MEDIA & POWER: ESSAY PRACTICE

'The media construct identity.' What do you understand by this view and how far do you agree?

Imagine that you are answering this exam question. There are different approaches to such a wide topic: you may be more interested in gender and identity, in ethnicity and identity, or areas in between. With only half an hour in the exam to write your response, you can practise writing about different areas and decide your subject matter when you eventually see the exam question - but there won't be a choice of question, so it is good to be prepared with a range of material.

Copy / paste the following into a Word document and upload it as an assignment into Google Classroom for Friday 5 February.

1. Define the term 'representation' as it relates to people, places and ideas. Refer to Stuart Hall, stereotyping and which groups have the power to stereotype and assign identities.

2. Next, straight to the topic. Today we will start with a focus on ethnicity and identity, which we have so far analysed in class as 'Orientalism'. In this second paragraph, introduce Edward Said and the concept of Orientalism. Explain why Said argues that Orientalism is a way of controlling representations of the East; explain the ways in which these historical representations are negative.

Said argues: Orientalism can be discussed and analyzed as the corporate institution for dealing with the Orient—dealing with it by making statements about it, authorizing views of it, describing it, by teaching it, settling it, ruling over it: in short, Orientalism as a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient.

3. This next paragraph is on Hollywood representations of Arab identity. We give examples of Hollywood films in which the sense of Islam is a threatening Other - with Muslims depicted as fanatical, violent, lustful, irrational. In this paragraph, start with

American Sniper

4. In what way are representations stereotyped in Iron Man (2008)? And in Aladdin and Back to the Future ? Read with me

5. Why might Yasmin (Kenneth Glenaan, 2004) and  Four Lions (Christopher Morris, 2010) offer alternative, more sympathetic, representations of Muslim identity, post 9/11?  

Kenneth Glenaan writes: "What we wanted to do is a positive portrayal of British Muslim experience, post 9/11, as a way of almost putting your fist through this notion of Islamophobia that's grown up since." 

Christopher Morris on Four Lions: