Muslim Stereotypes in the Media Essay

The media everywhere exaggerates their model of the Muslim population depiction them as violent terrorists and a scourge to most nations/countries. Stereotypes abound in both and every form of media we can get a line to, read, or watch today. Stereotypes create acknowledgement in people and stir emotions from fussiness to fear, or level off empathy. News reports on worship generally use horrid sort outs of the population of the particular religion. This is evident in the representation of Muslims whenever they pop-up in news stories. Our views and faiths be often shaped by the media the news, TV shows, movies, magazines and newspapers.Many people shoot the views render in these and claim them as their cause without thinking or researching it more(prenominal). Cultural theoretician Stuart Hall states that the mess terms in media, intersect with the late semantic codes of a culture and take on additional, more active ideological dimensions. This means that they bu ild on the ethnical and complaisant anxieties of a given fourth dimension and also reflect then plump for into the culture, therefore reinforcing them and adding to them. The problem with this is that the media almost eer leaves bits and pieces out and portray only the separate they think we want to see to abut our expectations.The kids movie, Aladdin is one which given a reorient view of Muslim people. In the opening night scenes of the theatrical release, the theme song states that Aladdin hails from a faraway place, where the caravan camels roam, where they cut glum your ear if they dont alike your face. Its barbaric, but hey, its home. throughout the movie Muslims are repeatedly represent as scheming, mystical, violent, stupid or parsimonious Arabs. Everything from costuming to voice tones, facial features and references to Allah build a very stereotypical and false take in of Muslims.One of the reasons why this is an incorrect sort out is that most Muslims are not compensate Arabic with only about 18% of the 1.6 billion Muslims being Arabic. So why do we as westerners make this hypothesis that all Muslims are Arabic? I think this is because we dont face into the figures and information for ourselves we just assume that these electronegative stereotypes are the truth and by doing this it has amaze our reality. In the case of Aladdin, this fairytale is viewed by children from such a young age that it becomes a part of their subconscious without them even realizing they take aim been fed a stereotype. more(prenominal) modern TV shows such as Homeland represent Muslims as daemon Arab terrorists posing a threat to countries and nations about the world. This is mainly a western representation and is a typical negative stereotype of Muslims that most people believe and study as the truth. Although this may be an faithful representation of a small nonage of the Muslim population, in my opinion this is a false stereotype of the majority of th e population. The media has generalised their opinion based on a small minority to all of the Muslim population and sensationalized it to heighten ethnic anxieties. This opinion and stereotype has caused much tension mingled with westerners and the general Muslim population in the past and the present.The media reports involving Muslims and Islam in general have become more frequent, with the racist, stereotype images and remarks seemly more and more accepted as normal, especially in the news, entertainment and social media. The media has been targeting religion and more specifically Islam since the events of the 9/11 planted a bug of fear for terrorists and religion in general. Media including Hollywood and the filmmakers have become worse in their racist opinions of Muslims portraying them more and more as brutal, heartless, uncivilised religious fanatics and money-mad cultural others bent on terrorising civilised Westerners. possibly it is time that the media realizes that i nstead of investing in negative stereotypes, there is a demonstrable impact which can be obtained by using counter-stereotypical fictional depictions to turn the course on societies prejudicial attitudes.religionandmediacourse.blogspot.com.au/2010/11/representations-of-islam-in-media.htmmaddysreligionandspirituality.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/week-9-10-religious-racism-and-media.htmlasiainstitute.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/571625/akbarzadeh-islam-media.pdfmediasmarts.ca/diversity-media/religion/media-portrayals-religion-islamteachmideast.org/essays/26-stereotypes/38-stereotypes-of-arabs-middle-easterners-and-muslimshttp//www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2012/oct/13/homeland-drama-offensive-portrayal-islam-arabshttp//racerelations.about.com/od/hollywood/a/5-Common-Arab-Stereotypes-In-Television-And-Film.htmhttp//srambeau.wordpress.com/2010/10/15/representations-of-arabs-in-disneys-aladdin/http//www.theguardian.com/media/2007/jan/25/broadcasting.race