Media policy is often described to be the effort of the government to feed people of propaganda and information about what the government wants them to believe. There are various ways to do so, and this paper will look at some of the ways the government of two different countries try to provide information and change the perception of their citizens. This paper will look at two countries with a common issue but a completely different solution to tackle the issue.
One of the main headlines, found these days in the media channels in the USA, is related to a terrorist group called ISIS. It originated from Iraq in 2004 and was operating in Iraq and Syria (Schmid, 2011). It so called ‘terrorist group’ is also breaking headlines in Iraq where it is operating but the individuals running the organization are regarded as heroes in the country. Both the countries, US and Iraq, have a very different way of describing the organization to the mass audience and Freedman (2008) believes that this may be because media policies are largely influenced by politics. Freedman (2008) describes media policy as a political act in which the major players of a country construct policies to dictate the news. Media policy is thus an effort made by the government and other big players of the country to show the audience what the government or these players want them to believe.
Mostly the American media portray the ISIS as a group of terrorists trying to disrupt peace in Iraq and Syria. The news in newspapers and television shows members of the ISIS handling rifles and machine guns and terrorizing innocent people. The cover page of some of the magazines shows their faces covered and threatening the American government to listen to their demand. They would continue to kill innocent foreign citizens in the country (Foreign Affairs Committee, 2014).
According to Freedman (2008), media, through the government, is trying people to believe and show a larger picture of something through a very small picture. This example settles well into the ISIS story in the USA. ISIS is committing crimes and killing innocent people in Iraq and Syria, but there are many other organizations in Asia, Africa and South America that are doing the same (Palmer & Palmer, 2008). It is fair to say that the USA is still trying to fight the war on terrorism through this extremist group.
Sekulow (2014) explains the aim of showing the atrocities of the ISIS in media might not be to fight this local group of Iraq, but to fight a war of terrorism against Muslims. The USA is trying to show the world and mainly trying to convince people that the existence of extremist Islamic groups like the ISIS prove that the war on terrorism is not over yet. Through this message, they are also successfully telling the people of the country and other countries that they will look to continue their fight on extremist Islamic groups.
The media policy of the USA is thus focused on portraying a negative image about the ISIS and thus fighting the larger war on terrorism. It is possible that after eliminating this organization in the future, like they did with Taliban in Afghanistan, they switch their focus to some other country by targeting their terrorist organization (Sekulow, 2014). The war on terrorism is not over until the American media stops showing it on television and newspapers. The USA has very little or no interest in Afghanistan and so the US media policies have shifted their interest. Taliban is no more the organization that is discussed in television and newspapers (Sekulow, 2014).
Things are quite different regarding the media policy in Iraq. The policies in Iraq are also the same like the media policy in the USA and the Iraqi media also shows intentions of the government and the major Iraqi players in the country. However, the ISIS are not regarded or promoted as a terrorist organization in the country. The ISIS is regarded as the only organization fighting the USA (Rabasa & Benard, 2014). After the execution of President Saddam Hussein of Iraq, a fraction of the Iraqi grew dubious of the Americans and their military agenda in Iraq. The ISIS is the answer to that agenda.
Rabasa & Benard (2014) are of the opinion that the Iraqi’s are promoting the ISIS as the only true Islamic organization that is fighting against the atrocities of the Americans against Islamic nations and their organizations. The media in the USA shows the ISIS firing gun shots in Iraqi cities while Iraqi media show them defending the country from the American soldiers. The media policy in Iraq is very candid. They do not promote the American philosophy of fighting the war on terrorism instead they show their people how the US was responsible in killing innocent civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan. ISIS is shown as an organization trying to protect the civilians of Iraq. The television in Iraq shows the American bombing in Afghanistan and Pakistan and the people who lost their lives as a result.
According to the findings in the research conducted by Zhang & Meadows (2012) negative information or news creates a greater impact on people rather than positive information or news. The emotional appeal put in a negative piece of information creates even a greater appeal for the viewers. It outlines the media policy of the USA. There is a great emotional appeal in their news suggesting that the media policy is concerned in creating news that highly regards the emotions of people.
When the ISIS beheaded the US journalist Steven Sotloff, a lot of emotions were added by the media in the US. Jeanne Moos of the CNN described the event as something that had deprived his father of a beautiful son and his sister of a caring brother. He also asked the public if the Americans were prepared to lose more of the sons of America like Steven Sotloff (Carter, 2014).
Heather Childers from the Fox news described the event as something the Americans must not forget as Steven Sotloff suffered for the cause of America. It is also a matter of social justice to the world by uncovering the real truth (Carter, 2014). Zhang & Meadows (2012) believe that when negative information is floated to people then it catches their attention more easily. It is because the negative information brings the horrors of the environment or the entourage around which a society is built. When emotions are added then it creates sympathy for the victim and the support for the event in which the person or persons were involved.
