DOHA, Qatar — American viewership of Al-Jazeera English rose dramatically during the Israel-Hamas war, partly because the channel had what CNN and other international networks didn’t have: reporters inside Gaza.
But the viewers weren’t watching it on television, where the Arab network’s English-language station has almost no U.S. presence.
Instead, the station streamed video of Israel’s offensive against Hamas on the Internet and took advantage of emerging online media such as the microblogging website Twitter to provide real-time updates.
During the 22-day conflict, the station and its Arabic language sister, as they often do, aired far more graphic pictures than U.S. networks of dead and injured Palestinian children and women.
The images, viewed widely across the Mideast, generated enormous sympathy for Gazans in the Muslim world.
“Gaza . . . was a breakthrough opportunity to make an impact with people who are less aware of Al-Jazeera than we’d like,” said Tony Burman, managing director of the English-language channel in Qatar.
