Patriarchy is a societal system, that stands for a male dominated society. It is the male who is in power and in control in his family, and his male descendent is the one who takes on power after him.

In the Arab society, patriarchy is common, resulting in TV series that showcase it too. In “Bab el hara” a Syrian TV series, we can see how this male dominated society is apparent. In fact, the series showcases first hand male dominance, and aggressively control everyone, and female obedience (Zaatari, Z. 2015). This is a reflection of a problem that has plagued the Arab societies for a long time, and is still persistent to this day based on the videos that were recommended on blackboard which show how the male gender is the one that has the influence to make the important decisions in the society.

Zaatari, Z. (2015). Desirable Masculinity/Femininity and Nostalgia of the ‘‘Anti-Modern’’:
Bab el-Hara Television Series as a Site of Production. Sexuality & Culture 19: 16–36.
Retrieved from: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12119-014-9242-5

Disabled people tend to be stereotyped in the media in certain inaccurate ways, causing their misrepresentation to feel offensive and negative to those who actually suffer from any kind of disability.

In a TV series entitled 13 Reasons Why, the main character commits suicide, and the TV series follows the 13 reasons she actually did it. The series shows the main character as an object of violence, one of the stereotypes the media builds about people with disabilities (Barnes, C., 1992). Throughout the series, the 13 reasons this character committed suicide have to do with her helplessness against other people, which made her this helpless victim. Although the character was a victim of many injustices, the idea of her suicide being known from the beginning of the series feels like her mental health is the reason she was unable to speak up against the people who harmed her. None of the characters in the series were shown as supportive, and this further more accentuated the helplessness of the main character. Her mental health seems like the cause behind the perpetuation of the violence she was victim of.

Disabled people are not dependent on others, and their disability is never the reason they were object of violence. Justifying the helplessness of a character because of their disability is never correct, and it falls largely within the stereotypes that people with disabilities are linked with in the media. More people with disabilities are putting themselves out there, in the public eye (Ginsburg, f. 2016), and that could be helpful for limiting the stereotypes that people with disabilities are exposed with in the media. It is time we stop the misrepresentation of people with disabilities.

References

Barnes, C. (1992). Disabling Imagery and the Media. The British Council of Organisations
of Disabled People. Retrieved from: http://www.mediadiversity.org/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=601

Ginsburg, F. (2016). Cripping the Infrastructure: Disability, Media and “The New Normal.”
Working Papers in Anthropology 2(3). Leuven: KU Leuven. Retrieved from:
https://soc.kuleuven.be/immrc/files/wpa-2016-2-1-faye-ginsburg.pdf
• Barnes, C. (1992). Disabling Imagery and the Media. The British Council of

Media aims to produce and transform sets of ideas in many areas, from economic ones to political ones (Hall, S., 1990). Unfortunately, the system of racism starts with ideologies in the society. Society’s ideas and intentions are highlighted through the media, causing the media to often come off as racist. Media is also built for a certain audience with specific combinations of ideals and ideas, resulting from a chain of similar past ideologies.

There are different types of racism a media could transmit: “overt” racism and “inferential” racism. Overt racism refers to the racist ideas and arguments discussed in the media by a spokesperson, whereas inferential racism is the usage of racist statements within factual or fictional situations (Hall, S., 1990).

Racism in the media comes in many forms. In the entertainment industry for instance, racism occurs when the movie stereotypes races in a specific, often discriminating way. For instance, American films tend to stereotype Arabs and Muslims as terrorists, fanatics, aggressive people; associating them with a negative connotation in any way (Shaheen, J. G., 2003). This example is a perfect way to explain a form of racism in the media that continues to affect people’s ideas all around the world, depicting Arabs and Muslims with a negative attribution. Film is a powerful form of media, especially when it comes to Hollywood movies, which are watched all around the world by millions.

The cruciality of the awareness of racism in the media continues to exist, as racist ideologies have unfortunately not left us in the century that we live in.

References:

Hall, S. (1990). The Whites of Their Eyes: racist ideologies and the media. In Alvarado, M.,and Thompson, J., (eds) The Media Reader (pp. 89-93). Retrieved from:
http://www.appstate.edu/~hallcl/READING%20ASSIGNMENTS/3534%20wk8-stuarthall.PDF

Shaheen, J. G. (2003). Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 588(1), 171–193. Retrieved fromhttps://doi.org/10.1177/0002716203588001011

Images have the power to reinforce a statement published by the media, and to highlight the journalists’ point of view of the story. That being said, images are biased to the owner and source of the news and what it wishes to highlight.

A punctum is a detail of an image that attracts the viewer’s eye in a specific direction. The punctum is subjective to the viewer’s mind, and his interpretation of it. (Kroker, M., Kroker A., 2015). Therefore, the punctum is the element of the image captured that calls out the viewers attention.

