Lebanon’s political economy all throughout is considered to be a gigantic complicated mess. When tying this notion to media outlets, a few factors reliant on politics and ownership are largely influential. Almost all TV channels are affiliated to a certain political party, filtering through news to fit their personal biases and subjective attitudes. TV Channels such as: MTV select female news casters to be attractive to their core, Michelle el Murr is the leading representative for MTV (engulfing the ownership of Gulf relations). for example, there was a certain TV show that attacked the Dekwaneh multiplicity minister, and was later on fried from the show entirely. This reveals the power of ownership and their need to always protect political leaders. Overall, the “free speech” that they all preach for, is still reluctant to exist on TV politically-affiliated channels. Al- Manar gained its popularity in 2006 after the war, but is strictly affiliated to Hezbollah, specified and directed their reporting to pure war media coverage. Although this might be somewhat subjective, most of Al-Manar reporting has heavy religious indications throughout every channel ( portrayal of women in hijab with minimal makeup and dark clothing). This could also act as a form of ownership and political affiliation. Internal decisions to what they are allowed to portray and not portray, such as guest appearances on Al- Manar are strictly aligned with the what Hezbollah seems reasonable and acceptable. Additionally, there are certain time shown these politically-affiliated channels attack one another, Hezbollah might attack channels that are affiliated with Al-Tayar and so on. These examples are vital in realizing how media is all filtered through, depending on what the political sect stands for. Additionally, these political sects control the ownership of these channels. Although these notions could coincide with democrats and republican channels in the United States, religion is another factor that comes into play along with sects in Lebanon. These strange religious and political systems are one of a kind in the world, and the harshness that follow these regulations set by certain sects directly influence the public through various channels, but most frequently through TV channels.

References

فيلم تلفزيون وائع . (2018). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2ZHGeCLLqA&t=1706s&fbclid=IwAR1j2D4iYxoCTSRCjPGu4h8yEzaIG96s3BjRRmeCU8KNOF1CtVMZHNQXzDM&app=desktop

Capitalism over-time has progressed due to technological and profitable factors. The ideology, created by Marx in the late 19th century is believed to have altered in a form to adapt to this digital age. Social media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook, have now controlled this stage where user-generated content is exchanged internationally. These companies also feed off mass-users as it is controlled by private sectors instead of the state. Although it could be argued that this communication platform is considered “free” when communicating with friends and family members around the world; ““helps you connect and share with the people in your life”. Twitter argues it allows you to “connect with your friends—and other fascinating people”. These claims are not untrue, but only one side of the story. Marx would say that they are ideologies that overstate or, as he says,“fetishise” use-value in order to distract attention from exchange-value, from the fact that communications companies are out to make lots of money”(n.a,n.d). This formulates the idea that these social media applications but are inter-related to companies that profit of the notion of user-distractions.

The convenience of internet communication has morphed itself to different factors such as: political and social communication based off the building foundation of capitalism. “. If one looks at statistics that display the profits, revenues, capital assets, and stock market values of the largest transnational corporations in the world, then one sees that quite a few of them are located in economic sectors and branches such as advertis- ing, broadcasting and cable, communications equipment, computer hardware; culture, entertainment, and leisure; computer services, computer storage devices, electronics, Internet platforms, printing and publishing, semiconductors, software, and telecommunications” (n.a, n.d). The capitalistic nature of communication through applications, Internet, and smartphones also has shifted into a type of “manipulative capitalism” where the user in aware of how their accounts, posts, pictures are part of a large- economic marketing scheme where the sellers become profitable.

How can media be oppressive when it comes to race? Write a blog post (250 words) to answer this. Choose one concept from the Readings. Describe briefly and discuss in relation to an example from the media. Share your own reflections. 

