By IANS
London : There has been a recent spurt in non-British English language TV channels beaming into Britain, leading to a debate on their very purpose.
Apart from some popular Indian and US news channels, Britain has seen the launch over the past year or so of Al Jazeera English, Press TV of Iran, CCTV9 of China, France 24 and Russia Today.
What do they aim to achieve? What is their audience? These were some of the questions debated Thursday by media professionals and academics at a workshop on ‘Transnational TV News and Media Diplomacy: Al Jazeera English in Context’.
Anchored by Marie Gillespie of the Open University and Ben O’Loughlin of the University of London, the workshop concluded that:
— They were vehicles for public and cultural diplomacy, or soft power, in world politics. They allowed nations to project their policies and interpretations of events in the global media.
— They targeted diasporic audiences. While first generation migrants remain attached to their country of origin through satellite television, often in their mother tongue, English channels are needed to reach out to the second and third generations and create a sense of diasporic nationhood.
— They were a tool to challenge or question, in whatever limited way, the foreign policy and development goals of the West.
Questions were also raised about the independence of such channels.
“Given that many of these English-language media channels are being funded by governments, we should be asking what these channels are for?” said O’Loughlin.
“Are they simply to attract audiences, or do governments expect to influence international affairs through TV stations? Given that France, Russia, Iran and China have all recently launched English-language TV stations, does this mean countries only feel they count as a ‘power’ if they have a voice alongside the BBC and CNN in the emerging ‘Anglosphere’?”
Other speakers included Mohammed El-Nawawy of Queens University and Shawn Powers of the University of Southern California who are studying the impact of Al-Jazeera English in five countries, and ask whether it can have peace-making effects in world politics.
“Is this all part of a shift towards new forms of ‘soft’ power, using less obvious forms of propaganda than, say, the American Arabic channel Al-Hurra?” asked O’Loughlin.
“Our research shows audiences are often alert to attempts by governments to manage news agendas, and it is very easy for stations to lose credibility if they are seen as too close to political patrons.
“It will also be interesting to see whether Al-Jazeera English and other media decide to conduct audience surveys to assess if these channels have any impact in different countries.”