Prejudiced Media Portrayals Of Islam And Their Effects On Islamophobic Attitudes Among Adolescents

After September 11, 2001, U.S. citizens were shocked that over 2,900 people were dead because of Islamic extremists (Kean, et al. "National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States"). More deaths occurred in the Paris and San Bernardino attacks. Tensions between the U.S. and Islamic extremists have not yet subsided. Americans receive information regarding Islamic extremists through the media, from which they form opinions on what the U.S.’s foreign policy with the Middle East should be, which affects military spending. To what extent has the media’s portrayal of Islamic extremists affected U.S. military spending and relations with the Middle East?

Today one does not even have to wait for a movie to be released. Simply click the “ON” button on a remote and suddenly, thousands of news and television shows are available for one to enjoy. Muslims are also the target of prejudice in these news broadcasts and programs. One such television program released was a drama titled “24.” Issues and Controversies reports: “The show, which deals with a counterterrorism unit based in Los Angeles, featured a group of Muslim terrorist characters who were plotting to detonate nuclear weapons in the U.S. At the end of one episode, the terrorists successfully detonated a small bomb in a Los Angeles suburb, killing about 12,000 people” (“Race and Ethnicity in Entertainment”). This fictional show wrongly spreads the stereotypical image of Muslims and their clichéd image of the fundamentalists on 9/11. By adding the title and image of “Muslim” to the phrase “terrorist” the program wrongly advertised that potentially every Muslim could be a terrorist. This stereotypical image is similarly expressed in news broadcasts through the use of terrorism news. By increasingly using terrorism and Muslims in top

After the attacks on September 11, 2001, media approaches have altered. On Television shows and movies, in newspapers and on the radio, there has been an increase in hate crimes targeting Arabs and Muslims. Most coverage today follows a script that represents Arabs and Muslims only in the context of terrorism. Evelyn Alsultany wrote a book called Arabs and Muslims in the Media in 2012. The stories explained the new standards in racial and cultural representations after 9/11.

In the media there is a great deal of violence and nobody can really deny that. However, the effects media has on children and young adults have been debated for years. In this paper I will be discussing the effects of media violence, the other factors, and the possible solutions to alleviate this global issue.

This book agrees with other sources that media play a large role in violent behavior going

Hate speech provokes violence to inflict harm upon a targeted individual or group to a certain degree where it can be done subconsciously or purposefully. This issue worsens as it appears on social media where users interact and share posts in forms of vivid graphics or media. Studies have shown that in the United States, by high school graduation, the average seventeen year old will have seen 18,000 murders in movies and television (Christians, 2005). This statistic excludes the convenient use of unlimited information on the internet, which is not as closely monitored as aired television or paid movies. Because both mass and social media follow the trends in terms of entertainment as a part of the American culture, research shown by Christians (2005), a professor at the University of Illinois in Communications, indicates that “exposure to violence in the media is linked to long-term negative

The media, in spite of the fact that it might incite or propagate forceful conduct, can't be considered completely dependable. Rather, it might be viewed as one impact that is working in an aggregate circumstance among numerous others, and is liable to fortify previous social and individual propensities, inclinations, states of mind, practices, convictions, and worth frameworks, which advance threatening vibe and

Many of the people who deny that the media has an effect on children 's violent behavior believe that the media is just seen as the main perpetrator because many parents fear it more than other factors. The media 's ubiquitousness gives people everywhere one thing to look at and blame for the violence in their societies, because so much of what is in the media contains violence. This fear is mainly drawn out of parents lack of knowledge on how to

The claim states that children and adults who are exposed to the media are aggressive and violent. According to such articles, violent content provokes aggressive behavior and violence. Ferguson illustrates that watching satanic content, like in Harry Potter, or teaching of witchcraft can lead to Satanism or mental illness. According to Ferguson (2008), books, rock, jazz, television and watching movies in the media, leads to a wave of moral degradation, rebelliousness and violence. They also clam that new media like internet and video games inevitably cause fear and waves of politicians, and advocates raise concerns over the fate of vulnerable teenagers and children. This point of view raises a lot of controversy in respect to violence in television, and film fiction raising the question whether such violence causes further violent behavior in viewers (Ferguson, 2008).

