My humble appeal

As I said in my first blog entry, the concern about how different subgroups within a society are treated has been growing in me steadily for some time now. Given that people are often treated according to the opinion others have of them, it is important to look at how this opinion is formed. I am not discovering America when I say we (at least in the "Western" world) live in the age of media, influence of which on our worldview has been well documented (Harris 28). Although it needs to be said we are not helpless victims of some kind of media propaganda - there are other factors that play a role in our socialization and worldview formation - the impact of the way media portray different groups within the society must not be underestimated. Hence the subject of my blog.

Since 2001, the year when I started to pay a closer attention to the media's obsession with the Muslim world, a lot has changed in this regard. The stories depicting Muslims as lunatic religious fundamentalist willing to blow themselves (and those around them) up in the name of their God seem to be appearing less frequently now than they did shortly after the attacks of 9/11. Yet, according to many analyses of U.S. media, Arabs (and by association Muslims) are still among the groups portrayed most derogatorily (Harris 76).

The purpose of my blog is not to analyze the individual stories where members of Islam appear in one role or another. Nor is it to develop theories about the possible agendas of the various media outlets who run these stories. What I am hoping to accomplish with this blog is to spark a discussion on this topic, to prompt the visitors of my website to perhaps think about the topic differently, to open their eyes and minds more widely to what they hear, see, and read in the media about Muslims and the Islamic faith in general, and to process this information more critically.

There is one more point I would like to make: by no means do I advocate a sheltering of any group from negative media coverage. In fact, I regard it as a natural product of the concept of free speech and by extension, free press. The answer to the problem of a more or less biased media content and delivery, which I call for in this blog, is an increase in public's media literacy. Blogs like this one can help to expose a certain issue that otherwise could go unnoticed or largely ignored by vast segments of the media audiences. Next step is then to for the audiences, that is for us, to assume a more active approach to the way we collect and interpret media messages. This entails not relying on a single source or a few sources, but multiple diverse sources of information, followed by a critical processing thereof. A passive consumption of carefully cooked up stories that are served to us by the media will not do if we do not want to fall prey to framing and/or other media devices affecting public opinion.

The question of media portrayal of Muslims is no different. On these pages you will keep finding links to relevant stories as they appear in various media outlets, most of the time supplemented with my comments. I too am not fully objective, nor do I claim to be. I intend this blog to be a little watchdog, a watchpuppy of mostly the mainstream media; a source against which you can compare your own observations about the topic. With that I conclude my today's entry, and am off to watch some news. See you soon!

Source:
Harris, Richard Jackson. A Cognitive Psychology of Mass Communication. Mahwah, N.J.:
     L. Erlbaum Associates, 2004. Print.

A Few Useful Websites

Ok, so today may be a good day to share with you the names of some of the websites I have been visiting. Those that are relevant to the subject of this blog, that is ;-) Obviously, there are numerous sites where one can find related information, but I want to link you to three of them today (I will likely "send" you to more sites later, in my future postings). Here they are, along with short descriptions:

http://www.cair.com/Home.aspx

The full name, Council on American-Islamic Relations, says a lot. This is an informational, educational website on the subject of Islam in general, while focusing on the US-Islamic relations. It contains many useful news links, articles, press releases, initiatives - all dealing with the issue of Islam, life of Muslims in the US, their image in the media, and the like.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/

I really enjoy this one. It is basically an opinion website started by a journalist and an author of many books on Islam and related problematic, Robert Spencer. He often poses a question, writes a few lines about it, and then lets the public react to it. And that is in my view the most enriching aspect of his website. The comments to his postings come from people of diverse religions, ethnicities, races, nationalities, socio-economic standing,... it makes the Jihad Watch a very lively and often turbulent place!

http://www.mediaandislam.com/

This is a Muslim Media Activists-run website. Also rather interactive, with a number of neat features, such as a collection of subject-related blogs, invitations to current events, book and film  reviews, news articles, and much more - all concerning the issue of Muslims and the media.This site is both educational AND practically oriented, which I believe is its greates asset.

Well, I hope you will find the above websites interesting, inspiring, useful... whatever use you decide to put them to, I hope they'll help. ("Uses and Gratifications Theory" hint to earn me a few brownie points with Mr. Nesbitt ;-)

Muslims in the Media

Time to Make this Personal

Today I thought I would make the subject of my blog a bit more personal by introducing to you Shamsa Mangalji, a Muslim student of the Columbia University, NY, USA. If you are not a Muslim yourself (as I am not either), it is probably hard for you to imagine what the followers of Islam may feel when exposed to the media image of their religion. How can they possibly feel when they see their kin portrayed in the media as terrorists, or more or less violent extremists in the better case?

