Channel Critic Historically, the idea of a newspaper critic or the people’s advocate emerged in the nineteenth century (1) . The reason this idea circulated in the United States was the choice of newspapers to “enact the principles of media self-criticism by appointing a person who notifies them of mistakes and enlightens them about their responsibilities without wait- ing for others (such as the government or public) to do this, and this self-criticism would increase its credibility” (2) . According to the New York Times, the characteristics that must also be present in this critic are that, “he should be a noble man who has amazing natural talents, a liberal upbringing, unquestionable morals, good taste, and herculean strength so he can handle reading everything. He should also be diligent with a strong analytical ability, as well as consistently exercise the right judgment, and be familiar with any topic he reviews” (3) . This concept culminated in a new role in media, “the quality ex- pert”, who is not an external editor, but rather a journalist from within the organisation specialising in monitoring quality and following up on its implementation. At Al Jazeera, this person is responsible for pre- serving professional systems that produce content and broadcast it on all its platforms, so that they are responsive to the network’s standards linguistically, visually and professionally as well as to codes of conduct and the network’s humanitarian alignment, and constantly monitor the network’s commitment to its promises. The “channel’s critic” to Al Jazeera is closer to the model customer who combines the viewer’s spirit with the journalist’s mind, resulting in the role of designing and maintaining quality. The most important thing they are entrusted with, on a daily basis, is the presentation of alerts at varying speeds to the network’s policymakers and employees
(1) “Newspaper Criticism”, New York Times , 9 January 1856: https://www.nytimes.com/1856/01/09/archives/newspaper-criticism.html (accessed 20 Febru- ary 2021), p. 4.
(2) Muhammad Hussam al-Deen, Social Responsibility towards Media (Cairo: al-Dar al-Mas- riah al-Lubnaniah, 2003), p. 76.
(3) “Newspaper Criticism”, Ibid.
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