Absorption and facingness are opposite terms signifying the direction of the object in focus photographed. An absorption photo is one in which the object is in “performance”, thus facing away of the camera. The object in focus in this case is absorbed in his action. On the other hand, an object in focus facing the camera, and therefore the viewer through images such as portraits is what is referred to as “facingness”. (Kroker, M., Kroker A., 2015)

Images are almost never objective (Share, J., n.d.). Computer manipulation has become a crucial way of altering the images to fit the subjectivity of the person using the image, in this case the journalist. In fact, this new technology is a way for the truth about an image’s subjectivity to come out (Share, J., n.d.).

Personally, I have to agree with Share regarding this information. Every photograph is manipulated through many mediums in order to convey and highlight the desired message of the image. Through lighting and exposure, angles, and computer manipulation, as well as picking the appropriate and wanted image, a journalist is able to most accurately portray their wanted theme behind a story, and representing it through their perspective.

Kandutsch, C. (2015). A Yarmouk Photograph retrieved from  Kandutsch – A Yarmouk Photograph .pd

Share, J. (n.d.). The Camera Always Lies. retrieved from Share – Camera Always Lies.pdf

In an article by the New York Times uploaded on the 2^nd of February in 2020 in the section global health by Donald G. Mcneil Jr., entitled Wuhan Coronavirus Looks Increasingly Like a Pandemic, Experts Say, about the dangerous Coronavirus spreading around the world.

The ownership filter comes through, as The New York times is an American source, and the U.S and China have problems together. This filter leads the article to further accentuate the weight of the news in order to push people away from visiting China, and contributing to its economical gains. Therefore, the article refers to the habit is using sensational language in the article.

A habit of the media present in the article would be the use of sensational language as to make the news seem more dramatic than it already is through sentences such as “it is an enormous leap beyond what virologists saw when SARS and MERS emerged” (Mcneil, D., 2020). This heavy vocabulary use continues throughout the text, with words such as “catastrophic”, “die”, “deadly”. This way, the news are bound to catch the reader’s eye and concern.

The American bias also comes through the bias statistics and numbers, that focus on scaring the reader, and appealing to their concern, rather than educating them on the numbers of cases and deaths of the case by comparing the numbers to other common diseases’ numbers of cases such as the flu.

February 2nd, 2020 Wuhan Coronavirus Looks Increasingly Like a Pandemic, Experts Say, The New York times, by Donald G. Mcneil Jr. To be retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/02/health/coronavirus-pandemic-china.html

International news reporting is how different sides of the globes learn about what news are happening on the other end. In order to report the news internationally, there are four habits that are followed. These habits include giving a formulaic chronology of events, using sensationalized and exaggerated language, referencing metaphors and imagery with which Americans identify, and lastly on emphasizing an American connection (Moeller, 1999).

Covering the news in a formulaic way revolves around identifying bad and good. The chronology of events will also be formulaic. First, the reporters will have a virtual template, meaning the coverage will only be done once the situation is extreme. Next, there will be a simplification of the causes and the solutions of the news reported. Moving forward, the language of morality where reporters portray the good and bad of a situation. Lastly, there must be images of the situation reported, as a lack of visual elements creates a shortfall from the audience (Moeller, 1999). The U.S’s coverage of the Gaza war in 2009 started with an image of a mother who had lost five of her children, which implies the extreme situation, the country of Palestine was facing. Moreover, the reporters portrayed the good and the bad from their side, as the Israelis always has the upper hand with Americans, thus are seen as the victims in this scenario, whereas Palestine’s perspective of the story was missing. The bloodbath was downsized as it had happened in Palestine (Battah, 2009). Images, and videos were also available throughout the coverage of this unfortunate event.

When it comes to the language used, sensationalized and exaggerated language is crucial, as to keep up with the shock factor of the news reported. That being said, the media only covers and reports the news that are pretty drastic and catastrophically extreme whether it is about a disease or an incident (Moeller, 1999). The language used in the U.S’s coverage of the Gaza war was very harsh, and included a dark vocabulary of words such as “killed”, “Mideast Violence”.

The media often uses analogies, metaphors and imagery to make an event seem more relatable to the audience and provoke interest and excitement. It’s also used to simplify a complex event or crisis in order to reach a broader audience (Moeller, 1999). Especially while reporting international news to the American public, it is common to use analogies and comparisons with historic events that happened in the US, helping the audience better understand the situation through examples they already understand and relate to, making the need for an extensive description of the background preceding the actual event obsolete.

By doing so, the media also creates a sentimental feeling towards international news that would have otherwise been taken objectively.

Moreover, when reporting international news, it is very important to find a way to make it relatable for the American public. In fact, Americans are usually quite egocentric and focus on the “American side” of things (Moeller, 1999). Therefore, the selection of the news to be reported is based on American connection and implication, rather than actual importance or impact. It is important that the place where the events take place has some connection or implication for the American people (common vacation destination, US military presence, imminent danger to US sovereignty/interests…). The audience should feel that the event will/can affect them or their country in a direct way. It is more common to depict an event from the “What is the American stand in regards to that news” point of view rather than reporting the actual news as is. In addition, Americans take interest in news that shows extreme scenes and bloody images of crisis from elsewhere. Other than that, the American public rarely takes interest in international news. The U.S, which is a strong ally Israel, has also reported how the White House has asked for a durable ceasefire to avoid Palestinian “terrorists” from launching any rockets, which would be a problem for the U.S (Battah, 2009).

