet bandwidth. There's quite a wide, unserved gap in the media industry between "a couple people watch me on youtube" and "I have a cable TV channel". There's probably a startup opportunity in there, somehow.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#77

Post by yellowstuff »

Someone1234 wrote: post #67
hackuser wrote: post #32

Earlier 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.

> RT is propaganda run by a government that has propaganda as its modus operendi; I wouldn't trust their weather reports. So like NBC nightly news? The US is full of what can only be described as US government propaganda, 60 minutes is a prime example. CBS and NBC are no better than RT unfortunately, they just often tell Americans what they want to hear so nobody bats an eyelid. AJ and BBC have their biases but at le…

I don't know a good way to prove that US media is not a government mouthpiece, but I don't think there is much evidence to support such a strong claim, whereas it is pretty easy to argue that RT is a government mouthpiece. EG:

http://www.spectator.co.uk/2014/12/the-truth-about-russia-to...

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#78

Post by rm_-rf_slash »

andrewclunn wrote: post #23
rm_-rf_slash wrote: post #16

This 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…

> the most accurate, informed, respectable news source in the world... Let's not oversell it here. They have biases, just different biases. And last I checked, network news providers ratings are on the decline and more and more Americans are getting their news from online outlets (and as many people here have already commented, the cable offerings of Al Jazeera came at the expense of their online offerings).

I never said they were good, I meant that if your branding doesn't get a customer through the door then you could be selling winning lottery numbers and nobody would know.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#79

Post by Someone1234 »

yellowstuff wrote: post #77
Someone1234 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> RT is propaganda run by a government that has propaganda as its modus operendi; I wouldn't trust their weather reports. So like NBC nightly news? The US is full of what can only be described as US government propaganda, 60 minutes is a prime example. CBS and NBC are no better than RT unfortunately, they just often tell Americans what they want to hear so nobody bats an eyelid. AJ and BBC have their biases but at le…

I don't know a good way to prove that US media is not a government mouthpiece, but I don't think there is much evidence to support such a strong claim, whereas it is pretty easy to argue that RT is a government mouthpiece. EG: http://www.spectator.co.uk/2014/12/the-truth-about-russia-to...

Just to be clear I never said RT wasn't a government mouthpiece. I said that some US news is "as bad as" them.

I have no idea how exactly it works with CBS/NBC/60 minutes. Does the US government literally write the words? Do they just dictate what they should report on? Do they send them pre-produced bottled reports? It is unclear, but what is clear is the ultimate result: pure dripping pro-US government propaganda of the worst kind.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#80

Post by transfire »

Al Jezeera is an excellent news station. Much better than the others for being more fact oriented. Unfortunately its all about ratings today, facts be damned.

I think they give up too easily. I bet if they 1) changed the name to something "all American" and 2) made a reality show about what goes on behind the scenes, that might have been a big enough of a "killer app" to propel the network out of the shadows.

However I was disappointed that AJ got rid of the Young Turks.

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