scholarly journals The “Innocence of Muslims” in the US Media: An Analysis of the Media Discourses on Islam and Muslims

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (101) ◽  
pp. 107-135
Author(s):  
Zafar Iqbal ◽  
Fazal Rahim Khan ◽  
Haseeb ur Rehman

The release of trailer of ‘Innocence of Muslims’ generated a huge debate on free speech, hate speech and the representation of the Muslims and Islam in the Western media. This paper investigates these issues in detail by taking instances from the mainstream US print media. Some other interesting debates in the mass media like the identification of the filmmaker and denigration of the Muslims and Islam in historical context have also been undertaken in the paper. Discourse theory and social construction of reality by Schutz (1976) and Berger and Luckmann (1991) have been applied as theoretical framework to evaluate the relationship between mass media and social construction of reality, and to see as how the US mass media constructed the reality about the movie (trailer). Three major aspects were selected for analysis; viz., filmmaker(s) and their associates, issues concerning freedom of speech and expression, and the representation of the Muslims’ protesting against the YouTube clip and the ensuing violence in some Muslim countries.

This volume addresses the relationship between archaeologists and the dead, through the many dimensions of their relationships: in the field (through practical and legal issues), in the lab (through their analysis and interpretation), and in their written, visual and exhibitionary practice--disseminated to a variety of academic and public audiences. Written from a variety of perspectives, its authors address the experience, effect, ethical considerations, and cultural politics of working with mortuary archaeology. Whilst some papers reflect institutional or organizational approaches, others are more personal in their view: creating exciting and frank insights into contemporary issues that have hitherto often remained "unspoken" among the discipline. Reframing funerary archaeologists as "death-workers" of a kind, the contributors reflect on their own experience to provide both guidance and inspiration to future practitioners, arguing strongly that we have a central role to play in engaging the public with themes of mortality and commemoration, through the lens of the past. Spurred by the recent debates in the UK, papers from Scandinavia, Austria, Italy, the US, and the mid-Atlantic, frame these issues within a much wider international context that highlights the importance of cultural and historical context in which this work takes place.


2021 ◽  
pp. 089124162110569
Author(s):  
Hakan Kalkan

“Street culture” is often considered a response to structural factors. However, the relationship between culture and structure has rarely been empirically analyzed. This article analyzes the role of three media representations of American street culture and gangsters—two films and the music of a rap artist—in the street culture of a disadvantaged part of Copenhagen. Based on years of ethnographic fieldwork, this article demonstrates that these media representations are highly valuable to and influential among young men because of their perceived similarity between their intersectional structural positions and those represented in the media. Thus, the article illuminates the interaction between structural and cultural factors in street culture. It further offers a local explanation of the scarcely studied phenomenon of the influence of mass media on street culture, and a novel, media-based, local explanation of global similarities in different street cultures.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 214-217
Author(s):  
Sergey Olegovich Buranok ◽  
Katerina Vyacheslavovna Belyaeva ◽  
Margarita Igorevna Tulusakova

The paper is dedicated to the evolutionary formation process of the American mass media perception towards the Soviet Russia during the severe Russian famine of 1921-1922, also known as the Povolzhye famine. The research novelty lies in the deep analysis of the US press assessments concerning the famine. The authors provide the results of their American newspapers examination regarding the image formation of the Soviet authorities, the Soviet people and the so-called Red Scare. The authors research included a review of the main anti-Soviet arguments made by the media; the review revealed that the Povolzhye famine image had a crucial role in the labeling Russia as a retrogressive country. Studying this informational phenomenon allows researchers to understand what impact it had on Soviet-American relations, since it directly affected the perception of Russia and the Russian/Soviet people through the media. This, in turn, might help with comprehension of some stereotypes about Russia that can still be encountered in the American public opinion to date.


Author(s):  
Fitri Meliya Sari

This research was a study conducted on transgender as one of the media spotlight. This study aimed to describe how the media portrays the existence of transgender in Indonesia through media. In this case the researchers looked at the cases of Dena Rachman. Results showed that there was particular justification of media in portraying negatively the behavior of people who become transgender or the like. The portrayal makes people against for the decision and behavior taken by Dena Rachman. Changing the male identity to be a female is very unusual. Especially for those who think that identity is inherent and unchangeable. Yet this identity is socially constructed and liquid. Dena Rachman’a changing reinforces the notion that gender is only two, namely men and women.  Keywords: Transgender, Mass Media, Social Construction.


