Al Jazeera's new-media department: news as conversation

"Using ... latest trends to broaden and engage the audience of Al Jazeera’s Arabic and English news channels and websites is the mandate of the broadcaster’s new media department, which was established in 2006 under the leadership of Mohamed Nanabhay. ... The department tends to see news as more of a conversation than a speech, and pushes the larger organisation to make its content free as much as possible. One of its first projects was to upload full-length Al Jazeera Arabic-language programmes to YouTube – itself an innovation back when other broadcasters such as the BBC put only promos on the free video service – and then record a YouTube appeal by the show’s presenter for viewers to send in their thoughts. They received 150 videos on the first try, and aired some of the responses during the next broadcasts of the show." The National, 17 February 2009. "Al Jazeera Labs, the home of the multimedia team's experiments in beta, has allowed users to see ... developments in progress before they are turned into 'actual products', Al Jazeera head of new media, Mohamed Nanabhay, tells Journalism.co.uk. ...'We're in perpetual beta. We've had a lot of positive feedback, talking about how it is a very positive development. While it's quite rough, it's in a very useable form.'" journalism.co.uk, 16 February 2009