In Saitama Sanfo’s opinion piece, Islamophobia In America, she makes a point to direct attention to the amount of prejudice Muslim people receive and the amount of misrepresentation their religion is given. Through lack of accurate media representation, Islam has become synonymous with terrorism and Muslims have been subjected to a large amount hate crimes and slander towards themselves and their beliefs. Due to the constant generalizations of the entire religion, Sanfo made it a point to call out the double standards hidden amongst the negativity.

The more exposure to media messages the more this is linked to reality and therefore risks are overestimated (Dominick, 1990). More exposure to negative media messaging means the individual will present with less arousal and be more tolerant to negative behaviour due to desensitisation (Carnagey, Anderson and Bushman, 2007). Danger perceptions in reality can be distorted by media messages such as the overestimating violence from strangers and underestimating domestic violence (Heath, Gordon and LaBailly, 1981). Cultivation theory suggests that media presents a distorted view of reality (Gerber et al, 1980) and therefore can influence perceptions of crime or risk (Romar, Jamieson and Aday, 2003) (Lowy, Nio and Leitner, 2003) rather than individual's using their own experience to influence their beliefs. Media perceptions could impact on how individuals behave (Streigal-moor et al, 1996). This has been seen in the influence of media body perfections (Swans et al, 2000). The impact on such influence could be eating disorders and low self-esteem were their body is not the same as those in the media (Shomaker and Furman, 2010).

“In terms of exposure, the average U.S. child between the ages of 8 and 18 spends 6½ hours a day using media” (Strasburger, V., & Wilson, B. 2009). Children are the most vulnerable target, not only do they manipulate their parents as consumers, but they are also susceptible to being misled by what they see. Many children lack discernment between actual acts of violence and mock violence exhibited in pop culture. The authors of Children, Adolescents, and the Media assert, “… Youth today are confronted with a media environment that is rapidly changing. Technologies are proliferating, merging, and becoming more interactive. And the content featured in these technologies is increasingly graphic, realistic, and commercial in nature” (Strasburger, V., & Wilson, B. 2009). Television programs often mislead gullible children because of positive attitudes toward violence. Cartoons like Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner follow the laws of animation physics and often display exaggerated cycles of violence. Thus, certain levels of violent acts were accepted and became the norm. The good guy beats the bad guy and over time children may become desensitized. Jacoby (1995) asks the question, “What impact does it have on a generation growing up amid dysfunctional families, broken-down schools, and a culture of values-free secularism?” (p

Negative stereotypes exist everywhere either on readable media, audible media, or visible media, but in the meantime, we are blind to their significant effects that are happening around us. The media are playing the major roles in feeding our society with unrealistic stereotypes that affect our society's behaviors, beliefs, and thoughts that they have about themselves and others, as well as the world. Stereotypes that describe Islam as a bloody religion exist in the media, and this matters because many people around the world wrongly believe that Muslims are terrorists.

There are over 1,100 films that in one way or another vilify Arabs and Muslims-not to mention other minorities such as African Americans, Jews, LGBTQs, Latinos, Asians and Native Americans (Baird). Movies and shows stereotype Arabs and Muslims, which often times cause hatred and discrimination towards certain races and religions. Stereotyping in movies and shows cause bias discrimination towards minorities, which lead to terrible consequences. Even though movies and shows are mainly fictional and mainly used just for entertainment, these forms of media lead to discriminations such as Islamophobia because they vilify Arabs and Muslims portraying them as a violent and dangerous group.

Syed Soharwardy asserts that “Media always tried to portray Islam as a religion of terror and all the Muslims as terrorists. The way the talk-show programs and news are produced and presented, it seems that the media has already decided the guilty verdict, regardless what would be the outcome of an investigation” (Soharwardy). So too do members of the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee recognize the media’s predisposition toward bias, as is pointed out in this statement, found on their website: “Key industries of American mass culture, Holllywood and television, for decades have been bastions of anti-Arab stereotyping, and have consistently resisted positive or realistic representations of Arabs and Arab Americans. (Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee).”