How has September 11 affected how Muslims are portrayed in the media?
The terrorist attacks centred upon the east coast of the United States on the morning of 11 September 2001 altered forever the view that America has of itself within the greater world order.
By inevitable comparison, this has led to a re evaluation of the role of Islam in the early twenty first century world order, in addition to a new form of hard-line attitude adopted by all western states at the behest of dominant US imperialism in light of the actions that ultimately toppled the finest cultural and financial institutions of the West.
Within the bounds of our discussion, the role of the media has been central in the promulgation of the ideological separation between East and West and the growing religious chasm between traditional western Christian powers and the Islamic Middle East that has been discernible since September 2001. Karl Marx (1968:64 5) offered the first serious critique of the role of the media in western society during the mid nineteenth century and his views on media theory remain central to the understanding of the pull of the modern global media.
The ideas of the ruling classes are in every age, the ruling ideas: i.e. the class, which is the dominant material force in society, is at the same time its dominant intellectual force. The class which has the means of material production at its disposal has control at the same time over the means of mental production in so far as they rule as a class and determine the extent and compass of each epoch, they do this in its whole range, hence, among other things, they regulate the production and distribution of the ideas of their age; thus their ideas are the ruling ideas of the epoch.
Although communism may have lost its ideological battle against capitalism for the hearts and minds of the masses of western civilisation, Marx’s theory remains pertinent for our understanding of the power of the modern media in its new battle versus Islamic ideology, as well as highlighting the organic relationship between media and national government. Essentially, a symbiotic relationship emerges in all capitalist societies whereby the press is ‘free’ only so long as the national government sees merit in its work. Politics in the UK, Europe and particularly the USA is geared towards ensuring a perpetuation of the ideas of the traditional ruling classes. Political structures and constitutions are thus designed with the express aim of keeping radicals out of power, aided an abetted by the mass media and the views of ‘normalcy’ which it expresses.
It is a key point to remember throughout the study: the intrinsic relationship between politics and media, regardless of the level of democratisation of the country in question, greatly affects the portrayal of actors on the political stage. This fact is underscored with the emergence and declaration of war where the media has a duty to back the government’s decision to use armed forces and re enforce the notions of ‘ally’ and ‘enemy’.
For the purposes of this study we have broken our analysis into separate sub headings. First we must examine how Muslims were portrayed pre September 11 so that we can gauge any discernible decline in Islamic West relations since then. We must likewise analyse the attacks themselves, paying particular attention to the response of the West, both politically and in the media. We will achieve this by viewing the response to September 11 through European and American eyes to see how the media portrayed Muslims in both super blocs. And finally we must study the contemporary situation pertaining to Islam and the Western media and attempt to cast an eye into the future to see how the situation may change with increased interaction and empathy on both sides. Throughout we must try to recall that the media, as Marx suggested, is the vehicle through which a sizeable minority affect the views of the populace; for this reason we will attempt to avoid generalisations and stereo typing, though this is what the media itself is so desperate to invoke. First, we must take a chronological historical view of the relationship between the West and Islam to understand the deep seated suspicion that is at work behind the stance of the modern media.
Tags: America, capitalism, media, Muslims, September 11, US
