Day 33: First Day in Doha and Trip to Al Jazeera

Today was our first day in Doha. I think that what our group felt upon stepping foot in Qatar was something akin to what people in most other countries feel when they first visit the U.S.—some sort of wonder and awe at the grandeur of the place and the display of its wealth. From what we’ve seen so far, Doha is like a conglomeration of the wealthiest parts of America, with none of the poverty (visible to the public at least).

Qatar, like many other Gulf States, has experienced an exponential boom in wealth and construction over the past few decades due to its rich natural resources. I think Wikipedia even called Qatar the “Saudi Arabia of natural gas,” alluding to its huge stake in trade of this commodity. The hotel we are staying in is the most upscale hotel I have ever stayed at in my life, and it is not unique—downtown Doha is basically a sea of dozens of five-star hotels towering 20 or 30 stories over the streets, overlooking the water.

Everything here is kind of surreal and next to every towering resort complex lies a plot of land under construction for another massive tower. Our hotel has 26 floors, a fitness center, 3 restaurants, a pool on the top floor, spa/salon, and a wide variety of other services available (for an astronomical fee, of course). The mall is a ten minute walk from our hotel, and has five floors, hundreds of luxury stores, a “hypermarket” (as opposed to a smaller “supermarket”), and an ice rink in the center. This is definitely a contrast from Cairo. Instead of walking outside of our hotel and being asked for money by beggars, we are asked if we would like someone to carry our bags or any other service to make our day more convenient. It will be interesting to see how the rest of this trip plays out, and whether my bank account will have any money left when I return to the U.S.

On a more academic note, today we also made our most important visit of our trip to Qatar: a tour of Al Jazeera networks. We met with several of the people who head production, public relations, international affairs, and other departments of the huge network, and got tours of the newsrooms and an in-depth history lesson on the origins of Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera is truly a unique creature. It is one of the newest major media sources in the world, as Al Jazeera Arabic was started in 1996 and Al Jazeera English just created in 2006. The network is almost fully funded by the Qatari royal family, which theoretically frees it from many of the “commercial constraints” on networks such as ABC and BBC by the companies that sponsor them. This was very interesting to learn about because not relying on advertisement and other forms of generating revenue is a huge help in producing a balanced voice and avoiding the media bias found in many other media conglomerates.

Of course, it could be (and has been) argued that Al Jazeera’s reliance on the Qatari government for funding creates an inherent bias, but everyone we met with today made it very clear that Al Jazeera was free from any sort of censorship, direct or indirect. This was an extremely interesting point of view to hear, as what we have heard about Al Jazeera in the West now seems to be anti-Middle Eastern propaganda perpetuated by the Bush Administration and the major corporations that own American media groups.

This visit brought our trip full circle for me, as one of the things I really wanted to see for myself was whether Middle Eastern media was as biased as Western media portrays it to be. From what I gather, there are upsides and downsides of any media source, but what is most important is that the reader is aware of this and keeps an open mind to what other information is out there. I know that now I feel better informed about choosing what I read wisely, and hopefully I can now share this knowledge with people back home.

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