In the past, many critics note that the American media continues to manipulate stories about counties around the world. With this manipulation there is discrepancy in the modern way the media omit, twist, and report inaccurate and often biased information about other countries in the world. In Australia, the media presents Islam as a religion laced with violence. In fact, much of the public’s knowledge about the Muslim and Islamic affairs stems from media reports that cloud the perception of the people. Many critics in Australia point to the fact that the media the listeners judgment about the events in the world. As a result, many individuals find it difficult to formulate an objective and open view of the issues that occur around the world and even in the United States. In fact, media houses such as Cable News Network (CNN) influence the information that the world receives on a daily basis. Arguably, freedom of the press and free speech are important to the way news travels around the world. But, what happens when free speech becomes biased? The result is simple. Individuals find that there is untruth in the way they perceive the rest of the world. While the freedom of the press and free speech contributes to the development of democracy in the country, there is room for concentrated views and manipulation that clearly clouds the views of the Islamic and Muslim societies in the modern world.
Stephanie Kam (2014) writes “the technological intensification of the communication channels across the globe has opened up new spaces for economic and political power to unfold,” (Kam, 2014, p.1) and gives rise to the way CNN presents the views of the Islamic society. Recently, reporter, Bill Maher, launched his bigoted attack on all Islamic and Muslim nations and led to Egberto Willies (2014) comment that the media continues to fail it viewers by dispelling myths and preconceived notions. The viewers are misled because of a derelict media,” (Willies, 2014). One can argue that the presentation of these societies comes “with civil liberties like freedom of expression and privacy,” (Kam, 2014, p.1), but, there is censorship when the issues concern national security and sensitive information concerning trade. A study carried out by the Adjunct Professor Peter Manning at UTS in Australia, shows: “58% of international news articles which had the words “violent”, “death”, “attack”, “kill”, “bomb”, “gun”, “terror”, “suicide” or “gunmen” whenever the words Arab, Palestinian or Muslim or Islam was used. This [result] was from a total of 1443 searches,” (Islam and the Media, n.p). Arguably, the media serves four functions, regardless of the negative portrayal and the impact that this portrayal has on the views of the world. One expects that CNN will provide a scrutiny of the socio-political atmosphere in the world; provide information on the political events that can affect the entire country; facilitate dialogue of the events in the world; and advocate as a social voice for the public. With this is mind, CNN reserves the right to present information on terrorist attacks, and even the Arab Spring rising as the people reserve the right to know.
Many citizens would not be aware of the terrorist attack on the United States in 2001 if CNN had not recorded and presented the news in such a swift manner. In addition, Australian Muslim come under attack in the media as media houses presents the “world for us through fictional and non-fictional messages, in other words through news and documentaries as well as so-called entertainment. Take such words as ‘fundamentalists’, ‘extremists’, ‘terrorists’, ‘murderers’ and ‘Islamists’, creates a negative image of Muslims,” (Islam and the Media, n.p). The fact is the Australian media is similar to the Cable News Network as all media houses are connect in one way or another. The representation of Muslims and Islamic groups is gravely distorted. As a result, public’s view of Muslims stems from the anti-Western, sympathy to violence, terrorism, violent and oppression of women. Amiri reiterates the views that “extensive scholarly work has been done on Muslims’ representation in the media,” (Amiri, 2012) is negative. The Western media houses portray the Islamic and Muslim world in a negative way. Jarjour and Chahine (2007) in their article “Media Image of the Middle East” suggest “the Western media image of the Middle East is based on many factors: some relate to the past but still linger[s] in the collective memory of people,” (Jarjour & Chahine, 2007). As a result of these personal views, many individuals who have never been to the Islamic and Muslim countries form their personal opinions of these societies.
While much of the struggles for control in the Islamic and Muslims states stem from “a reformist strategy on the part of the subordinate classes and the organized working class in particular,” (Abdelmoula, 2012, p.31), many Islamic and Muslim take their personal problems and wreak havoc on the Western Societies. Conversely, these struggles occur in the Arab territories and one can understand the internal struggles of a country. But, one cannot understand why these nations take their issues to the rest of the world. As a fact, CNN offers the opportunity for individuals around the world to learn from their coverage of what the world can face if these terrors reveal themselves in the Western world. With the attack of September 11, the world saw the capabilities of the Islamic and Muslim terrorists who step out of their domestic war and launched an attack that killed many innocent victims. With this story spreading across the media, “terrorism [became] a corporeal entity or sovereign nation and not a relatively abstract concept,”(Elrashidi, 2013), and led to the average “American public associate[ing] terrorism exclusively with Islam,” (Elrashidi, 2013).
While there are those critics who argue that preconceived notions about the unknown is natural, others point that it is unfair to formulate biased concepts of a group. However, many critics point out that the destructive activities of these two societies add to the preconceived ideas that that CNN adds to an already terrified country. Yet, the non-coverage of worldwide issues worries many Australian Muslims who prefer to have a biased view of the events in the world, than not to have any news at all. As a result of this need for information, the news media sensationalize the events in the media and make it difficult for propagandists to spread untruth across the media.
