International Journal of Crisis Communication, 2018, 2, 21-31 21 E-ISSN: 2617-121X/18 © 2018 Green Publishers In the Heart of the Storm: How Al Jazeera is Contributing to Changing the Gulf and the World Haydar Badawi Sadig * Department of Mass Communication, Qatar University, P.O. Box 2713, Doha, Qatar Abstract: This paper is based on the central thesis that Al Jazeera is the core of the current Gulf crisis, not terrorism or any other issue of concern to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Bahrain and Egypt. The regimes of these countries seem to have realized that public awareness, through socially responsible media enterprises, such as Al Jazeera, will change the political dynamics in the region (to the detriment of the ruling elites). The paper will trace back the impact of Al Jazeera during the Arab Spring in brief. Subsequently, it will discuss the socio- economic conditions that preceded Al Jazeera’s contribution to the Arab Spring. It will then discuss the role of Al Jazeera in showing and magnifying news stories untouched by any Arab media prior to the advent of this medium. Al Jazeera claims to be “the voice of the voiceless!” While Al Jazeera doesn’t give voice to “all” the voiceless, we believe this claim to be largely true, as it was clearly proven during the Arab Spring. Al Jazeera has been a powerful voice to many of the voiceless and a platform for transformative change. It has reported on the socio-economic miseries of Tunisians and helped spark the revolution in Tunisia after Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in protest. Al Jazeera has been doing the same about Egypt as its socio-political crises deepens. It has been reporting about the economic miseries of the Egyptians, which earned the ire of the regime in Cairo. Hence the behind the scenes role of Egypt in orchestrating the current Gulf crisis. (A quick discourse analysis of Al Sisi’s address during the American Islamic summit in Riyadh of late makes it clear that Qatar was its main target. And, Al Jazeera is the main target within this target.) The paper will also discuss, in brief, the broader impact of Al Jazeera on reconstructing not only the Gulf and regional political dynamics, but also its impact on redefining global communication ethics. The paper will use discourse and framing analyses of Al Jazeera content to prove its main thesis. Keywords: Al Jazeera, Arab Gulf, Qatar Blockade, Arab Spring, Networked Journalism, Public Diplomacy. The increased number of privatized channels and social media sites within the globalization phenomenon led to the enhancement of the Arab public sphere. Technological developments enabled the Arab public to access satellite channels and to create a forum where the exchange of information and news included raising queries and challenges to the totalitarian nature of the Arab regimes. The Arab virtual sphere emboldened the citizens to cooperate and unify their voices as a reaction against the malpractices of their governments. Al Jazeera is a valid representation of how powerful satellite networks can be in times of crisis. The benefits of continuously acquiring new technologies consist in the decentralization of the informational flow and semi- independence from domestic political constraints. These features portray Al Jazeera as a counterhegemonic force in the region, which acts as a promoter of sociopolitical changes through its in-depth interrogation of the social and political discourses in the Arab world [1]. During the Arab Spring, Al Jazeera fostered democracy via screening news of the protests and the social demands of the protesters. At the end of 2010, when the protests started to spread across the region, Al Jazeera emphasized the interconnection of *Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Mass Communication, Qatar University, P.O. Box 2713, Doha, Qatar; Tel: +974-4403-4869; E-mail: haydar@qu.edu.qa the Arab streets, the movements and the logos of the groups, airing videos on governmental cruelty in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt, and oppositional opinions [2]. Moreover, protesters challenged the authorities by promoting a critical dialogue on social media outlets (Facebook, Twitter) and developing a virtual community that shared the goal to make their leaders accountable. Al Jazeera introduced a new way of approaching the relationship between media frames and political powers, favoring the dissemination of information critical of authorities and triggering cultural, social and political transformations in the Arab region [3]. The channel operates in a manner that goes beyond the Arab media conventions, impacting not only the media environment, but also the process of conducting the regional and international affairs of the Arab states [4]. The emergence of new media technologies coincided with the emergence of a new Arab political environment defined by the leaderships of new young Arab rulers that took the power from the hands of their fathers: King Abdullah in Jordan, King Mohammed IV in Morocco, President Bashar Al Assad in Syria, and Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani in Qatar. Hence, the impact of transformations in information and communication technologies was compounded by political changes in the Arab world. In the case of Qatar, a small Gulf country less prominent on the global political scene, Al Jazeera