Did They Tone It Down? Comparing the Coverage of the Iraq War in Al-Jazeera English-
language website in 2004 vs. 2007
News coverage of the Iraq War in Al-Jazeera was subjected to intense scrutiny. The
former Bush administration, for example, was aggravated by the station’s coverage claiming its
reporting inflamed public opinion in the Arab world against the United States. Al-Jazeera has
continually denied these U.S. accusations, however. It explained that the network is only
reporting violence — and not inciting it — and asserted that it is trying to provide a
comprehensive coverage of conflicts in the region (See Sharkey, 2004).
The Iraq War has been ongoing since 2003 and since then several developments have
taken place. First, the country became more violent as conflicts between different factions in
Iraq, such as between Sunis and Shias escalated. Second, the U.S. administration started
debating about the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. Third, other conflicts and disputes in
the Arab world took place simultaneously, including the crisis in Darfur, and Lebanon for
example. Fourth, Al-Jazeera officially launched its English-language news site in fall 2003. The
site rapidly attracted English-language online users worldwide, particularly about information
regarding conflicts in the Middle East region (About Al-Jazeera, 2003, Johnson and Fahmy,
2009).
Therefore because of the large volume of complaints from the United States and the
recent changes in the Iraqi scene (See Fahmy and Al-Emad, 2011) it is possibe that Al-Jazeera
reacted by toning down its coverage of Middle Eastern conflicts over time. For example, in
covering the Iraq War, The New York Times recently reported that Al-Jazeera was no longer
referring to Iraqi insurgents as “resistance” (2009).
This study’s goal is to investigate whether the coverage of the Iraq War in Al-Jazeera
English -language website was framed differently over time. Specifically this study compares the
coverage in March 2004 versus March 2007. By examining the coverage within these two time
frames the authors examined 1400 news reports in terms of emphasis of online stories
(frequency and placement), the themes identified in covering the conflict and whether the tone
of these themes changed over time.