Al Jazeera sponsors film on web tracking as it looks to spread footprint
Mehta
International news channel Al Jazeera’s youth-focussed unit AJ+ is sponsoring a new interactive documentary series called Do Not Track looking at anonymity and privacy on the internet, as part of its strategy to engage new viewers across other platforms.
Speaking at SXSW overnight engagement lead at AJ+ Jigar Mehta told an audience the satirical content being created for the mobile platform by Australian Dan Ilic was in “an experimental stage” but added it is “doing quite well”.
On the documentary he told the audience during a session looking at the strategy behind the unit it is a “presenting sponsor” for the series by filmmaker Brett Gaylor, which he said would “resonate” with the platform’s audience.
It is part of a strategy to drive engagement for the brand beyond its own site, with Mehta saying it had factored in time to journalists and producers workflows to engage with the audience on other platforms to stimulate conversation around its stories.
AJ+ is also experimenting with different ways to surface its conference, getting journalists to shoot short video on iPhones and tweeting it out, or using that video to make longer form video.
Mehta said that was part of the push to show their users, who are mostly consuming through mobile, they are speaking directly to them by using the same technology.
To that end it has developed a new mobile app to surface and group content on bigger topics, to allow people to follow stories as they want to with regular updates.
Mehta added the organisation is looking to engage with more partners, from other editorial outlets to content creators as it looks to extend its reach.
Ales Hayes in Austin