Media is a largely oppressive medium where racism and sexism can occur. By warping specific images and roles to stereotypically fit the western’s perspective of the rest of the world, racism of that particular culture could largely be viewed. Westerns are always at a place of ignorance in properly researching accurate cultures in order to represent them. Therefore, certain cultures (such as Arab) are considered minority and oppressive, violent, and uneducated. They tend to paint those roles and characters into “villains” in most of Hollywood films. According to (Shaheen, 2003), “What I am say ing is that almost all Hollywood depictions of Arabs are bad ones. This is a grave injustice. Repetitious and negative images of the reel Arab literally sustain adverse portraits across generations. The fact is that for more than a century producers have tarred an entire group of people with the same sinister brush.” This indicates, that among all the mass media that is being produced in Hollywood, most of the producers have entitled roles and characters of Arabs that do not match the true nature of their characteristics. Apart from consistently representing them as terrorists or islamists, they also represent them in an inhumane or unrealistic aspect, sometimes as animals, and other times overly wealthy; “In the Disney movie Kazaam (1996), O’Neal pummels three Arab Muslims who covet “all the money in the world” (Shaheen, 2003). They stereotypes dangerously hinder how the rest of the world views each culture. Most of the films that are produced and watched internationally, are those made by the west, therefore their representation of cultures could be extremely damaging when depicted in wrongful manner. Additionally, the portrayal of veiled women and belly dancers in western media are century lifestyles and traditions that are still strongly being represented even though they are loosely still accurate. Veiled women are viewed to be oppressed and only useful in filling the desires of their partners.

An example in media where I have viewed the stereotype of Arabs is in the movie: Back to the Future (1985), the main character is shot by a stereotypical embodiment of an “Arab”, more specifically, a Libyan. This character was viewed to be reckless and an Islamist terrorist. That role did not need to be specifically Arab nor did he need to have any particular Arab characteristics, the director chose for him to be the antagonist in the story and kill the protagonist. These depictions only reinforce the stereotypes and images of Arabs to the rest of society.

I believe that this notion has been an ongoing issue in western films as well as western mass media. Arabs have almost always been depicted in a bad light, no matter the circumstance or role. Although this relentless stereotypes is consistently been represented, the morals and beliefs of those cultures are not being valued true to nature. These aspects seem to be unchanging and stagnant, although they require no effort to change the comedic need into more culturally aware role. They act against the initial attempt to being funny, and end up offensive and racist.

Pixlr Exrecise- social meaning of images

Israel strikes Gaza after Palestinian militants unleash a barrage of rockets. (2019, May 4). Retrieved from https://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-israel-gaza-strip-20190504-story.html

We are analyzing the Los Angeles Times’ article Israel strikes Gaza after Palestinian militants unleash a barrage of rockets, written by NOGA TARNOPOLSKY, RUSHDI ABU ALOUF.

1. Bias through selection and omission: The article provides terms such as “occupation” only a few times and in a limited manner as the author himself does not recognize how Palestine has been occupied. The only form of establishing the term “occupation” in the article was through a quote given by a Hamas spokesman defending Palestinians in Gaza, as he states: ” (we)will continue to respond to the crimes of the occupation,” and will not allow Israel “to shed the blood of our people.”(TARNOPOLSKY &ABU ALOUF, 2019).
2. Bias through placement: The article strongly presents statistics and context of the Israel- Gaza strike by stating that “Palestinian militias launched more than 250 rockets into southern Israel” (TARNOPOLSKY &ABU ALOUF, 2019).and continues to shed information about the strikes in the next upcoming paragraphs. The authors do not wait until the middle of the article to reveal the extremities of the strike and the statistics of the Palestinian people to Israeli deaths. Additionally, they continue to appeal to the readers’s logos by stating more statistics throughout the article such as:”The Israeli army said its retaliatory airstrikes and tank fire struck more than 120 targets belonging to Hamas”(TARNOPOLSKY &ABU ALOUF, 2019).
3. Bias by word choice and tone: There is a clear bias against Palestinian Sicilians in the article as the authors seem to have a political stance with Israel. They utilize the method of guilt-tripping and psychologically manifesting the idea that Israelis are the ones who have been targeted and have not been violent instead of admitting that the strike from Gaza is a counter-strike. Additionally, when establishing the tone of the article, they depict Israels in fear, while Palestinians as violent they state”innocent civilians and their communities across Israel” (TARNOPOLSKY &ABU ALOUF, 2019).
4. Bias through use of names and titles: There is bias in the title as the authors say “Palestinian militants unleash a barrage of rockets” which reveal that that they were aggressive and combative instead of saying civilians. they revealed bias because they did not do the same when it came to Israel militants.
5. Bias through statistics and crowd counts: There is a bias of the way the authors have used the statistics by utilizing the words “more than” when reporting deaths instead of objectifying the statistics and utilizing exact numbers without added words after or before. For example: “Palestinian militias launched more than 250 rockets into southern Israel from Gaza on Saturday” (TARNOPOLSKY &ABU ALOUF, 2019). This reveals how there were “more than 250 rockets flown into Israel” indicating that the number is a lot. Additionally, when revealing the fear of Israelis during the weekend, they used how “2 million” were seeking shelter.
6. Bias by source control: There is a bias in source control as the authors only use quotes from Palestinian militants for added information that reveal violent language rather than civilians who have endured the pain of the strike. As the authors state:”In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Abdul Latif Qanou said the militant group “will continue to respond to the crimes of the occupation,” and will not allow Israel “to shed the blood of our people.” (TARNOPOLSKY &ABU ALOUF, 2019).Although this reveals nationalism and fights, it also may include strong violent language that could depict Palestinians in that light.
7. Batah’s Observations: US media tends to cover the perspective that reflects the US governments relationship with Israel, which underplayed the Palestinians civilians fears and death by not providing context, limiting sources, omitting information, and not offering proper accountability.
8. Moeller’s four habits: Binary framing- stereotypes the Palestinians as the ones that are “bad” and the Isarelis as the victims. The authors also utilized sensationalized language through the hearings and titles “unleashed.”

