After 9/11, there was an increase in both the incidence of hate crimes and government policies that targeted Arabs and Muslims and the proliferation of sympathetic portrayals of Arabs and Muslims in the U.S. media. Arabs and Muslims in the Media examines this paradox and investigates the increase of sympathetic images of “the enemy” during the War on Terror. Evelyn Alsultany explains that a new standard in racial and cultural representations emerged out of the multicultural movement of the 1990s that involves balancing a negative representation with a positive one, what she refers to as “simplified complex representations.” This has meant that if the storyline of a TV drama or film represents an Arab or Muslim as a terrorist, then the storyline also includes a “positive” representation of an Arab, Muslim, Arab American, or Muslim American to offset the potential stereotype. Analyzing how TV dramas such as The Practice, 24, Law and Order, NYPD Blue, and Sleeper Cell, news-reporting, and non-profit advertising have represented Arabs, Muslims, Arab Americans, and Muslim Americans during the War on Terror, this book demonstrates how more diverse representations do not in themselves solve the problem of racial stereotyping and how even seemingly positive images can produce meanings that can justify exclusion and inequality.

After 9/11, there was an increase in both the incidence of hate crimes and government policies that targeted Arabs and Muslims and the proliferation of sympathetic portrayals of Arabs and Muslims in the U.S. media. Arabs and Muslims in the Media examines this paradox and investigates the increase of sympathetic images of “the enemy” during the War on Terror. Evelyn Alsultany explains that a new standard in racial and cultural representations emerged out of the multicultural movement of the 1990s that involves balancing a negative representation with a positive one, what she refers to as “simplified complex representations.” This has meant that if the storyline of a TV drama or film represents an Arab or Muslim as a terrorist, then the storyline also includes a “positive” representation of an Arab, Muslim, Arab American, or Muslim American to offset the potential stereotype. Analyzing how TV dramas such as The Practice, 24, Law and Order, NYPD Blue, and Sleeper Cell, news-reporting, and non-profit advertising have represented Arabs, Muslims, Arab Americans, and Muslim Americans during the War on Terror, this book demonstrates how more diverse representations do not in themselves solve the problem of racial stereotyping and how even seemingly positive images can produce meanings that can justify exclusion and inequality.

Media depictions of Arabs and Muslims continue to be framed by images of camels, belly dancers, and dagger-wearing terrorists. But do only Hollywood movies and TV news have the power to frame public discourse? This interdisciplinary study transfers media framing theory to literary studies to show how life writing (re-)frames Orientalist stereotypes. The innovative analysis of the post-9/11 autobiographies »West of Kabul, East of New York«, »Letters from Cairo«, and »Howling in Mesopotamia« makes a powerful claim to approach literature based on a theory of production and reception, thus enhancing the multi-disciplinary potential of framing theory.

After September 11, many in the American public and media zeroed in on Muslims in America and the world, irresponsibly linking_intentionally or not_Muslims at large with terrorism. This well-researched book explores this focus and its implications. At the same time, the authors do not leave out the opinion of Muslim Americans, exploring their views about the American media and its influence, their attitudes toward non-Muslim Americans and, just as important, their opinions on postD9/11 U.S. counterterrorist policies and practices. This book not only serves students and scholars in the fields of Middle East studies, media studies, and international communication but is also an enlightening read to anyone interested in mainstream America's perception of Muslims.

A groundbreaking book that dissects a slanderous history dating from cinema’s earliest days to contemporary Hollywood blockbusters that feature machine-gun wielding and bomb-blowing "evil" Arabs Award-winning film authority Jack G. Shaheen, noting that only Native Americans have been more relentlessly smeared on the silver screen, painstakingly makes his case that "Arab" has remained Hollywood’s shameless shorthand for "bad guy," long after the movie industry has shifted its portrayal of other minority groups. In this comprehensive study of over one thousand films, arranged alphabetically in such chapters as "Villains," "Sheikhs," "Cameos," and "Cliffhangers," Shaheen documents the tendency to portray Muslim Arabs as Public Enemy #1—brutal, heartless, uncivilized Others bent on terrorizing civilized Westerners. Shaheen examines how and why such a stereotype has grown and spread in the film industry and what may be done to change Hollywood’s defamation of Arabs.

