War, Media and Public Opinion; Al-Jazeera\u27s Role in the Recent Arab Israeli Conflicts

The second Palestinian intifada and the way it was covered by the various media outlets caused a revolution in media coverage in the Arab World. Al-Jazeera TV channel emerged and gathered audiences, and regularly tuned in to catch the latest news and updates, reminding people of CNN during the Gulf War. However, no studies were conducted, that measured the impact of this channel on audiences and how it did or did not create a common public opinion among them. This study\u27s purpose is to testing the relationship between Media, War, and Public Opinion. In other words, it studies the impact of Pan­Arab Satellite channels, namely Al-Jazeera satellite channel, in the recent Arab-Israeli conflict. How this channel helped or caused, one way or another, in the creation of public opinion. There hasn\u27t been much research conducted in this field. Going through the historical phases of media in the Arab world, and how this area of the world was affected by the communication revolution. How the programming style changed, therefore how the impact varied. Basically, the theoretical framework of this study relies on the Frame theory that aims to explain people\u27s behaviors and how things fall into people\u27s interest and how they would be interested, thus what creates public opinion. The research aimed at discovering what teenagers and youths, between the ages of 15 and 26, felt when they watched coverage of the second intifada on various Arabic channels. More importantly, if they thought that the coverage by Al-Jazeera caused the demonstrations that broke out on the streets of Cairo and other Arab cities. From the research, it was found out that many people appreciated the coverage that was done by the various Arab TV satellite channels, especially Al-Jazeera. However, it was almost unanimous that it was the TV coverage that caused the anger that was considered one of the reasons for the demonstrations that took place