A voice for the voiceless? A quantitative content analysis of Al-Jazeera English's flagship news

Al-Jazeera English is the first English-language satellite news channel broadcasting globally from the Middle East. The channel aims to redress the balance of news flows, and the present article presents a comprehensive, quantitative content analysis of the channel's news. The article finds that the channel airs more news items from and about the global South than the global North, and that the South is covered in more in-depth news formats, with more correspondents on the ground. Furthermore, it documents that male, independent elites are the most frequent and authoritative news sources on Al-Jazeera English. The article concludes that the channel represents a potential contra-flow of English-language satellite news, through its explicit Southern agenda, but that it continues the political bias and elite orientation characteristic of mainstream international news.