The Media can problematize, marginalize, exclude or sterotype social groups. This is often done by writing or speaking negatively about other social groups through text or talk. The purpose of this study is to linguistically examine the creation of a stereotyped image of Muslims through priming and framing in the media. Hence, this study explores if a stereotyped image of Muslims was identified in Dutch and British mainstream newspapers –De Volkskrant, Trouw, NRC, De Telegraaf, The Guardian, The Daily Mirror, The Daily Telegraph and the Sun– in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on Theo van Gogh in 2004, the 7/7 attacks in 2005 and the Charlie Hebdo attack 2015. In this way, this study is primarily occupied with; (1) if a stereotyped image of Muslims is created through language; (2) the agenda setting of Muslims; (3) the language used by journalists to describe Muslims in response to terrorist attacks at home or abroad. The analysis of language in the newspapers is conducted from a critical discourse analysis perspective and is done for both countries separately. The analysis of Dutch newspapers provides more evidence of stereotyped frames compared to the UK but there is not enough evidence to claim that any of the eight newspapers created a stereotyped image of Muslims in the aftermath of the studied terrorist attacks. Includes: - Priming Theory; - Agenda Setting Theory; - Framing Theory; - Critical Discourse Analytics; - Priming of Muslims in Newspapers; - Framing of Muslims in Newspapers

Perceptions of the Middle East in conflicting discourses from North America, South America, and Europe

In this classic work, the author of Culture and Imperialism reveals the hidden agendas and distortions of fact that underlie even the most "objective" coverage of the Islamic world. "No one stuyding the relations between the West and the decolonizing world can ignore Mr. Said's work." --The New York Times Book Review From the Iranian hostage crisis through the Gulf War and the bombing of the World Trade Center, the American news media have portrayed "Islam" as a monolithic entity, synonymous with terrorism and religious hysteria. At the same time, Islamic countries use "Islam" to justify unrepresentative and often repressive regimes. Combining political commentary with literary criticism, Covering Islam continues Edward Said's lifelong investigation of the ways in which language not only describes but also defines political reality.

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2013 im Fachbereich Amerikanistik - Literatur, , Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: America is undoubtedly one of the biggest players in international politics and foreign affairs. Its military involvement in the Fight for Freedom in Iraq and Afghanistan has cost America much international reputation though. In a poll, conducted by The BBC in 2007, America was ranked fourth in the list of the most unpopular countries in the world, with worldviews continuing to worsen. Only Israel, Iran and North Korea turned out to have an even worse reputation in the public eye. But how come? America has always pictured itself as the pioneer of freedom, the beacon of human rights and the figurehead of righteousness and humanity in the fight against al-Qaida. However, this freedom and the human rights that America proclaims to stand for have slowly been falling apart since 9/11. The image of the American dream or the city upon a hill is crumbling under the weight of America’s foreign policies, post-9/11 law enforcement and public scaremongering of people perceived Arab. These circumstances raise a significant question: Where does America’s fear and hatred toward Islam (Islamophobia) come from? As a matter of fact, after 9/11, America faced an increasing trend towards Islamophobia and otherization of Muslim and Arab American, which is still ongoing. Statics show that in the months following 9/11 hate crimes against Muslims and people perceived to be Arab increased to 40 times their pre-9/11 number. Public and workplace discrimination against Muslims had already quadrupled a year after 9/11. The scaremongering of Arabs as the “terrorist among us” was also greatly fueled by media representations and new laws, such as the USA PATRIOT ACT that legalized interventions with civil law of alleged Arabs and Arab-Americans and thus legitimized public racism. The fear of Islam led to discrimination, otherization a random detentions and deportations of many Arabs and Muslims. This public hysteria, fueled by propagandist media representation, increased the already pre-existing negative stereotypes of Arabs and Muslims.