Al Jazeera News Rss Scraper

Al Jazeera News RSS Scraper — Collect Recent Headlines, Summaries, and News Metadata

Overview

Al Jazeera News RSS Scraper collects publicly available news headlines and organizes them into structured dataset records. Each record can include the story headline, original article link, short summary, categories, publication date, unique story identifier, and collection timestamp.

Designed for news monitoring, keyword research, and headline analysis, the scraper supports JSON, CSV, and Excel exports for further analysis and reporting.

Features

• Headline collection: Collect recent stories from the supported Al Jazeera all-news feed.
• Keyword filtering: Filter stories by keywords found in headlines and short summaries.
• Metadata extraction: Collect article links, publication dates, categories, and unique identifiers.
• Plain-text conversion: Remove HTML formatting from headlines and summaries.
• Summary handling: Truncate long summaries and preserve missing descriptions as null values.
• Duplicate detection: Use unique story identifiers to identify duplicate records.
• Structured exports: Export collected news records to JSON, CSV, or Excel.
• Metadata-focused collection: Collect headlines and short summaries without storing full article bodies.

Use Cases

News Monitoring

Track recent Al Jazeera headlines across scheduled collection runs to follow developing stories and current events.

Keyword Tracking

Find stories mentioning specific topics, events, organizations, or search terms.

News Research

Organize headlines, summaries, categories, and publication dates for reference and research.

Content Analysis

Review headline trends and topic coverage over time to support news analysis.

Spreadsheet Reporting

Export structured news data for filtering, sorting, reviewing, and reporting.

Research Dataset Building

Maintain a collection of news metadata across repeated runs, using story identifiers to help identify previously collected items.

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
feedUrls	Array	Official all-news feed	Feed location to process. Only the verified official feed is supported.
keyword	String	Empty	Optional keyword filter applied to headlines and short summaries.
maxItems	Integer	100	Maximum number of headline records to collect, from 1 to 1,000.
timeoutSecs	Integer	300	Maximum run duration in seconds.
requestTimeoutSecs	Integer	30	Maximum wait time for an individual feed request, in seconds.

Example Input

This configuration collects up to 100 stories matching the keyword election.

{
  "feedUrls": [
    "AL_JAZEERA_FEED_URL"
  ],
  "keyword": "election",
  "maxItems": 100,
  "timeoutSecs": 300,
  "requestTimeoutSecs": 30
}

Only the verified official all-news feed is supported.

Extracted Data

Each successfully collected story is stored as a structured dataset record.

Field	Type	Description
link	String	Link to the original news story.
headline	String	Story headline converted to plain text, with HTML removed.
summary	String or Null	Short story summary converted to plain text and truncated when necessary. Null when no description is available.
pubDate	String or Null	Publication date provided by the feed, or null when unavailable.
categories	Array	Category labels associated with the story.
guid	String	Unique story identifier supplied by the feed, falling back to the story link when unavailable. Used for deduplication.
scrapedAt	String	UTC timestamp indicating when the record was saved.

Example Output

{
  "link": "ARTICLE_URL",
  "headline": "Example Al Jazeera news headline",
  "summary": "A short summary of the story.",
  "pubDate": "Sun, 11 Oct 2026 20:57:48 +0000",
  "categories": [
    "News"
  ],
  "guid": "STORY_UNIQUE_IDENTIFIER",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-12T00:00:00+00:00"
}

The example illustrates the output structure. Actual records depend on the stories available in the feed and the configured keyword filter.

Working with Your Dataset

Choose an export format according to your workflow:

• JSON: Suitable for structured data processing and application workflows.
• CSV: Convenient for spreadsheet analysis, filtering, and sorting.
• Excel: Useful for reporting, reviewing story metadata, and sharing research with a team.

For ongoing news monitoring, schedule regular runs and retain your collected records. Use guid to help identify stories encountered in previous runs.

Important Notes

• Only the verified official Al Jazeera all-news feed is supported.
• Keyword filtering applies to headlines and short summaries.
• Some fields, including summaries, publication dates, and categories, may be unavailable for individual stories.
• The scraper collects headlines and short summaries rather than complete article text.
• The feed provides recent items rather than a complete historical archive. Maintaining your own dataset across scheduled runs helps preserve records over time.

FAQ

Can I collect stories from multiple feeds?

The actor supports only the verified official Al Jazeera all-news feed.

Can I filter stories by keyword?

Yes. Set keyword to the term you want to find in headlines and short summaries. Leave it empty to collect stories without a keyword filter.

How many stories can one run collect?

The default limit is 100 records. You can increase maxItems to a maximum of 1,000.

Does the scraper collect full news articles?

No. It collects headlines, short summaries, and available story metadata rather than complete article bodies.

Why might a summary or publication date be null?

Some feed items may not include a description or publication date. The corresponding field is preserved as null when that information is unavailable.

How can I maintain a news archive over time?

Schedule regular runs and save each collection to your own dataset. The feed generally contains recent items rather than a complete historical archive, so retaining records helps build a longer-term collection.

What export formats are supported?

You can export the dataset as JSON, CSV, or Excel.

Disclaimer

This Actor is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or otherwise officially associated with Al Jazeera or its owners. Users are responsible for complying with applicable source terms and collection restrictions.

Is Web Scraping Legal?

Collecting information that is already public is generally legal. Scraping is not the same thing as hacking, and there is no single law that bans it. The limits are the usual ones: do not break into accounts, do not take private or confidential data, and be careful with personal data and copyrighted works. A site's terms can also restrict how you access it. Facts such as a public name, price, or rating are not the same thing as republishing someone's article or photo.

This actor collects information from public pages. It does not log in and it does not bypass access controls.

For a longer explanation, see Apify's article Is web scraping legal?.