Al Jazeera English, BBC and CNN: Can Al Jazeera English preserve its identity when competing in a global news market?

摘要

This project has focused on answering the question, whether Al Jazeera English preserves its identity when competing in a global news market. For this purpose, Staubhaar’s theory of multi-layered identities has been chosen in order to find out what kind of identity media have. Theories about globalisation by O’Byrne and Hensby have been added in order to understand the global environment, where Al Jazeera English is competing. This has been complemented by Norris and Inglehart’s theory on cosmopolitan communications to find the link between media and globalisation. In order to find an answer for the cardinal question, a comparison between Al Jazeera English, CNN and BBC has been made in the analysis with the purpose of finding similarities and differences when reflecting their identity in their coverage. The methodology chosen has been Laclau and Mouffe´s theory on discourse analysis. The analysis has focused on three stories: Hugo Chavez’s death, the Pope’s resignation and the Israeli government’s decision to create Palestinian-only buses.