"Islamophobia"

"Classes canceled but UT campus reopens after threat" By Bill Hanna

ASSOCIATED PRESS / RICARDO B. BRAZZIELL

University of Texas students evacuate campus after the university received a bomb threat Friday morning

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/09/14/4258657/uts-austin-campus-being-evacuated.html#storylink=cpy

       

       The University of Texas at Austin’s campus was evacuated Friday due to a bomb threat. A man with a “Middle Eastern” accent called the main university phone saying he belonged to al-Qaida and claimed bombs placed throughout campus would go off in 90 minutes. Administrators waited more than an hour, however, before evacuating the grounds and telling students to get as far away from the school as possible. In the midst of violent protests outside U.S. embassies in the Middle East, nervous tension stirred among students. The UT president was quoted saying, “The global situation would be part of what we look at when we evaluate any threat.” In the coverage following the initial breaking story of the incident at UT, many students were quoted connecting the unrest in the middle east to the threat posed on the college’s campus. Why, however, did so many of them so quickly to make such negative associations? Why is the media so unalarmed by and unconscious of these assumptions?

       Ever since the 9/11 attacks of 2001, citizens or visitors of Middle Eastern descent in the United States have been viewed through a lens of heightened caution and skepticism. Discrimination against peoples of Muslim faith and racism against Middle Easterner peoples has been a growing issue, and it is greatly contributed to the media’s representation of the religion and nationality in the news. TV news is one of the most important sources of public knowledge about world events as approximately 80 percent of the population relies on it as their main source of news. Therefore, when Middle Eastern peoples are only present in the media in times of crisis, as seen in the recent coverage the bomb threat in Austin, it is natural for the public to associate such images with “Islam terrorism.” The terms “Muslim” and “terrorist” have become synonymous as Arabs are overwhelming underrepresented in the media aside from issue such as terrorist threats or the war in Iraq. If the media continues to present Islam as fundamentalism, extremism, and radicalism posing a threat to western security, then racial discrimination in the United States will never improve. On the other hand, if one day, we can replace “Islamophobia” with interculturalism and a lack of acceptance of differences with an educated understanding of one another’s beliefs then peace between countries, cultures, and religions may be within reach. Until then, however, in this era of communication, war will continue and end with media war.

Who has the power?

“Box office report: 'The Possession' leads the worst weekend in over a decade” by Grady Smith

The Possessions - Official Trailer

       CNN featured a story from EW yesterday on this weekends depressing box office sales. According to Grady Smith’s article, “Box office report: 'The Possession' leads the worst weekend in over a decade,” this weekend marked the lowest movie ticket sales in years as the top 12 films grossed a cumulative $51.9 million. It was the worst top 12 total since 2008. The last time overall ticket sales were so low was two weekends after the 9/11 attacks in September of 2001. Therefore, it is evident to see that numerous aspects contribute to the receptivity of the public to the media. Whether it is political, social, or economic issues, when the people are not responding to the media in a positive way, it becomes concerning news. This is just one example of how important money and success is to individual facets of the media and to the mass media as a whole. 

      Therefore, this article raises the question, “What makes media successful?” According to the EW article, movies are deemed successful based on box office sales. Newspaper success is based on whether or not they sell copies each day. Online publications and magazines rely on subscriptions from readers in order to sustain their companies. So, who goes to those movies to make the box office sales go up or down? Who buys the newspapers and reads them on a daily basis? Who subscribes to various websites or magazines? It’s the people. As much power and influence the media has over the general public, it is still the people who have the ultimate decision of whether or not to respond to those media sources. The mass media is an outlet and voice for the people. It seeks to express the general public’s opinions, beliefs, and concerns. As much power as the media has, however, it gets that power from the people. If we as individuals and groups decide to stop reading newspapers and magazines, and if we stop going to movies or listening to music, the entire system would collapse. The media would lose all power, all influence, and would eventually cease to exist at all. Therefore, this article helped remind me that I do have power despite the grandness of the media. I am not just a victim of it or a mind for it to manipulate. Rather, I am its controller, and we as a people get to choose how we respond to it, how we question it, and how much power we choose to give it. 

Women Athletes...Players or Playboys?

Paralympics 2012: The inspiring women fighting for gold 

       It is often complained that female athletes are frequently depicted by the media in a rather unfair and unequal manner to their counter male athletes. One journalists at bodybuilding.com argued that “women athletes tend to be poorly portrayed, both textually and pictorially, by the media” and “seem to be chosen more for their looks and ‘womanly traits’ as opposed to their sporting prowess.” Another columnist at womensenews.org wrote, “Photos of successful male athletes overwhelmingly show them in serious, action poses, while powerhouse women are often trivialized, romanticized, and sexualized.” While this point of view may be proven by various articles and profiles of women athletes throughout the media, it was recently disproven by CNN’s article, “Paralympics 2012: The inspiring women fighting for gold” by Lauren Said-Moorhouse. Throughout the article, Said-Moorhouse refers to the women athletes by using words such as “extraordinary,” “distinguished,” and “impressive sporting all-rounders.” Instead of presenting them in sensual or non-threatening poses, Said-Moorhouse pictures the women in her article in their uniforms in the midsts of competition or victory. She never demoralizes the women, but she rather contradicts most media depictions by praising them as strong athletic competitors.  

In her article, Said-Moorhouse broke the mold of traditional media depictions and presented the female Paralympic winners as competitors, athletes, and strong role-models rather than sexualizing, feminizing, or romanticizing them just because they are women.  This article proved to me the importance of stepping outside of social norms. It also depicted the profusion of viewpoints outside of those of the traditional media by helping me realize that there is no way to generalize the media. There is such an abundance of differing opinions, writing styles, and points of view circulating throughout the media that it is impossible to pinpoint one opinion and believe it as a universal truth. Exploring the media requires discernment, flexibility, and diligence in order to decipher what is fact and what is opinion. However, no matter what we read or what pictures we see, in the end it is our responsibility as human beings to form our own opinions and decide for ourselves who has the final say in our lives. So, will it be the media or will it be you?