References:

Battah, H. (2009): In the U.S., Gaza is a Different War. Al-Jazeera. Retrievedfrom:https://www.aljazeera.com/focus/war_on_gaza/2009/01/20091585448204690.html

Moeller, S. (1999). Four Habits of International News Reporting (read pages 1-6 only): In Compassion fatigue. London: Routledge. https://frameworksinstitute.org/assets/files/PDF_GII/four_habits_of_news_reporting.pd f  

The means of mass communications, also known as the media operates using five filters according to Herman and Chomsky (1998): profit/ownership, advertising, establishment, flak and the common enemy.

The limitation of ownership in media is caused by the large investments required to own a part of a media. (Herman and Chomsky, 1998). Only the largest businesses and companies receive major profit from the media, as they are the ones with the biggest audiences, as people rely on them for their reliable outlet of information and news. An example of how ownership affects the publishing of news would be OTV Lebanon’s lack of news coverage regarding the Revolution in Lebanon, that started on the 17th of October 2019. In fact, this news channel is owned by the Free patriotic movement in Lebanon, which was being criticised in the Revolution itself, explaining this party’s channel’s lack of news coverage.

Advertising is a strong tool that allows promoting a product or a concept to its audience. Ad-based media has an advantage in the market as the advertising subsidies allow them to be sold at a lower price than ad-free media, making ad-based media accessible to all social classes (Herman and Chomsky, 1998). The mass media highly relies on the effectiveness of advertisement as it attracts an audience with buying power.

As the media needs a flow of reliable information and news, therefore, they distribute their resources where most important news happen

(Herman and Chomsky, 1998). Moreover, the establishment of the media business highly relies on getting information from a reliable source as to avoid the costs of investigations in order to make sure the information is authentic and real.

Flak is the negative feedback and criticism that the media receives as a response to their program or their declaration (Herman and Chomsky, 1998).  People with power produce threatening flak; as their opinions are heard and respected, and can be direct or indirect. Therefore, these people who produce the flak have a major influence on the media.

Communism is seen as a threat to the elite of western societies. Therefore, the anti-communism mindset has been used to mobilize the populace against this “enemy”. (Herman and Chomsky, 1998). In that way, mass media has been used as a mass control mechanism against communism, benefiting the western elites by labeling anyone who does not oppose it as an enemy, as “evil”, and as a threat. Mass media is also used to push forward personalities who personify the anticommunist ideology.

References:

Herman, E. S., & Chomsky, N. (1988). A Propaganda Model [read excerpts]. Excerpted from Manufacturing consent: The political economy of the mass media (1st ed.). New York, N.Y: Pantheon Books. Retrieved from: https://chomsky.info/consent01/

OTV Lebanon (n.d.).Website.Retrieved from https://www.otv.com.lb/

     Media literacy defines one’s capacity to understand, interpret, and use the information received by the media through the different methods of communication. In fact, media literacy enables one’s interpretation of media texts to awaken their attention on the various aspects of the daily life that the media affects, such as the social and political aspects (Hoechsmann, M., and Poyntz, S.R., 2012). From the television to an advertisement, a radio talk show, and even a video game: media comes in many forms, and is all around us. It is a representation of messages transferred that takes into account a production, a language, a sender, a targeted audience and information in any form it may be presented (Hoechsmann, M., and Poyntz, S.R., 2012). Our ways of communication have become more evolved on a technological level, and the media has quickly become much more accessible. In the new age of technological advancements, media literacy has become more based on interaction, where there is a give and take instead of exclusively limiting the receivers of media to absorbing the information (Hoechsmann, M., and Poyntz, S.R., 2012). We, as consumers of the media, are digesting different media forms at the same time between the Internet that is directly accessible on our screens, and other forms of worldwide communications. The youth is also immersed in forms of media communication forms surrounding them from video games to the internet, resulting in adults’ efforts to filter their media literacy. Media education is increasingly becoming a crucial element of our lives, as it helps gain awareness of how the media shapes and influences elements of our lives. Media literacy is also relative to the predicaments that face the people of a specific region, which is why using a facet of media literacy that is not applicable to a region will not be successful because the receivers of this media won’t be able to connect with it (Melki, J., 2017).  Therefore, media literacy is highly subjective to the different histories, nationalities and races present across the world, since it is normal that the consumers interpret the information retained based on their personal background.

References:

Hoechsmann, M., and Poyntz, S.R. (2012) What is Media Literacy? In Media literacies: a critical introduction  (pp. 1-16). UK. Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.9781405186117

 Melki, J. (2017). Guest editorial: Towards a media literacy of the oppressed. Media Education Research Journal , 8(1), 5-14. http://merj.info/wpcontent/uploads/2018/02/MERJ_8.1_Editorial.pdf

National Association of Media Literacy Education (2017): Media Literacy Defined https://namle.net/publications/media-literacy-definitions/