" Western media cannot see all the positive things about Qatar... It's not about Qatar, it's about Islam" says journalist Robert Carter (find out more).
Word cup 2022 is today's hot topic in the Western Eastern media clash! The Western media has been criticizing Qatar for banning acts defied by Islam in stadiums (alcohol consumption, LGBTQ+ signs, etc) (find out more).
The truth is that the anti-Qatar propaganda today is only a symptom of the spread of Islamophobia and the lack of cultural awareness in the West. Fear, criticism, and hatred towards Islam have become the mainstream and consensus.
But where does this fixed distorted image of Islam come from?
The Cultivation Theory
George Gerbner, founder of the cultivation theory, claimed that we form our perceptions and understanding of the world through repeated representations that we accept as reality. He suggested that ideas can be implanted in our minds over the course of days, months, or even years of repeated exposure, cultivating and altering our perceptions and behaviors.
The Mean World Syndrome
Gerbner founded the Cultural Indicators Project to study TV's impact on people's attitudes and worldviews, identifying a connection between media consumption and the fear of being victimized. Heavy viewers or people who watch several hours of TV see the world as intimidating and unforgiving.
They tend to form a cognitive bias where they perceive the world as dangerous due to long exposure to media with terrifying headlines and images. The reality is that things are not always as bad as the media portrays.
Observing Islam Through a Western Lens
Dziga Vertov would confirm the cultivation theory, reminding us of the plausibility of cinematic truths, where the audience can only see and believe what the director wants to show.
But what if the reproduced image is false and biased?
Unfortunately, this has been the case for several years. Media portrayals depict the Islamic world as a “mean world” that should be feared and avoided, and thus spreading Islamophobia. The fact is, islamophobes formed their prejudiced views of Muslims on the basis of images they grew up with. For instance, due to what they see in films and the media, most Westerners don't recognize the multi-cultural diversity of Muslims and think they're all Arabs.
Hollywood has long perpetuated Arab and Muslim tropes. Many successful movies show Arab Muslims as faceless violent and militant terrorists, and such characteristics are taken to represent the views and beliefs of Muslims.
Here are 3 examples of how Hollywood films represent Muslims as terrorists:
The Siege
Muslim terrorists are wreaking havoc in New York. In fact, the word "terrorist” is used eight times to describe Muslims.
The Body Guard
A hijab-wearing woman was about to detonate a vest she is wearing packed with bombs. It turns out she is a frightened vulnerable victim forced to do this. So not only are Muslims terrorists but also their women are oppressed.
Eye in the Sky
Once again Muslim Arabs are dangerous terrorists living a low-quality life in the middle of the desert.
The Western media coverage of the World Cup tells us a lot about the perceptions they try to impose about Islamic States:
How Qatar got to host the World Cup – BBC News
The Coverage of the World Cup in Qatar by BBC demonizes Qatar and heroizes BBC journalists as westerners who are concerned about human rights and the welfare of the environment. In fact, they discuss how “this tiny desert state, with no World Cup experience and scorching summer temperatures” was chosen to host the world cup.
Why are people boycotting the 2022 FIFA Men's Football World Cup? | ITV News
ITV chose to focus on controversial topics and completely disregarded the magnificent opening ceremony about accepting differences; "What unites us here in this moment is so much more than what divides us".
While the cultivation theory does not justify the acts of hatred towards Islam, it explains where this hatred comes from and the subconscious bias of uninformed viewers who were not exposed to accurate representations of Islam.
But why do these ill cultivating presentations prevail?
Politics: The Root Cause of Social Issues
Mass media conveys ethics and reflects societal norms. Gerbner explains that even when media portrayals are fictional, they are often taken as real, reinforcing stereotypes and creating an idea in society of what is mainstream and what our dominant ideologies are. We often accept on-screen images as reflecting universal truths of our world. Edward Said would corroborate the claim that some media outlets are adopting an orientalist viewpoint and continuing to belittle non-Westerners, even today in the world cup coverage. The structure of power relations between the Middle East and the Western world is reinforced by the repetition of orientalist representations of Muslim Arabs on the news, and reinforced by other media images. As such, politics shape media and film culture. In relevance to Althusser’s theory about ideology and ideological state apparatus, Gerbner declares that the repetition of certain images serves to legitimize the social order and help viewers define the world.
Who is George Gerbner?
Born in Budapest, Hungary, George Gerbner had an impressive academic background as well as an intriguing political history. He was a gifted writer with a profound interest in folklore and an anti-fascist who refused to serve in the Hungarian Army. He served in the U.S. Army instead and continued his education to become a college Professor and the director of the School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. Gerbner contributed significantly to the field of communications and spoke of the influence of the violence portrayed in media on our perceptions of societies. The fundamental findings that Gerbner drew were that television consumption may drastically alter how we see the actual world.
References
Gerbner George and Michael Morgan. Against the Mainstream : The Selected Works of George Gerbner. P. Lang 2002.
Ebrahim, Nadeen & Lawati, Abbas."Why some Arabs and Muslims feel stung by coverage of the Qatar World Cup". CNN.Thu November 24, 2022. https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/23/middleeast/why-arabs-are-furious-world-cup-mime-intl/index.html
Collinson, Stephen."How World Cup politics explain the modern world".CNN.Wed November 23.https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/23/world/world-cup-politics-modern-world-analysis/index.html
Gerbner George.(1992).Interview by John Lent, Interview with George Gerbner.https://web.asc.upenn.edu/gerbner/Asset.aspx?assetID=2766
Vinney, Cynthia."What Is Cultivation Theory in Media Psychology?".Verywell.mind. January 18, 2022.https://www.verywellmind.com/cultivation-theory-5214376
Rubina, Ramji. "From Navy Seals to The Siege: Getting to Know the Muslim Terrorist, Hollywood Style".Journal of Religion & Film".2005.https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1650&context=jrf
UKEssays. (November 2018). Arabs And Islam In The Mass Media Media Essay. Retrieved from https://www.ukessays.com/essays/media/arabs-and-islam-in-the-mass-media-media-essay.php?vref=1
Gerbner,George.Cultivation Analysis. https://web.asc.upenn.edu/gerbner/Asset.aspx?assetID=459