Bader Al Saud
The Reporting of Wars in the Middle East: Negotiating the Journalistic Ethos of Aljazeera and Alarabiya
Bader’s research analyses the degree to which Aljazeera and Alarabiya news channels adhere to their own stated journalistic ethics in the production of war reporting. Such an approach will provide a basis for understanding how strictly the theoretic template of accuracy, fairness and truth are engaged in practice, and to explain how it is possible for each news channel to claim to be just and fair while producing such a radically different product. The research includes two case studies, namely, the wars in Iraq and Gaza.
In examining the structure of Aljazeera and Alarabiya and their respective news output, a two-tiered applied methodology is adopted. In-depth interviews will be conducted with media experts as well as news producers and editors from Aljazeera and Alarabiya, combined with questionnaires directed to Arab audiences overseas and the Arab community in Britain. The information collected will be correlated and analysed to find out the mechanisms at work in both organisations. Equally, questionnaires will reinforce those findings generated from formal interviews and allow a quick and efficient method of collecting extraneous material and developing new lines of enquiry.
Bader holds an MA in International Journalism from the University of Westminster and he is also a London-based freelance journalist with various established Saudi Arabian newspapers, and a weekly writer for Okaz newspaper (under the nom de plume Bader bin Saud). His research focuses on Arab satellite TV, media ethics and the coverage of wars and conflicts.
Publications
Articles
2009, Friend or Foe? Saudi Arabia in the British Press post 9/11, Journal of Arab & Muslim Media Research, Vol 2.1&2, pp.39-52.
Book Reviews
2008, The Internet in the Arab World: Egypt and Beyond, by Rasha A. Abdulla; Journal of Arab & Muslim Media Research, Vol 1.2, pp.191-4.