Orientalism

Orientalism

Orientalism as defined by Edward Said in his book Orientalism (1978) is a Western construct, a politically motivated way that we perceive to be ‘understanding’ the ‘East’ and Eastern countries. We do this in art, books, academics, politics, TV and film. We have defined ourselves as the West, thereby constructing them as The Other, focussing only on the difference between Western and Eastern cultures.

Orientalism has largely taught us about what we know about the Eastern world. When people in the West think about the Orient, images are generally conjured of China Korea or Japan, but rather than just the ‘Far East’ countries, Orientalism encompasses India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, making it about Asia in general.

Images of veiled women, camels, snake charmers, genies in magic lamps and flying carpets come to mind and this makes the Disney movie Aladdin a good example of Orientalism. According to Sut Jhally, Orientalism is “a framework that we use to understand the unfamiliar and the strange to make the peoples of the Middle East seem threatening”. The example I would use from Aladdin is the palace guards with their swords and their very Middle Eastern looking features, out to get Aladdin and Jasmine, with their quite Western looking features.

The images in Aladdin of the Orient portrays Middle Eastern people, even as subtle-or not so subtle as the case may be-as that of a threatening and dangerous place, as evidenced in the opening song Arabian Nights ‘where it’s flat and immense and the heat is intense, it’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home’. The original lyrics were much harsher-‘where they cut off your ear if they don’t like your face, it’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home’.

As I mentioned earlier about the palace guards possessing swords, throughout the movie, these guards chase Aladdin and Jasmine around. The guards are introduced chasing Aladdin around during the song One Jump Ahead after a starving Aladdin steals a small loaf of bread. After this song, a cart vendor threatens to-and almost does-chop Jasmine’s hand off because she took an apple.

On the other hand, there’s Jasmine. Although she’s the only Disney Princess to wear trousers, she doesn’t wear much else. Her role in the movie is to be the sensual, scantily clad Middle Eastern woman. Except women in the Middle East dress modestly as said in the Koran and thus conforms to the Western ideas of beauty-slim with large eyes, a small nose and light, though tanned, skin. Another stereotype present in the movie is that Jasmine must marry before the age of sixteen,, supporting the idea that Muslims marry young.

However, Marvel comics has recently rebooted their Ms Marvel book, this time starring a teenage Pakistani-American lead, Kamala Khan, who subverts many of the tropes, clichés and stereotypes as dictated in Orientalism. It helps that the writers of the comic are two Muslim women-G. Willow Wilson and Sana Amanat-who wrote it for self representation. However, the book has become something of a sensation, selling many copies and becoming popular with people of different backgrounds.

Kamala does not cover her hair or face-other than when she goes to Mosque-and has a pretty Western style. However, she is quite in touch with her Pakistani roots such as using Urdu words with her parents and wearing traditional Pakistani dress during events, such as weddings. She also says prayers. Kamala’s friend Nakia does cover her hair out of choice and is portrayed as a strong and mature young woman and is definitely not oppressed as her white classmates think. 

References:

Arab Stereotypes. (2011). What is Orientalism?. Available: http://www.arabstereotypes.org/why-stereotypes/what-orientalism. Last accessed Mar 5th 2015.

Gerding, S. (2014). ‘Ms. Marvel’ rockets to the #1 slot on Marvel’s digital sales chart. Available: http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2014/02/ms-marvel-rockets-to-the-1-slot-on-marvels-digital-sales-chart/. Last accessed Mar 6th 2015.

Kaya, D. (2015). Kamala Khan Fighting Orientalism. Available: https://medium.com/ciddi-geyik/kamala-khan-fighting-orientalism-b0cbb8b474c#.yrinit3od. Last accessed Mar 6th 2015.

James, R. (2009). Top 10 Disney Controversies. Available: http://entertainment.time.com/2009/12/09/top-10-disney-controversies/slide/aladdin/. Last accessed Mar 6th 2015.

Nooruddin, U. (1998). Orientalism and Islamic philosophy. Available: http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ip/rep/H014. Last accessed Mar 5th 2015.

Ronz, A. (2011). "It's barbaric, but hey - it's home" The representation of "the Orient" in Walt Disney's Aladdin. Available: http://www.academia.edu/4221270/_Its_barbaric_but_hey_-_its_home_The_representation_of_the_Orient_in_Walt_Disneys_Aladdin. Last accessed Mar 6th 2015.

Wilson, G. W, Alphona, A, Amanat, S (2014). Ms Marvel vol 1. New York: Marvel Comics.

Herman and Chomsky

Herman and Chomsky’s Model of Propaganda

Herman and Chomsky’s Model of Propaganda was created in 1988, around the end of the Cold War. Herman and Chomsky argued that as a result of the political economy of the news industry, a news story must pass through five filters before it is declared ‘fit to print’ or ‘fit to broadcast’. The model is often referred to as ‘manufacturing consent’ as a shorthand as the model first appeared in Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky’s book Manufacturing Consent.

The structure of the model has five filters. The first is Financial Ownership.

All companies exist to serve the aims of the owners. However, there are very few mass media companies that control most of the news channels, papers and websites.  There are six main ones-News Corp, Disney, Viacom, GE, Warner Brothers and CBS.

The second filter in the Model of Propaganda is News Sourcing.

News media are pressured now to publish at minimal costs; so many news organisations source their news items from the same source-i.e. Reuters-rather than send their reporters out on the street. This also means that very little time is spent checking whether the news source is verified.

The third filter is Funding through Advertising.

