The Role Of Gender Stereotypes In The Media

Does the media portray/promote hate toward Muslims?

“The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.” (Malcom X). Media, something that is profoundly used in the 21st century, and is an outlet to reach billions across the world. Media has the power to paint a picture in the mind to those who are aware and watching. The information about Islam and Muslims is often connected to some terrible tragic story that headlined as breaking news. People who have never seen or conversed with an actual Muslim, have been exposed to negative connotations surrounded around the religion. So in the end it’s no surprise
the increase in islamophobia. The media over generalizes a religion that is practiced by over 1.6 million people. So the question we must ask ourselves is, does the media portray/promote hate towards Islam or Muslims in general?

The media is both used for the good and bad.
Like the propaganda the Jews had to endure due to the Nazis. The Nazis had turned and entire country against its own people through the distribution of hate in the media. The comparison of the propaganda in the U.S. and 1950s Nazi Germany hold some relation. For example when a GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump publicly says “Donald J. Trump is calling for a total complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on,” a campaign press release said. This is just one example of many views of political public views of Muslims. The idea of people just like me not being able to live in the only place they’ve only know. The problem has recently grew due to the problems in the Middle East and the terrorist attacks. The media is unable to differentiate a stereotype from a heinous crime. Although many claims from the people responsible claiming to be a part of a religion to which its own people denounce. So the valid question must be asked “Why isn’t the media shedding light on the millions of people who dissociate terrorism as a part of
Islam?”

The answer to the question isn’t clear, although the media hasn’t outright displaced stories of Muslim heroes of America; the media has demonstrated an understanding of untruthful and despicable ideologies. For example CNN’s article on Donald Trump’s statements was a direct contradiction of his ideologies and plan to save America. CNN lead with actual statistics of Muslims in the U.S. Many media centers have trouble with discerning the Middle East from being associated with all of the Muslims. Islam is a religion with many faces and people around the world such as Indonesia, Turkey, and majority of Africa. They media while at times seems to show improvement continues to fall back into habit. While news stations show bias constantly such as Fox news, it’s important to display their views as well.
The truth is a religion is not an ethnicity, it is a belief. The simplicity of religion passes on millions of Americans due to the media’s constant replaying of an old story of a terrorist cell harming others. My argument isn’t not to hide all the crimes associated with Islam, because that would be morally wrong to the millions who have that right. Media is constantly felt as one-sided to many Muslims. For example the stories of Muslim women being harmed. New York a women was assaulted by a man in Brooklyn, a local man says “it’s of high concern because you see in, this week alone we’ve had about five cases of hate incidents―and they were all Muslim women who wear the head scarf,” Khalique said. This isn’t the only case of reported hate crimes across the country hurting women and men under the idea that there saving America. The simple truth is America is fighting a war with extremist and Muslim Americans are being punished for a crime that was in another country.

While the media doesn’t understand is that not only are innocent Americans or French or British people being hurt. The entire Middle East has suffered due to this radical thinking. One tremendous example of this is Malala a young girl almost killed by terrorist due to her speaking out for education in Pakistan. I personally read her beautiful story as she fought for her rights, but sadly she is just one in many whose stories haven’t been heard due to lack of advocating in the media. For instance the story of a young women being harassed on social media because of her views against the confederate flag. All the while insults directed on her being Muslim, but that wasn’t what she was attacking in the first place. Another personal story of this is when a man purposefully tried directing a girl to a Mediterranean shop, even though she was clearly headed for the pizza parlor. These are all examples of hostilities against Muslims. Although the remaining question stands “Was this hate produced by the media?” Though extensive research media produced sides of both hate and understanding on the topic of Muslims and Islam. The perception of the masses is interpreted through the media, on sites like twitter, Instagram and Facebook etc. So it’s no surprise that news rooms like Fox would present Islam related matters in a biased light. For example recent article about an imam that approves with Trumps policy “He explained that many Muslims don’t understand what it takes to live in Western countries.” This is just one of many examples in media outlets that doesn’t cover the entire picture. The question that I had was what about all of those Muslim’s in other countries like china? Which in fact has a substantial number of Muslims living there. The fact is that there’s a type of connotation with fox news says it reports to the conservative old white population. Therefore it’s no surprise that they report that a Muslim Imam agrees with Donald Trump’s ban on Muslims. Another fact is that no other outlet yet has been on this story, which proves how creditable this story not. “Studies have shown that 90% of error in thinking is due to error in perception. If you can change your perception, you can change your emotion and this can lead to new ideas.” – Edward de Bono This paper began with question “does the media promote/portray hate against Muslims”, my findings to that answer were inconclusive, all because it’s a matter of perception.
Although I as a Muslim often see more hatred and misery in the news rather than hopeful story on Islam. There are both sides to a coin, which is what I failed to realize. That there are parts of media that try to shed light on what Islam really is, rather than the radicalization. Furthermore parts of the media the sole focuses on all the radical thinking of some people who believe to be a part of Islam. In the end all I can say is to change your perception into a unbiased slate and research Islam in all of its aspect without the radicalization of certain groups, find the good in something before you decide to follow a
stereotype.