Last week, I visited the Al Jazeera English studios situated on the 16th floor of the Shard in London as part of a school trip. From this unique experience, I gained a wider knowledge into the world of journalism and the media industry whilst also learning a great deal about a news company that a number of people have a vague understanding of.
Al Jazeera English is an international state-funded 24-hour English speaking news and current affairs TV channel owned and operated by the Al Jazeera Media Network that is headquartered in Doha, Qatar. It was launched on the 15th November 2006 and has since grown rapidly broadcasting to more than 220 million households in more than 100 countries. Al Jazeera is the most watched news channel on YouTube, receiving 2.5 million views per month and has over 9 million likes on Facebook.
Despite these figures, Al Jazeera English is reasonably unfamiliar in the UK as BBC News, Sky News and ITV news can be seen to overshadow it. “Al Jazeera is one of those channels most of us never look at and don’t even know we have,” the Daily Mail writes. Before the trip, a friend of mine even told me “good luck,” believing it to be some sort of terrorist organisation! The name “Al Jazeera” can be misleading, even though it is Qatari owned and has a main focus in the Middle East, the news channel can be viewed across the world. At Al Jazeera, they dig deeper to cover subjects that, to what they say, “truly matter in people’s daily lives.”
The studio itself was quite new – the corporation had only moved into the shard 3 years prior (the shard being 95% Qatari owned too, a factor in this move) – and was furnished and supplied with state of the art equipment. We were able to see exactly what happened on a day-to-day basis inside an international news corporation by looking into the control rooms and the set, where the news is broadcasted live from 3pm, worth millions of pounds.
The Heads of Operations, Live News, Design and Documentaries held discussions with us in the conference room, explaining how it is possible for young people to get into the journalism industry and what it takes to be successful. Also talked about the variety of different work they do and how exiting and wide-ranging their work could be; “I’ve been here 10 years, and I can say from the bottom of my heart I’ve never had a boring day here,” the Head of Design said. An experienced Al Jazeera English cameraman also told me about all the work he does, travelling the world a huge part of his job.
This was a memorable experience; I was able to gain an insight into how exiting and spontaneous work in the media industry can be and that Al Jazeera is a leading news corporation who give a unique view on current affairs. Definitely worth the watch.
