Week 9 theoretical- Jesus, God, Buddha, Allah and Fox News?

There is much contention around 9/11 discourse and the representations of Muslim, but the representation of Westerners should also be noted.  The media, as our keystone of information in instantaneous events, is dualistic, that is, it represents and shapes attitudes not singularly, but of both concerned groups (Middle East/West). Even moderate Westerners who acknowledge acts like 9/11 are not a truthful or blanket representation of Muslims, hesitate to think of media representation of Westerners in the Middle East that may lead to incorrect 'knowledge of "them" and "their" knowledge of us' (Hoover 2012, p. 75).

Another factor that needs to be considered is media as a religion, as a 'public ritual of commemoration and mourning' (Hoover 2012, p. 76). The 9/11 media frenzy is an example of that, as the images of the towers it etched in the minds of those exposed to technology. This public and instantaneous public mourning and imagery did create a feeling of community and it could be argued it further insulated the "us" group from the "them" group, through the very process of mourning. Through loss and sorrow, ratified and legitimized previous misconceptions were re-embraced. In fact, information and education about 'others can lead as readily to mistrust and misunderstanding as to trust and understanding' (Hoover 2012, p. 78). This is due to the fact that context, bias and representation of by the media occurs. A typical example would be the framing of Muslims as conservative, if not archaic, fundamentalists with an affinity for chemicals and also Westerners as immoral and sexually deviant.

The 9/11 event was a tragedy, however many other tragedies have occurred with less shock and less media coverage. Although in the article Hoover proposes it was more because of the unprecedented nature of the where the act took place, I think it was mainly due to the 'global media landscape [believing] not all human lives are of equal worth' (Hoover 2012, p. 77). The reason for a higher volume of coverage for this event is not because it was unprecedented or unusual, as most events such as Tsunami's or genocide's are to a certain degree unexpected. For instance, the world was in partial disbelief on the release of information about Pol Pot, the Khmer Rogue and the genocide which followed. Most large scale events like these are unexpected or generally action would be taken, or media reporting occurring.

It could be argued that because Western countries do contribute financially, numerically and geographically the most to media, via the myriad of frameworks, that so much reporting occurred as so much of modern media is caucasian or Western. The event could have shocked due to the very event being a target to Westerners, as targeted Western suffering may not be as prevalent on the media.

Reference
Hoover S. 2012. Religion, Media and 9/11. In Lynch G. and J. Mitchell with A. Strhan. Eds., Religion, Media and Culture: A Reader. 75-88. London and New York: Routledge.

Photo
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