NEWS MEDIA
Written By Skyler
Editor of Mychiller
On , August 20, 2013 Al Jazeera America launched replacing Current TV. So now we have reached one year since launch and how is it doing?
Well ratings wise, not to well there could be an assortment of reasons . 1) Cable : This reason has two, on many cable systems ,including mine , it's on a higher channel , while Fox News , MSNBC, and CNN are right to next other AJAM is out there. HD rights , it's not available in HD on many cable systems unlike , FOX News , MSNBC, and CNN. Many HD viewers may want to watch but be not wanting too. 2) The Name: The hard thing this channel has it's name . I don't hold it's name against it I mean most names on American cable tv don't mean anything , look at History Channel , where's the History? Or Discovery , what I am to discover ? Or BBC America, not much BBC to the Americans there. But many people in America do because of it's foreign sounding name and logo and maybe to an extant it's ownership , the ruling family of the Qatari government. The company has stated they aren't thinking of changing the name ,because Al Jazeera is the name of the company and the channel is part of the company. Which makes sense , BBC World News is owned by the BBC (BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC) and the BBC News name is a respected trusted news organization so why change the name?
I am kind of glad they didn't just plop Al Jazerra English and say "here you go" , they do simulcast AJE at points of the day. AJAM's US based newscasts cover alot of international stories and stories here in US. Unlike MSNBC , which most of it's programming weekdays are opinion programming , and Fox News Channel , which has alot of opinion programming, they don't that you won't see (insert liberal /conservative here) hosting a prime time show on the channel . Instead you get a 8PMET / 5PM PT News cast anchored by former NBC News anchor , John Seigenthaler. Yes, a full hour of news from around the world and the US. Not a program telling me why I should hate republicans or democrats or CNN squeezing some random story out any juice they can get. At 9PMET/6PT you get a news magazine show "America Tonight" that gives interesting stories not constantly focusing on crime like the network news magazine shows , 60 Minutes not in that group of crime laden shows. At 10PM/7pt you get a conversation and current affairs show , "Consider This", which sometimes has some interesting topics. At 11PM/8pt they give another live newscast anchored by Seigenthaler , because we have a west-coast time zone . The reason why I said I am glad they didn't just plop AJE in and try to give some American news programming , as well is because it is kind of lacking. We have a confused CNN , MSNBC, which has lot of opinion programming ,especially between 2PMET until 5AMET. Fox News has a mix . I am a person who watches all the news channels , just not all day (that would be crazy). Do find that Al Jazeera America's un-flashiness , not having the word breaking news on all day for no reason , or telling me why insert celeb here has been arrested, married, having a baby,moved to somewhere ,said/did something stupid...etc. a nice chance of pace. It's a style that I l like about "CBS Evening News" (when I do watch an evening newscast) and a reason why I don't watch "ABC World News".
As it hits one year it has not changed much even though low ratings, which I say is good thing I would hate that it jumped around got crazy and started copying other channels ideas or programming. I am also glad we have more news channels on our systems like AJAM , BBC World News, One America News , and some have France 24 and I24.
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