My first book, An Unlikely Audience: Al Jazeera's Struggle in America, was published in 2017 by Oxford University Press.
It is available for purchase through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other book sellers. Listen to a half-hour WNYC radio interview about the book. Watch a presentation on C-SPAN 2's BOOKTV. Highlights
Description In 2006, the Al Jazeera Media Network sought to penetrate the United
States media sphere, the world's most influential national market for
English language news. These unyielding ambitions surprised those who
knew the network as the Arab media service President Bush lambasted as
"hateful propaganda" in his 2004 State of the Union address. The world
watched skeptically yet curiously as Al Jazeera labored to establish a
presence in the famously insular American market. Table of Contents Preface Introduction Chapter 1: The Obstacles to Al Jazeera in America Chapter 2: From Media Capitals to Ports of Entry Chapter 3: In the Beltway Before the Spring: The Rise of Al Jazeera English, Except in America Chapter 4: Al Jazeera English's 'Moment' in the Media-Politics Capital, Washington, DC. Chapter 5: Al Jazeera America: The Defunct New York City Broadcast Channel Chapter 6: AJ+: Al Jazeera's Digital Start-up in San Francisco Conclusion Advance Praise for An Unlikely Audience “An Unlikely Audience makes a major contribution to global media studies. With its meticulous account of the rise and decline of Al Jazeera America, it focuses attention upon the centrality of an understanding of materiality, place and culture to transnational broadcasting, and the risks associated with overly focusing upon global technologies or cosmopolitan audiences.” —Terry Flew, Professor of Media and Communication, Queensland University of Technology “Al Jazeera has emerged in the past decade as an important player in the global news sphere. Yet despite its international profile, the network has not succeeded in the resolutely ethnocentric US television news arena. In this richly detailed and convincingly argued book, William Youmans provides the reasons for this failure. A commendable contribution to the literature on international journalism.” —Daya Thussu, Professor of International Communication, University of Westminster, London Google Books Excerpts |