Shamsa's moving, but also informative and enlightening article she wrote for a student newspaper The Rice Tresher, provides a few insights into the issue:

http://media.www.ricethresher.org/media/storage/paper1290/news/2010/01/29/Opinion/National.Media.Distorts.Image.Of.Muslims-3860320.shtml?reffeature=recentlycommentedstoriestab#cp_article_tools

Here are some of Shamsa's own words that in my judgement capture the essence of her column:

"I feel outraged at these terrorists' disgusting perversion of my Islamic faith. I am ashamed to see the way my faith is being portrayed in mainstream media, and I think the world needs to understand the real meaning of Islam, a word derived from the Arabic concept of 'salaam,' or peace..." (Mangalji).

I don't know about you, but when I read Shamsa's words, I feel her frustration and dispair, but also determination to change the very situation that causes so much pain to her and her fellow Muslims. In fact, this blog is my contribution, my way to try to help Shamsa and others in their fight.

Source:
Mangalji, Shamsa. "National Media Distorts Image of Muslims." The Rice Thresher. College Publisher,

     MTV Networks, 9 Apr. 2010. Web. 15 Apr. 2010. <http://media.www.ricethresher.org/media/storage/paper1290/news/2010/01/29/Opinion/National.Media.Distorts.Image.Of.Muslims-3860320.shtml?reffeature=recentlycommentedstoriestab#cp_article_tools>.

Islamic Terrorism as a part of TV Entertainment

For those of you who do not know Jack Bauer (FOX channel people would not be happy with you), he is the main character in the show series "24". What makes Jack so awesome is his ability to hunt down, interrogate (read: torture), and then punish (whatever that might entail) terrorists. Terrorists who endanger the United States and/or its representatives. Terrorists, who unfortunately, but not surprisingly, often are of Arabic origin and Muslim faith. These two characteristics, btw, are used interchangeably  in this show. If you don't see the problem with that, here is an illustratory equation, in a form Prof. Nurullah used it in his thorough analysis of "24" and its potential impacts on the viewers:

 Muslims = Arabs = fundamentalists = terrorists = Muslims (Nurullah 1044)

For specific numbers, examples from the episodes, and other data cited by Prof. Nurullah, please follow this link to his article:

http://www.insanbilimleri.com/ojs/index.php/uib/article/view/815/530

I wonder how many Christians would like an equation based on a somewhat similar logic:

Euroamericans = Christians = Catholics = pedophiles = Euroamericans

Sounds not fair, twisted, ignorant? Yeah...

Besides the portrayal of many of the show's villains as Muslims and/or Arabs, the timing of the show's launching was also detrimental to the image of Muslims, especially in the US society: the show first went on air shortly after the attacks of 9/11 (Nurullah 1042). Speaking of the audiences' susceptibility to any Muslim-related messages, let alone the negative ones...

Some of you may think that a show is just a show - after all, it is fiction, and as such people understand it, distinguishing it from reality. While some highly media literate viewers probably do draw this distinction, I dare to say that still a large part of the audience believes the images and the messages sent to them via TV regardless of the format. And when such images are coherent with a schema established through a real-life experience ( like the 2001 terrorist attacks), even a fictional show may acquire the veracity of news.

Source:
Nurullah, Abu Sadat. "Portrayal of Muslims in the Media: "24" and the 'Othering' Process." International
     Journal of Human Sciences 7.1 (2010): 1020-1046. Ulusrararasi Insan Bilimleri Dergisi. Web.
     15 Apr. 2010.<http://www.insanbilimleri.com/ojs/index.php/uib/article/view/815/530>.

A Needle in a Haystack

That saying describes perfectly how difficult it is to find a positive story about a member of the Islam faith in the western media. Well, today I decided to do the hard work for you by finding one such example. It is a story run by several US TV news channels - ABC 7 and CNN to name a few. The piece can be described as one of those Christmas feel-good stories that are supposed to fill people with hope and love for each other. This frame is often used for rather superficial soft news, and one can say this (human interest) story is no different. Yet, given its rather rare message, I find it important and want to share it with you:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFc3rCXgzUQ

Watched it? What do you think of it? For those who didn't feel like watching it or don't have time to do so (in which case I thank you guys for finding time to read my blog ;-) ), here is the video's content in a nutshell: A young Jewish man is attacked on a NYC subway train by racist Christians - and is saved by ... you guessed it... a Muslim! The story is rather emotional, supplemented by interviews with both the victim and his girlfriend, as well as Hassan Askari, the Muslim hero. Here are the words of Walter Sebastian Adler, the Jewish victim:

"A Muslim American saved us when our own people were on a train and didn't do anything....someone that in the media often gets painted as the enemy of Israel and the Jews...."

