One of the biggest topics that media has taken and constricted into changing values in western media is the understanding of Islam. We have all heard post 9/11 Islamaphobia but the creation of that can be traced to media coverage. The only depiction of Islam on our TV screens is of extremists. Muslims are left being seen as “aliens” or “others”. (Saeed) Imagine Caucasian Americans being depicted to other countries by using the Westboro Baptist Church as the main platform of exposure. That sounds ridiculous, that sounds narrow, and quite frankly that sounds idiotic. Then why is that same representation of Islam not questioned in this society, why is it allowed to help depict our future actions, our values? It is as if the media is a mind control artist swinging a pendulum and we do as it says. Islamaphobia is one of the many things that have been widespread throughout the nation. The recent fear of Ebola was everywhere. It created an outcry from the public, such a big outcry it has to this day influenced every doctors office in the country. Those changes are not done by rational understanding of the subject but rather by the fear and pandemonium created by it. This fear is what drives media production and viewer interests. We go back and back again to know what is going on, what changes are occurring, how many people have been harmed . . . could …show more content…
One thing that is similar between them all is the fear that it creates in viewers. This fear is without a doubt the driving force behind most big media coverage’s. In the book Feeding the Fear of Crime: Crime-Related and the Support for Three Strikes Valerie Callanan found that, “the more crime-related television people watch, the more fearful they become.” These media outlets whose duties are to report with unbiased affairs are pettifogging and focusing on details that they are “ordered” to, ‘“problem frame’ emerged and now exists as a generic “fear machine” in news production”. (Altheide) The power that engulfs the idea of fear was best described by Devjji in the article “The News Media, The Problem Frame, and the Production of Fear” by stating:
“Fear stalks this nation every day. Fear of making a wrong turn in a neighborhood in Los Angeles, riding the subway or jogging in Central Park in New York, fear symbolized by locks, guns and alarms to protect ourselves. Fear of talking to those who don’t look like us. Fear of growing old in a country that does not have the resources to care or us. Fear of the government and civil war.” (qtd. In