From Navy Seals to The Siege: Getting to Know the Muslim Terrorist, Hollywood Style (original) (raw)
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5th International Conference in Communication and Media Studies "Think Peace, Talk Peace, Cultivate Peace" , 2018
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Mohamed Ali Semlali. Muslims are frequently stereotyped across different media outlets in saliently negative ways. This thesis takes particular concern with the medium of film specifically those from Hollywood. Given that films are the dominant medium of today, this is a legitimate means to understanding Arab-Muslim representations. A discourse exists on the topic; the most prominent scholars being Jack G Shaheen (2001) and Edward Said (2003).These scholars have written extensively on the topic of Muslim representations. Both of their writings are of tremendous value to this thesis, however, they both have notable flaws. Shaheen examines Muslim representations in Hollywood but uses little character analysis; as well this he does not consider reasons for why Muslims are represented in negative ways. Conversely, Said focuses on why Muslims were historically stereotyped during the colonial era, although he takes concern with the printed word (colonial literature) a medium of no relevance to this thesis (nor the current digital era). Therefore, this thesis is intended to situate within both of these scholars work; to examine Muslim characters in Hollywood films before and after 9/11. This will enable a perspective on how social events affect Muslim representation, which will aid with the second aim; to simultaneously examine why films depicts Muslims in either good or bad manners. This is of course different for each film, of which six are analyzed all between 1993-2007. Thus this thesis will discover if Muslims characters have changed after 9/11.