The anchors of the leading channels of media were successfully able to create an emotional message when Steven Sotloff was decapitated. Emotional message was given to people when the journalists added words like a father lost a beautiful son and a sister a beautiful brother. This statement clearly states that the family is deprived of a beautiful and a caring person. Moreover, the journalists called Steven Sotloff the son of America and asked the audience if they were prepared to lose more sons to terrorist organizations like the ISIS.
The journalist of Fox news also created the same sort of emotions. Heather Childers stated that Steven Sotloff lost his life for the cause of America. He lost his life to protect the citizens of the USA. It is very understandable for the citizens of the US to get emotional about the decapitation of an individual who fought to bring the truth out even if it meant to lose his life.
Zhang & Meadows (2012) believe that there are some counties that employ this strategy in their media policy, and the US is one of them. Countries like Pakistan, Iran and Mexico are more direct in their approach of delivering the message and do not involve any such strategies such as the USA. Thus putting emotions is very important for the media in the USA as it is winning them the war. The media policy is favoring them at this point as the majority of the Americans citizens believe that it is fighting terrorism is the right decision (Rose, 2014). The acts committed by the ISIS as shown in the US media helps the citizens to make decisions in favor of the war that the country is fighting.
Iraq has just recently tried to follow the footsteps of the US media. First the Iraqi media did not create any emotional messages but in recent years especially with the rise of ISIS in the country, the Iraqi media also carries emotional messages. It is because of the people of Iraq are more sympathetic towards the groups fighting foreign armies. Just like the people in the US believe that the US is fighting the war to protect America, people in Iraq believe that ISIS is fighting to save Iraq from the hands of the US government (Cesari, 2014).
It is a common practice of the Iraqi media to repeat the events of what happened in Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the USA. The media in Iraq shows how the soldiers entered Afghanistan and killed innocent women and children. It highlights how all progress stopped in Afghanistan and from an agricultural country Afghanistan became a no progressive country totally reliant on other countries for agriculture and industrial products (Lapidus, 2014).
The aim of the media policy in Iraq is to inform the citizens about the atrocities of the USA and how the ISIS was working hard to defend them. The media channels show that that if the organizations like the ISIS had not existed then the US would have occupied and destroyed Iraq like they did with Afghanistan. The point of the Iraqi media to show war-affected children and women in television is to show people what would happen to them if America were to occupy the country (Lapidus, 2014).
Children and women automatically add emotions, and it is through these emotions that the Iraqi media makes the citizens despise the American government and never wish they land to their country. It is the reason that some of the Iraqi’s favor the acts of ISIS against foreigners regardless of how inhumane they are (Lapidus, 2014). The citizens believe that the Americans are responsible for killing children and women in other Islamic countries, and they will also look to do the same in Iraq. Over the years, the Iraqi’s have questioned the war on terrorism that the US is fighting. They have shown in the media that the war on terrorism is nothing but a way to enter Islamic nations and destroy them. The Iraqi’s stand still and against this war on terrorism (Lapidus, 2014).
According to Waisbord (2013) media policies are constructed to gain global capital and power. Media policies are always constructed to keep the global affairs in mind as these global affairs helps a country or a set of countries to stretch their dominance. The ISIS is a global affair for the USA. The ISIS is a global affair as the US has marketed the war on terrorism as a global affair for not only the US but also the rest of the world. It is simple to understand the media policies of the US through ISIS. The US has to target a country or a group in the country to claim global power. The country just cannot stick to Afghanistan and claim global dominance.
The US has to enter other borders and fight organizations if it aims global dominance. In order to globally dominate the world, the US takes allies from other countries especially from Israel and the UK. Normally the US finds it easy to gain the support of the entire Western wing thus also bringing in important votes in the UN meetings. These votes allow the US to occupy or place trade barriers in these countries causing problems in North America and the West (Bremmer, 2013). America has once again found global help from Western countries and capital from Israel to fight the terrorist organization in Iraq. The media in the US shows the Western world condemning the acts of the ISIS and shows them united in fighting Islamic extremist. Thus, the media of the US shows a global image of the Western and American countries fighting a war to bring peace and eliminating the enemies of peace from the world (Bremmer, 2013).
ISIS has not found any global support through which it can spread or dominate other nations. The media of the USA is so strong that it has completely blown away the image of the ISIS. No matter what the media of Iraq portrays, the ISIS is also regarded as a terrorist organization in other Islamic countries (Rabasa & Benard, 2014). The media of Iraq is focused on improving this image and find global partners but has not been successful in the recent years. Although the media policy is directed in bringing cooperation from other Islamic states it is highly unlikely that it will ever happen (Rabasa & Benard, 2014).
The media policy o the US and Iraq might be very similar an also very different in some ways. However, both the countries have policies to design media in a way to control the action of the citizens and make them feel that the country is doing the best for their citizen. The government of the US and the ISIS has similar aims and goals, which is to seek global power. Over the past few years, the US government has been very successful with their media policies to win the war on terrorism, and it is yet to be seen what the outcome on Iraq will be.
List of References
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