1970 ◽  
pp. 16-17
Author(s):  
Randa Abul-Husn

The question of mass media as creator versus mirror of culture is one of the most debated issues in the relationship between mass media and society. Some critical media sociologists emphasize the value producing function of mass media, whereas others are foremost interested in demonstrating how social reality is reflected in the media.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 127-142
Author(s):  
Daryna Kharuk ◽  

The process of changing the media landscape in Ukraine cannot be called simple. At the same time, these changes are very large and irreversible - as well as changes in Ukrainian society. This paper deals with the issues related to the present media landscape of Ukraine and the factors that influence it. The work describes the relationship between the media and the events of Euromaidan and the Revolution of Dignity, as well as the identity crisis that led to the events of 2013–2014 in Ukraine. The role of the mass media in the democratic revolutions in Ukraine is very important. The changing position of the media, the influence of the oligarchs, and the resistance of media workers - all of this was a part of the revolution that changed not only Ukrainian society but also the mass media for the better. Journalists, being public figures, were active participants in the revolution and stood close to its roots. Admittedly, this had an impact on the specifics of the work of journalists who had to operate in extreme conditions, first during the Revolution of Dignity, and later broadcasting events in Crimea and eastern Ukraine. The events of the Euromaidan completely changed the situation, putting an end to the crisis of national self-identification. The media not only reflected on but also created these changes while experiencing restructuration. A new type of media has emerged – are ordinary people who, using their profiles in social networks, acted to spread the information about events, commented on them, and shared their reflections.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-87
Author(s):  
Nila Noer Karisna

The mass media which has developed rapidly provides the opportunities for all circles in using and taking the advantage of media for specific purposes, especially for political actors. For example in JTV Jember, one of the media in Jember Regency which reports a local political actor in Jember or the Regent of Jember, positive news that is displayed on JTV Jember has an effect on society. So that the news about the Regent which is negative will not be published because of the collaboration between the Regent of Jember and the media JTV Jember.This study is qualitative with Cresswell's descriptive type of research using purposive subject selection method. The data collection techniques through observation, interviews and documentation. In analyzing the data, the writer uses data reduction, data presentation, and verification.The results of this study reveal that the hegemony carried out by the Regent of Jember towards media JTV Jember is integral or total hegemony because it spontaneously agrees to the provisions of the MOU with the Regent. Further, media JTV Jember does not have freely in reporting the news about the Regent that contains of conflict. In addition, the editorial policy of JTV Jember after being analyzed through text which contains of news representations of JTV Jember becomes a representative in conveying the informations about the Regent of Jember, the relationship between JTV Jember news about the Regent of Jember is motivated by MOU. therefor, the identity of JTV Jember becomes a medium which is known by FaidaTV. 


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 166-175
Author(s):  
Dementieva Kseniya V. ◽  

The article considers how the rapid spread of the new coronavirus COVID-19 caused transformations in the field of media, in particular in regional journalism, using the example of a specific region ‒ the Republic of Mordovia. The purpose of the study is to study the features of changing the media agenda in the context of the spread of coronavirus, the specifics of the information in the regional media, and also the response of the audience of various types of publications. During the study, general scientific methods were used, such as systemic and structural-functional, as well as empirical ones. The continuous sampling method analyzed about 2,000 materials posted on several information resources ‒ communities of large regional mass media of the VKontakte social network. A qualitative analysis of the content of materials on the coronavirus from January to mid-May 2020 was carried out. At the same time, the coefficient of people’s involvement in the selected publication (ERpost) was analyzed. In the work, the author supplemented the list of groups into which media information about coronavirus can be divided, the situation with fakes was analyzed, three categories of sources were identified for the reliability of the information posted in them: official information of government bodies, relevant ministries, officials; mass media; social networks and Telegram channels. A study of materials on the topic of coronavirus in regional media revealed the following trends: the number of materials on coronavirus and the audience’s response to them have grown since the onset of the disease, but in May there was a general downward trend (this proves that for all the social significance of the topic, it is impossible to keep the audience’s attention at the same level for a long time); the involvement of the audience is consistently higher for materials affecting regional subjects; auditoria interests lose out to public needs, therefore, official reports are viewed more than celebrity messages, and O. Markin, the Minister of Health of the Republic, became the main media person; despite the prohibitions and the negative attitude towards clickbait, it continues to be used, including in materials on the theme of coronavirus; “hate speech” is practically not used by regional publications. Keywords: media, coronavirus, COVID-19, media agenda, audience engagement, Republic of Mordovia