In the case of ABC 7 News, the piece goes on citing a passage from Qur'an about the virtue of saving a human life, which is also commented on by Hassan Askari: "Islam teaches you to be...you know, to help your fellow man, to be kind, courteous...."

I wanted to include a story like this one as an example of a positive, pro-social media deed, which in my opinion is way too rare - to the point I would nominate it on the list of endangered species. Still, it is important to note there are stories like that in the media and we as the audience can do our part by encouraging the media people to show more of them. How? There are number of ways, but the easiest and cost-free first step could be a letter to the editor or a simple call-in to give a positive feedback if a story like the one above is shown. After all, the media need you, they need us, for their survival!

An Innocent Word?

Today I'd like to look at the recent suicide bombings in Moscow underground. Those of you who follow the news must have read or heard about it, for the story dominated the news media for at least several days. The perpetrators are now believed to be known; the way different media reported on the bombers' identification is a subject of my today's post.

I compared four different news websites: two western ones - American CNN and the British Guardian - and two eastern outlets - Russian RIA Novosti and [obviously] Chinese China Daily. While the content was similar in all four articles - after all, they all dealt with the same subject - there were few differences, which may seem minor to most audiences, and perhaps not even noticeable on the first reading. I, however, find them significant and telling of the respective news organizations' agenda, as well as the cultural context in which they operate. Before I tell you what I am referring to, here are the links to the articles for you to see whether there is anything you notice that may be relevant to the subject of my blog:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/04/06/moscow.subway.bombings/index.html?iref=allsearch http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/29/moscow-bombings-russia-putin-tube-train
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20100406/158452727.html
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2010-04/03/content_9683537.htm

Spot anything? The important difference I am concerned about is rather subtle - the way the country of origin of the bombers and/or the bombers themselves are described. In the articles by CNN and The Guardian, the religion is mentioned in both cases. In CNN's article, this fact is given even more prominence, and thus importance, for it appears already in the second paragraph: "Sharipova was born in the village of Balakhani, in Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim republic that lies beside Chechnya..."

Russian and Chinese news stories on the same topic, on the other hand, do NOT mention the religious affiliation of the bombers and/or the country of their origin, AT ALL. A coincidence? I know some of you may think that a mere word or two is not a big deal - "Muslim" or "Islam/Islamic" are just descriptive adjectives/nouns, right? Could be, but what if they are strategically repeated in negative contexts? Isn't that one way to create a negative connotation connected to these two words in the media audiences' heads? Isn't that a subtle way to influence the public's perception of Muslims? Please think about that the next time you read or watch the news...

I couldn't help it...

Help what exactly? Well, joining the community of bloggers so that I can share my concerns, opinions, and ideas about an issue that has been on my mind for some time already - the portrayal of Muslims in the Western media, and its effects on the image of Muslims and Islam in general that the media audiences (nowadays these amount to more or less the entire society) come to create in their heads.

Gee... could I write a sentence any longer and more sophisticated? I promise I will try to make my further postings more intelligible ;-)

Anyway, why do I, a Caucasian woman from a country with a rather negligible Muslim population, care so much about how members of this religion are being portrayed in the media? There are many reasons, the most important of which I list below in a convenient-for-eye bullet point manner to stay true to my promise to keep my postings simple ;-)

• I care about the life of minorities within a community - both local and global one.
• I value justice and equality very high - stereotyping, scapegoating, double standards, racism, xenophobia, ethnocentrism, and the like annoy me.
• I see a great danger in the way media in many Western societies portray Muslims, especially then after the attacks of 9/11.

So, if you can associate or identify with any of the above reasons, or even if you don't, but feel like you would like to learn a thing or two about the issue, or if you just want to make me happy, please keep checking my post - I will do my best not to bore you, and hopefully we can enlighten each other ;-) Yep, I said "we" and "each other" - I would love for you to leave me some feedback!