The wider society in the United States garners information from the television rather than the printed media. Therefore, CNN wields a major source of power in the way they lead or mislead the country. The September 9, 2001 attack on the United States, globalization, the clash of civilizations, and the struggle for the Middle East are all important Islamic and Muslim activities that CNN have broadcast around the world in the past. People who have never been to these Arab countries form negative opinions of the Middle Eastern countries and many individuals have developed strong hatred for the entire Islamic and Muslim worlds. Is the preconceived misrepresentation fair to the rest of the Islamic and Muslim people? It cannot be fair or just that people formulate their opinions based on what CNN releases. Nevertheless, the media whirl or coverage of these events in the light of the “war on terror” leads to accurate and inaccurate portrayal of these events.
The reality is that the news media on a whole revel in the need to provide negative images of the world. In fact, CNN give widespread coverage of the negative activities around the world and in particular the Islamic and Muslim societies, yet they pay very little attention to the positive side of these societies. Jarjour and Chahine (2007) writes “there is a constant focus on Middle Eastern crisis, wars, catastrophes, poverty and similar negative features, and rarely anything about its positive experiences, in terms of politics, development, or society,” (p. 4). Often, people who have never been to these Middle Eastern countries talk of the negative side of the Islamic and Muslim societies. When questioned about their source of information, these individuals are likely to point to media houses such as CNN as the source of their information.
While CNN seeks to give hard facts on the events in the world, human nature stipulates that there will be some amount of bias in the way reporters present their information to the viewers. Critic Mohammed Zayani postulates “contributing further to the demise of the notion of the [Islamic and Muslim] nation-state is the information revolution in the Arab world and particularly in the Gulf region,” (p.81). This source of information about the events in these countries often leads media houses such as CNN to the factual information that they transmit across the world. The fact is that the world needs to become aware of the harsh conditions under which many Arab nations live and even of this means that the world only sees the negative aspects of the country, then, at least the individuals are aware of what the world faces with the Arab terrorists.
The original media technologies enhance the role of cross-cultural perceptions of trans-national borders. CNN provides that the necessary information that allows individuals the opportunity to learn about foreign countries and their policies. Nonetheless, since the September 2001 terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers, global relations with the Islamic and Muslim communities have come under attack. Oweidat writes the gruesome images that the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria circulated and caught the headlines in the past few weeks, and shows that the group is the latest in the Islamic societies that seek to manipulate Islam for their personal needs, (Oweidat, 2014). As such, many critics refer to the Islamic and Muslims territories as “demonized in a media system where their images are easily matched to long-established fictional entertainment stereotypes of the Arab villain,” (Shaheen, 1988 as cited by Griffin, 2002). The extensive coverage of these events show the media houses in general moving to take advantage of the disagreement, fire, fatalities, and devastation in these countries. The effect is far – reaching as globalization allows CNN to transmit to countries around the world, including Australia. As a result, Australian Muslims face much ridicule in their country.
While CNN and other media houses fall victims to human desires and emotion and inject personal beliefs in a number of ways, CNN act as a source of information. Similarly, the media house helps to add pressure to the progression of foreign assistance to these territories in the Middle East. Megan Zingarelli finds that CNN has a growing effect on the world to address problems in the society, leaders as and increase the way people share valid information. (p. ii). One could say that CNN’s graphic file footage of the wars in the Islamic and Muslim societies bring about worldwide transparency as it allows people to hold the governments in these territories accountable for their actions. The truth is the television media bring about critical, yet emotive coverage of terror that exists in these countries. This supports the argument of how media plays a credible role in bringing about not just transparency, but also to expose the faults of governments to fix the wrongs they commit in their respective societies.
In a 2011 report “Framing of the Muslim Brotherhood, Kelsey Glover writes that CNN’s offers “a great amount of dissent and little agreement within [the] network’s report about the attainability of democracy of an Islamist organization gets into power,”(Glover, 2011). However, the media house offered coded information about the Brotherhood that passed negative comments of the Brotherhood that led many individuals to create a more radical view of the group. In addition, the report showed that while Fox News was deliberate in its reference to the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, CNN offered a more tactful approach to its comments. Glover’s findings support the common belief that there are different ways to present the same data even though it brings the same effects.
In concluding, CNN, like other media houses, has a tremendous impact on the way the world view the Islamic and Muslim societies. While some may argue that the biased views offered by the company clouds the judgment of many viewers, others argue that CNN has more tact and diplomacy when dealing with these terrorist nations. Either way the views of the television network influence the views that the public has of these “terrorist” driven societies. Many individuals will never get the opportunity to visit these territories, but the reality of the harsh conditions drive emotive actions in the people who view CNN. As a result of these emotions, the relevant authorities come under pressure to offer assistance to the innocent citizens of these countries. Some advocates against the way the media present the Islamic and Muslim society argue that there is good in these countries, but the harsh truth is that the honest graphic images of the terror in these societies override the good that exists in these countries. The reality is that the world needs to know the facts about countries that pose a threat to the innocent victims in and around the Islamic and Muslim societies.
References
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