Author(s):  
Francesc-Andreu MARTÍNEZ GALLEGO

LABURPENA: Lan hau komunikabideen eta ustelkeria politikoaren arteko harremanei buruzkoa da. Lanaren estrategia komunikabideek gobernatzaileen eta gobernatuen arteko harremanak hedatzeko bitarteko aktiboak bezala duten jarrera agertzea da, hau da, komunikabideek ustelkeriari buruz emandako informazioa izan ez dadin prentsaren jatorrietatik datorren ataza soila, hots, askatasun publikoen eta gobernu onaren watchdog or atari-txakur lana. Gauzak horrela, komunikabideak aktore politikoak dira, interes partikularrak dituzte eta egitateekiko elkarrekintza dute, eta egitate horiei garrantzia ematen diete (edo ez), interesen arabera. Ustelkeria politikoko eskandaluak kazetaritzako argitan, komunikabideen enpresen interesen arabera eta sistema politikoaren eta komunikabide sistemaren arteko harremanak kontuan izanda aztertu behar dira. Horrela soilik ahal izango diogu lana honen funtsari ekin, alegia: zer egin dezakete komunikabideek demokraziaren kalitatea handitzeko, hau da, ustelkeria politikoa bertatik erauzi edo, gutxienez, mugatzeko? RESUMEN: El presente trabajo es un estudio crítico sobre la relación existente entre medios de comunicación y corrupción política. La estrategia del mismo consiste en desvelar la posición de los medios de comunicación como mediatizadores activos de la relación entre gobernantes y gobernados, de manera que la información sobre corrupción producida por los medios no se vea como el mero cumplimiento de una tarea asignada desde sus orígenes ilustrados a la prensa, a saber, su labor de watchdog o perro guardián de las libertades públicas y del buen gobierno. Vistas así las cosas, los medios se configuran como actores políticos con intereses particulares que interaccionan con los hechos y a los que confieren (o no) la entidad de noticiables en grados diversos. Los escándalos de corrupción política deben estudiarse a la luz de las narrativas periodísticas, a la luz de los condicionamientos empresariales de los medios y a la luz de la configuración de las relaciones entre el sistema político y el sistema mediático. Sólo así podremos encarar la cuestión de fondo que se plantea al final de este trabajo y que pregunta qué pueden hacer los medios de comunicación para acrecentar la calidad de la democracia extirpando o al menos limitando en ella la corrupción política. ABSTRACT: This work is a critical analysis about the relationship between mass media and political corruption. Its strategy is to unveil the mass media position as an activ mediator in the relationship between governers and governeds so that information about corruption by the media cannot be seen as the simple fullfilment of an assigned task to the press since its Enlightment origins, i.e. their job of watchdog or guard dog for public liberties and good governance. As things stand, mass media are configured as political actors with particular interests that interact with facts to which the give (or not) a gradual entity of political newsworthiness. The scandals of political corruption should be studied in the light of journalistic narratives, corporate constraints of the mass media and the setting of relationships among the political and the media system. Only this way we will be able to face the underlying issue that arises at the end of this work and that questions what mass media can do in order to improve the quality of democracy by removing or at least constraining within the political corruption.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Waldemar Żak

Information is considered one of the main factors of the current geopolitical dynamics. The information paradigm of geopolitics defines the canons of conquest and control of a global information space, as well as the nature of the relationship between geopolitical actors. It covers a range of issues related to geographic information policy, which includes the activities aimed at increasing the power of State information, including in the media. Helping people understand the changing world order has become the main goal of mass media. In an emerging global information field, the media no longer divide events into domestic and foreign ones. Russia’s propaganda offensive is a carefully prepared strategy. The country built an array of soft power instruments and transformed them into effective weapons in a new information war with the West. Initially intended as a tool to enhance Russia’s soft power, it quickly developed into one of the main instruments of Russia’s new imperialism. The minimum task may be the integration of part of the post-Soviet space, whereas the maximum task is to unite civilizations into a single Eurasian continental block in order to restore civilization balance


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