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Stereotyping of Arab Muslims in the New York Times for the Past Forty Years
This study examines stereotyping of Arab Muslims in the New York Times for the past forty years. Theorists suggest that stereotyping of a minority group effects the public's opinion of that group. Other communication media theorists say that only under extreme conditions will the negative stereotypes reflect the publics' opinions of the portrayed minority group. The parallel theory between propaganda and stereotyping by the mass media is examined. Theorists including Thomson, (1977) & Myers, (1992), related to mass media effects strongly agree claiming that repetitive and non-contradictive images in the media are an effective form of propaganda. The research samples are random article reviews of the New York Times for the past forty years. Using every fifth year and 2 random numbers ranging from 1 to 12 is used to select an article search date. Islam was the search term. The Gudykunst & Kim( ? ) method of analyzing a stereotype is used to evaluate the 8 New York Times articles. The results indicate 95% of the articles were "vague," labeling entire group rather than individual. Out of the total 100%, 70% of the article used unfavorable trait characteristic labeling.
Has the New York Times negatively stereotyped Arab Muslims for the past forty years? The goal of this research project is to reveal the negative stereotypes directed towards Arab Muslims in the New York Times. The critical focus of the research is the consistency of the negative stereotypes. The underlying focus is what theoretical and historical effects result from the negative stereotypes.
WHAT IS STEREOTYPING?
The operational definition is "an idea, expression, lacking in originality or inventiveness. A simplified and standardized conception or image of a person or group held in common by members of a group." (Dictionary). Theorist's Gudykunst & Kim claims the word stereotype originated from an author named Walter Lippman. In this study, the independent variable is the New York Times and the dependent variable is the Islamic religious group.
WHO IS A MUSLIM?
"And seek assistance through patience and prayer, and most surely it is a hard thing except for the humble ones" (Holy Qur'an 2:45). To announce you are a Muslim, you have to follow the five pillars of Islam that are:
1. Pray five times a...
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The usage of media is huge in nowadays. People rely on different kinds of media to receive information in their everyday life because they are thirsty for the diverse and informative content. However, inaccurate portrayals of people from different races always appear in the media and audience will exaggerate those portrayals by their inflexible beliefs and expectations about the characteristics or behaviors of the portrayals’ cultural groups without considering individual variation (Ting-Toomey and Chung, 2012); in fact, it is also called as stereotypes. According to a study by the Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism at San Francisco State University (Stein, 2012), racial stereotyping continues to occur in media and the mainstream media's coverage of different cultural groups is full of biased reporting, offensive terminology and old stereotypes of American society. It specifically emphasizes that majority of the stereotyped characters in media will only bring out the dark side of their cultural groups which many of them might not be true, especially for the portrayals of black community: African American.
For a second, the U.S. stood still. Looking up at the towers, one can only imagine the calm before the storm in the moment when thousands of pounds of steel went hurdling into its once smooth, glassy frame. People ran around screaming and rubble fell as the massive metal structure folded in on itself like an accordion. Wounded and limping from the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, America carried on, not without anger and fear against a group of innocent Americans, Muslim Americans. Nietzsche’s error of imaginary cause is present in the treatment of Muslim Americans since 9/11 through prejudice in the media, disregard of Muslim civil liberties, racial profiling, violence, disrespect, and the lack of truthful public information about Islam. In this case, the imaginary cause against Muslims is terrorism. The wound has healed in the heart of the U.S. but the aching throb of terrorism continues to distress citizens every day.
The modern usage of the word stereotype was first introduced in 1922 by American journalist Walter Lippman in his book Public Opinion. The major thesis of this book is that in a modern democracy political leaders and ordinary citizens are required to make decisions about a variety of complicated matters that they do not understand. “People believe that their conceptions of German soldiers, Belgian priests, or American Klu Klux Klansman for example are accurate representations of the real members of those classes . . . the conception in most cases is actually a stereotype acquired by the individual from some other source other than his direct experience.”(2)
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Living in America we deal with a lot of diversity, especially those in the criminal justice degree program where situations caused by diversity can lead to a problem. Stereotyping is one of the biggest problems that we deal with, particularly in law enforcement. There have been many allegations of police officers accused of going after individuals and accusing them of a crime based on the sole fact of what their religious beliefs might be. This has been going on for a long time; however in recent years, it has gotten worse. The main job of police officers is to uphold the law, not to break it. Although stereotyping is not against the law, police officers have taken an oath to protect all human beings, regardless of their race or religion and stereotyping based on religion should not take place. Just because an individual is of a certain race dose not give us the right to stereotype them as a bad human being.
All in all, Running into offensive stereotypes is common among Arab Muslims. People will not stop making new stereotypes, and the only way to stop them from being spread is by correcting them. Stereotypes are basically wrong information based on an sophisticated perception. It is critical to deal with these situations with reason and intellectuality. People may have different ways to solve these kinds of problems, but it is important to make sure it is in a healthy and effective manner. Stereotypes are wrong information that needs to be corrected, so it is very important to educate society about the misunderstandings associated with the stereotypes.
Before the September 11, 2001 bombings, not much social psychological research had focused on Muslim-Americans. As a result of the attack, Muslims quickly became a salient group in American society. At the unfortunate expense of prejudice towards Muslims, 9/11 also led to an increase in research regarding Muslim-Americans (Amer and Bagasra, 2013). Therefore, in analyzing the intergroup relationship between Muslim-Americans and White-Americans we will use 9/11 as the origin of group conflict. Before discussing the driving theories behind the intergroup relationship, it is important to note a certain level of ambiguity in the definition of these groups. We are aware that some Muslim-Americans may in fact also be White (mainly due to religious conversion). Therefore as an operational group, when referring to White-Americans we mean to indicate non-Muslim White Americans.
People being generalized based on limited and inaccurate information by sources as television, cartoons or even comic books (Tripod). This is a definition that seems to go against many public standards. The above words are the exact definition of stereotypes. Stereotypes as understood from the definition, goes mostly hand in hand with media -- only not the regular meaning of the innocent media we know. Media propaganda is the other form of media that is rather described as media manipulation. In this paper, the following will be discussed: first, how stereotypes of ethnic groups function in propaganda, why does it function so well, and finally, the consequences of these stereotypes on the life of Egyptians in particular in society. A fair examination will be conducted on this example of stereotypes through clarification examples and research results from researches conducted from reliable sources. The real association between Egyptians’ stereotypes and propaganda discussed in this paper shall magnify the association of stereotypes and propaganda in general.
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Stereotypes play an important role in today's society and particularly in Propaganda. According to the Webster's Dictionary stereotyping is defined as a fixed conventional notion or conception of an individual or group of people, heldby a number of people. Stereotypes can be basic or complex generalizations which people apply to individuals or groups based on their appearance, behaviour and beliefs. Stereotypes are found everywhere. Though our world seems to be improving in many ways it seems almost impossible to liberate it from stereotypes.
“Stereotyping is a three-part process” (Floyd, 61). In the first stage, we identify a group to which we believe another person belongs. For example, if a man is wearing a turban, one might assume he is a Muslim. In the next stage, we recall a generalization others often make about the people in that group. For example, many people in the United States generalize all Muslims as terrorists or haters of America. The last stage in the process of stereotyping is applying the generalization to that person. “You are Muslim, therefore must be a terrorist.” Obviously, these assumptions are not accurate, but are examples in the process of stereotyping (Floyd, 61).
Stereotypes are common everywhere, but they are at their peaks in the West and the Middle East. These two regions are constantly and perpetually making judgments about one another, and this leads to many regional political crises and misunderstandings. These opinions and views lead to false images and perceptions leading to hate crime and cyber