This article from Lakome that I came across through the Arabist blog states that Al Jazeera viewership dropped drastically last year in Tunisia, going from 950,000 at the beginning of last year to only 200,000 in December. Newly earned freedoms in Tunisia led to the proliferation of local media outlets that outperformed the pan-Arab network last year.
While Arab nationalism is a long-spent force, Al Jazeera evoked common sentiments across the Arab world, re-creating the common public sphere and focusing on the key Arab concerns, the primary of which is Palestine. Does this drop (which according to the study occurred in all "Arab Spring" countries) signal that the Arab Spring threw into sharper relief the territorial nation-state nationalism that is oft-construed as an anathema to Arabism? Some scholars spoke of the resurrection of Arab nationalism in light of the Arab Spring, but in terms of the media preferences, viewers seem to be reverting to their national venues.
The study highlighted, however, that one of the reasons behind this drop is Al Jazeera's perceived bias in covering Syria.
In their turn, local Tunisian channels became more politicized.
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