This week I will be discussing about how media has influenced my life and changed the way I view the world with my point of view. What across my mind when I read the instruction for week 3 blog is ‘western, arabs, terrorist’. First of all, to be honest I am a bit offended how hollywood stereotypes Muslim as a terrorist and militant in their films especially arabs are the most typical stereotype example in hollywood film where killing, weapons, kidnaps, high jack, booming etc is very common in hollywood films. This happened after tragedy in NYC on September 11 and ever since, muslims is always a terrorist. Hollywood has their will power to changed people perspective in the other word ‘influence’ the audience easily. When looking at the race the message that is presented is western actor will be the hero, muslim will be the bad person and western heroin will be the victims.
(Shaheen, 2003) indicate that live images on big screen and television go beyond a thousand words in perpetuating stereotypes and cliches. Bases on the study of more than 900 films, it shows how moviegoers are led to believe that all have shown Arabs as heartless, brutal, uncivilized, religions fanatics through common depictions of Arabs kidnapping or raping a fair maiden expressing hatred against the Jews and Christians and demonstrating a love for wealth and power.
It is obviously depends to the audience how they want to be manipulate but if out of 100 films that been produced and 90 of them is about muslims terrorist, at the end of the day people going be manipulated, and they going to believe that muslims are terrorists. Audience need a better understanding and knowledge on how to make a good judgement of what they see then they are not going to be easily manipulated. People who reads my post, may be against me but once again this is only my opinions.
Shaheen J. G, 2003, Reel Bad Arabs : How hollywood Vilifies a people, The Annals of the American Academy of Political, retrieved 4 August 2013, ann.sagepub.com.
So true and so tragic! Hollywood does indeed have the power to change popular culture and promote equality and universal acceptance - it is such a shame it doesn't take this opportunity. And an even greater shame that the audience so rarely takes it upon themselves to re-educate themselves outside of the cinema.
ReplyDeleteHi Syaffyka Binti Musa,
ReplyDeleteYou have interesting views of “Western, Arab and terrorist” depictions not only in the world but also in global cinema. Your twisting of the argument, “stereotyping” that goes on to degrade the position of “Arab or terrorist” as the “bad person” in society especially in American cinema is prevalent. However the use of a scholarly article to support this is recommended. At the moment, in news media, they paint a negative picture for these stereotypes. I do agree that there should be some “fairness” in the up taking of Hollywood actor roles, and detract from negative stereotyping for these “actor victims”, yet this will not detract from “clichés” the media influences the audience on the “Arab and terrorist typology”. A photograph or two of Hollywood films featuring these stereotypes could be used to support your idea. And the discussion needs to be broken up into topical paragraphs for fluency and structure. For the “Western, Arab and Terrorist” it is a global power struggle presented in media, such as this Hollywood cinema.
Good Read!