Newspapers and news websites are increasingly reliant on advertising as a primary source of funding. In order to remain profitable, mass media outlets rely on their revenue as their source of income. It is therefore against the interests of the news media-whether it is a website or a paper-to run a story that is against that of the advertisers. This could mean a loss of funding and a loss of revenue.

The fourth filter is Flak.

Here, flak refers to negative feedback or responses to a media statement and it can take many forms from petitions, to simply angry letters or social media posts. Flak can be extremely costly to the mass media if enough of it is produced as it could cost advertisers to pull the funding, in particular advertisers on the television. When it transpired in early 2015 that an NBC newsreader lied about an experience in Iraq, NBC was left with no choice but to fire the reporter in question as it would be costly if they kept him, especially coming under such heavy criticism from the public.

The fifth and final filter is Anti-Communism.

As communism was portrayed as the ultimate evil back in the Cold War (1945-1991), it was the norm to portray the Cubans, Chinese, Vietnamese and particularly the Soviets in a very negative light. Especially given the Cold War threats of nuclear war, the reports of Russia carrying weapons of mass destruction was a worrying issue for the West.  Of course, the West also carried these weapons and this led to the creation of M.A.D, mutually assured destruction.

In the present, post-9/11 world, the biggest threat portrayed to us in the West is radical extremist terrorist groups. However, anti-communism is still shown as a threat to us, this time in the form of North Korea and their dictator, Kim Jong Un.

References:

Changing Minds. (2002). The Herman-Chomsky Propaganda Model.Available: http://changingminds.org/techniques/propaganda/propaganda_model.htm. Last accessed Mar 6th 2015.

Enoch, S. (2013). Theory: The Propaganda Model. Available: http://beautifultrouble.org/theory/the-propaganda-model/. Last accessed Mar 6th 2015.

Ford, D. (2016). North Korea threatens nuclear strike over U.S.-South Korean exercises. Available: http://edition.cnn.com/2016/03/06/asia/north-korea-preemptive-nuclear-strike-threat/. Last accessed Mar 8th 2016.

Herman, E, Chomsky, N. (Date Given 1988). Manufacturing Consent A Propaganda Model excerpted from the book Manufacturing Consent by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky. Available: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Herman%20/Manufac_Consent_Prop_Model.html. Last accessed Mar 6th 2015.

Press Trust of India. (2016). ISIS has eclipsed Al-Qaeda as principal terror threat: US. Available: http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/isis-has-eclipsed-al-qaeda-us-116030800294_1.html. Last accessed Mar 8th 2016.

Trueman, C.N. (2015). What Was the Cold War?. Available: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/modern-world-history-1918-to-1980/the-cold-war/what-was-the-cold-war/. Last accessed Mar 5th 2015.

Semiotics

Semiotics

Semiotics is referred to as the study of signs. All kinds of signs, including the typical signs that a person sees in their everyday lives; billboards, road signs, logos, signs for the local Tesco etc. However, semiotics is more concerned with communication and why the meaning was put into signs rather than what the signs themselves mean. The discipline of Semiotics comes from the speculations on the significance of language by American philosopher C.S. Pierce and Swiss linguist Ferdinand De Sausurre.

The basic concepts of semiotics is that every sign has a signifier-that is the physical embodiment of the sign-and what is signified-the concept behind the signifier. As well, every sign has a denotation-the explicit meaning behind the sign-and a connotation-the implications and meaning behind the sign. However, a sign can be anything from a word or a gesture to a picture or a sound. Basically, a sign can be anything.

Alongside improving communication, semiotics helps audiences to interpret messages to a greater degree and to analyse media with critical awareness. But because anything can be a sign, everything can also be interpreted, too much information can overload audiences who have a limited capacity for attention, this can actually impede communication instead of improve, as semiotics is supposed to do.

Examples of semiotics can be found in the Hawkeye vol. 4 comic books, in particular issues 11 and 19. In issue 11-Pizza is My Business-the action is focused on Clint Barton’s dog Lucky, who solves a murder using all the signs and symbols around Clint’s apartment complex. Or rather, he solves it with his sense of smell while the reader sees his thoughts on the page as signs and symbols of who the dog Lucky comes across.

Issue 19-The Stuff What Don’t Get Spoke-on the other hand is written almost entirely in sign language and the focus of the book is entirely on signs, whether it is sign language, airport signs or other signs and how the characters within the book interpret those signs. 

In contrast to Issue 11, there are no captions to the illustrated sign language and no help to the reader to help interpret any signs. And as Clint has been deafened, even the sentences have words missing or confused with other like sounding words. It is entirely up to the reader to interpret everything in the book.

Currently though an example outside popular culture would be that of gender and sexuality. For example, a transgender person assigned male at birth (AMAB) identifies as female, some people are going to misinterpret the person as being male, because of certain signifiers-genitalia if they have not had gender reassignment surgery. 

References:

Chandler, D. (1994). Semiotics for Beginners. Available: http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/Documents/S4B/sem01.html. Last accessed Mar 3rd 2016.

DePaul University. (Year Unknown). Semiotics. Available: http://condor.depaul.edu/dsimpson/pers/semiotics.html. Last accessed Mar 5th 2015.

Fraction, M, Aja, D, Hollingsworth, M (2014). Hawkeye 19: The Stuff What Don't Get Spoke. New York: Marvel Comics. p8, p12, p20.

Fraction, M, Aja, D, Hollingsworth, M (2013). Hawkeye 11: Pizza is My Business. New York: Marvel Comics. p4.

SignSalad. (2013). Semiotics Explained. Available: http://www.signsalad.com/semiotics-explained/. Last accessed Mar 5th 2015.