Rwandan Genocide
ORIENTALISING THE ORIENT: A media representation analysis of the ‘other’
Course – Journalism (H.), Semester - IV
Subject – International Media Scenario
Professor – Ms. Bindu Menon
Name – Drushti B. Joshi
Roll number – 828
ABSTRACT:
This is essay is based on countering the assumption that Orientalism as of today is an inert fact of nature and that it is in fact constructed. What are today the common tropes of Orientalism was in fact just an idea at a point in time with no historical reality. In order to translate an idea into reality, it must have a history (shared or not), a tradition of thought, a vocabulary and terminology and finally imagery-both aural and now visual. Attaching these elements to an idea leads to the construction of a presence or a reality.
The role played by the media in aiding this construction is perhaps the most key one in proliferation of the ideas that prevail today. Media texts here may not simply be news mediums of print and television but also books, art academic discourses, films, movies and television shows which have furthered stereotypes to make then omnipresent. The ‘first world’ reading of ‘third’ world texts has thrown light on a number of aspects of representation and signification of images in the media. The apparent torch bearers of representation of the Orient in the media are overwhelmingly and involuntarily women and the essay aims at pointing out the same.
INTRODUCTION:
Edward Said, a pioneer in exposing Oriental though and contradictions, points to the same in an organised fashion by telling us of a few reasonable qualifications for such a trajectory of making reality come ‘true’. These qualifications are:
1. It would be incorrect to conclude that the Orient was essentially an idea with no corresponding reality.
Oriental studies in the West are based mainly on the relationship between the Orient and Occident. Thought processes, discourses and eventually extending to
Course – Journalism (H.), Semester - IV
Subject – International Media Scenario
Professor – Ms. Bindu Menon
Name – Drushti B. Joshi
Roll number – 828
ABSTRACT:
This is essay is based on countering the assumption that Orientalism as of today is an inert fact of nature and that it is in fact constructed. What are today the common tropes of Orientalism was in fact just an idea at a point in time with no historical reality. In order to translate an idea into reality, it must have a history (shared or not), a tradition of thought, a vocabulary and terminology and finally imagery-both aural and now visual. Attaching these elements to an idea leads to the construction of a presence or a reality.
The role played by the media in aiding this construction is perhaps the most key one in proliferation of the ideas that prevail today. Media texts here may not simply be news mediums of print and television but also books, art academic discourses, films, movies and television shows which have furthered stereotypes to make then omnipresent. The ‘first world’ reading of ‘third’ world texts has thrown light on a number of aspects of representation and signification of images in the media. The apparent torch bearers of representation of the Orient in the media are overwhelmingly and involuntarily women and the essay aims at pointing out the same.
INTRODUCTION:
Edward Said, a pioneer in exposing Oriental though and contradictions, points to the same in an organised fashion by telling us of a few reasonable qualifications for such a trajectory of making reality come ‘true’. These qualifications are:
1. It would be incorrect to conclude that the Orient was essentially an idea with no corresponding reality.
Oriental studies in the West are based mainly on the relationship between the Orient and Occident. Thought processes, discourses and eventually extending to
References: 1. Said, E. W (1978), Orientalism, Vintage Publishers 2. Davis, K (2001), Time behind the veil: The Media, the Middle Ages and Orientalism now, Postcolonial Middle Ages, Palgrave Macmillan 3. Macmaster, N & Lewis, T (1998) , Orientalism: From unveiling to hyperveiling, Journal of European Studies, Volume 28 (1), Sage Publications 4. Varisco, D. M (2008), Reading Orientalism: Said and the Unsaid, Publications on the near East 5. Spivak, G. C (2010), Can the Sub-altern speak? Columbia University Press 6. Needham, A. D (1991), At the Receiving end: Reading ‘third’ world texts in a ‘first’ world context, Women Studies Quarterly, Volume 18 (314), pp 91-99.