How Al Jazeera makes Money

I would say if you want to understand world politics , you should better watch Al Jazeera English (AJE) version. Etymologically,the two words mean "the island" and surely at some points,it proves to be surrounded with the Muslim world's euphemism of the western power. I have a cable connection full of South Indian channels and not a single international news channel and hence my appetite for international news is forced to find solace with its live stream. For good perhaps. Atleast qualitatively , its on par with any BBC or CNN coverage. 

To be fair, it is equipped with some very brave reporters. During the Gaza war in 2008, it was the only channel with reporters on both sides of the conflict. It was the only international news channel to cover the violent out-lash of government on the protesters in Myanmar with under-covered reporters using the spy cameras. They were the only one to cover the gulf-oil-spills.The ordinary Arabs would have never seen an Israeli official without it. With its Cairo office closed, journalists beaten and arrested , tapes and cameras confiscated , it ensured a live  broadcast from the Tahrir 'Liberation' Square throughout the 18 days of Egyptian protests.

True , it has a past which makes it appear biased against western world (but are the western press neutral? Don't they show the news from American perspectives?) with controversial connections. It is still referred as CNN and BBC of the Arab world. Those in U.S should watch it first before forming a perception from third-party unknowns. Plus , it is owned (and subsidized) by Qatar government which as a nation shares a friendly relation with U.S , is much more liberal compared with other middle-east countries except Dubai and has Exxon Mobile as its largest foreign investor !

Business Model

The value proposition is simple : it broadcasts as-it-is uncensored (that's what makes it credible and trust worthy) news , political talk shows and documentaries about current and controversial happenings with an objective dual-sided view.It was initially funded with a 5-year loan totaling to $150 million from the Emir of Qatar who still continues to subsidize it. Most of the money comes from licencing exclusive footages (not to say , they have many !). It sells documentaries, rents its equipment to other broadcasters. Little dependence on advertisements - the Saudis unhappy with Al Jazeera's coverage of their Kingdom have given implicit message to the businesses in the Arab nations that they will be forbidden from doing business in Saudi Arabia if and when they advertise on Al Jazeera. And hence its drive to expand across the globe trying to catch as many eye-balls as possible and once that's done , it presumes the advertisers will follow on their own. It also has launched its sports channels for which it gets paid subscription revenue. It also have a advertising revenue-sharing agreement with Google for their YouTube Channel (Yes if you are in U.S , in all probability that's what you need to rely on to watch AJE). 

But that's not enough, they still are not making profit , not withstanding the fact that the numerous middle-east crisis they leverage on is a costly coverage. When Vodafone was struggling its way out in Europe and elsewhere , it found solace and made millions in Indian market. AJE already has got the permissions to broadcast herein India. But the news broadcast industry here is highly crowded and hyper-competitive. Plus will AJE's "Journalism with No Frontier" policy work here given the fact that many of the private news channel here are owned by politicians and implicit lobbying on news item is as prevalent as it can be? Will they chase the profits as desperately as the deregulated media houses here are doing ? They were able to unite the Arab world viewers who are even now so fractured politically , socio-economically and historically. Will they be able to repeat the same here? 

Muslim Brotherhood in the Social Media Era

Okay , i was confused , ignorant perhaps. I really didn't know what Muslim Brotherhood actually means. Yes these two are the catch words if you open any news channel , site or feed , in all probability you will either find them in the headlines or on the bottom ticker. One headline said : 'Muslim Brotherhood to talk to oppositions in Egypt' and i just didn't had any clue.

Wikipedia says that having founded in 1928 in Egypt, it is "the world's oldest and largest Islamic political group, and the world's most influential Islamist movement". Ohhh now i understood why president Obama chose Egypt and Cairo University address last year to reach out to Muslim world.

This group is banned in Egypt since more than 50 years now.Their members fight the elections as independents and still form the largest opposition group in the country. Hence we are hearing about them so often now when protests are in full swing against the soon-to-be-ex-president Hosni Mubarak.

Now take this : They are seeing an influx of new gen youth with an active cyber life breaking the old ideology of Jehad , accommodating the liberal thoughts and often critical of their own organization. And are they against the WEST (the decades old fashion statement)?

Did we find any anti-US slogans, SHOW ME ONE in the current ongoing Egypt's pro-democracy protests? In fact twitter is filled with praise for western reporters (Anderson Copper, Sonia Verma et all) for covering the agony these people are going through. If you are a western reporter at the Liberation Square , the crowd cares for you more because they look up to you helping them to get the freedom they are longing for. The 3 western companies Google+Twitter+SayNow gave rise to new Collaboration for the Cause in form of Speak2Tweet and the other one Facebook gave them the courage to mobilize through various FB pages.

So where United States stands? The dictatorial regimes in Arab worlds are (financially) supported by them. There is a catch here. They don't support them for carrying out this dictatorship. They support them for their own military mileage , with or without democracy it doesn't matter to them. Tell me a current regime who could have been democratic had US not supported them the way it has as of now. US was never the cause for this regime effect.

Whether its Egypt or Jordan or Yemen or just any state dominated by any religion , caste and creed , these people want to be part of the economic and social development, part of globalized flat world, a better life which they were deprived of. Root of Fundamentalism comes from not getting the pie of these developments , it comes from being left out , from not moving on and changing with time. Now these new additions to the brotherhood want to be like us, yes the fortunate us. They are not jealous , they are aspirants. They are not destructive , they are collaborative. They are not aliens, they are us.

And they are coming. We should embrace and share rather than create doubts in the minds. The dangers part of these minds erupts on not being accepted and respected. Once we the fortunate ones start doing it, the world will be a better place. 

Collective Intelligence is said to be the main driver of all future innovations. The more diverse , unique we are the better the Collective groups will be. Hence we should cheer not fear from this cry of freedom from Egypt.

One problem is that protagonists of the Muslim Brotherhood and even those using it currently left and right with the pro-democracy uprising all over don't have any clue what it means now. The term has changed in front of them in their own lifetime. The New Media has done it. Slowly transforming the world we live in.

Who says the next war will be for currency , crop or crime. Let the world get rid of its ammunition , lets have more treaties to remove them all and fight it all out herein @ SecondLife . The winning nation will get what it might be (virtually) fighting for.