Digital Diplomacy Followers as Indicator of Clout: Measuring the “Al-Jazeera Effect”

The “Al-Jazeera Effect” posits that Al-Jazeera has reshaped global news flows while challenging the hegemony of Western news outlets. However, few studies to date have measured this “Effect” or offered a method for doing so. This study addressed this gap by conceptualizing news outlets’ online following as Clout and assessing Al-Jazeera’s ability to attract high-quality digital diplomacy followers on Twitter including Ministries of Foreign Affairs (MFAs) and UN Missions. Such an analysis is important as the Clout of international news outlets arises in part from their ability to impact foreign policy makers. Using a sample of 56 MFAs, and 132 UN Missions, the study analyzed Al-Jazeera’s digital diplomacy following on Twitter and compared it to that of CNN, BBC World and Reuters. Quality of digital diplomacy followers was assessed using an innovative model consisting of fifteen variables, including offline variables, online variables, and networked variables. Statistical analyses and network analyses demonstrate that Al-Jazeera attracts high-quality digital diplomacy followers, be it UN Missions of affluent states and world powers, or MFAs that are central to diplomatic networks on Twitter. The study also assessed diplomatic institutions’ engagement with Al-Jazeera Tweets, which was found to be quite low. By developing a unique model for assessing the quality of digital diplomacy followers, this study offers a method for measuring the impact of news outlets in the age of social media.