9. Bias through headlines:

There is a bias through headline because they tend to victimize Israel by adding violent verbs such as “Palestinians unleash.” The verb “unleash” projects an image of the Palestinians as some sort of violent monsters that are releasing rockets. They shy away from adding context of Gaza striking back as a form of defense, and place Israel in some sort of innocent light in the headline (even though they tend to explain further in detail of the violent war between them in the rest of article)

According to Herman and Chomsky (1998), media operates through five different filters:  profit-ownership, advertising, establishment, flak, and the common enemy. This propaganda model reveals the different ways that mass media communicates and operates through different channels in the U.S. his mass media is not only eligible to inform but also to entertain and persuade a mass audience. Due to the wealth and power status of media, there is a distinct monopolization of information that seems to be revealed to the audience, as a cause of class distinction. This distinction is very apparent in the Propaganda model that Herman and Chomsky elaborate on, and reveals the weight of censorship. Herman and Chomsky (1998) apply these five different definitions to filter the array of mass media portions.

Initially, profit-ownership is essentially how media is a large corporation where ownership applies to further or progress the gross profit of the business. therefore, critical journalism where opinions and personal beliefs are exhibited must be sustained so that the majority of factual news is incorporated. Additionally, any news that might be considered “taboo” or “offensive” also takes a back seat so that more people are prone to buy/ subscribe to this specific news outlet. Neutrality is important, and censorship applies. For example: China is a major example of censorship media, where they tend to omit certain information about politicians, rulers, or government officials so that they make it seem that they are an un-troubling country.

Second, is Advertising. As a cause of media being costly while being free and available to consumers. Advertisers must fill that certain gap by advertising products during intermissions of news so that they are able to gain mass consumers, while pay the news outlets so that they are able to have resources. The audience becomes a gain for advertisers through 30 second commercials, or possibly on the platform of social media: sponsorships through Instagram or Facebook.

The Third filter, according to Herman and Chomsky (1998) is The Media Elite. The Media Elite refers to big corporations and news outlets whereby they allow unlawful or immoral news to break out. They tend to influence the news in a form that grab the audience’s attention, and spin in it a form that force the audience to believe that this is “news-worthy” and crucial news, through interviews with those in power. An example of this would be having the President of the US come on a late night talk show (Jimmy Kimmel, Leno, etc..) to promote a good image.

Flak is the fourth filter in mass media. Flak is for the people that challenge those in power. They tend to bring up debates and discussions that go against the words or beliefs of those in power. These journalists tend to do so by discrediting the sources, or diverting the conversations by bringing up other crucial points. This could be also done to distract, an example of this could be sending off journalists to report on a Grammy’s red carpet, rather than a revolution happening at the same time.

The fifth and final filter is the Common Enemy. This method consists of targeting a common enemy with the public in order to manufacture consent and public unity and acceptance. An example of this might be communists, people of the KKK, racists, fascists, sexists..

Media literacy tackles different forms of cultural, religious, and political oppression. As this notion becomes extremely prevalent in today’s society, the inter relations between oppression and anti-feminism, pro-war and violence, amongst many others have been exposed to create minorities and hardship living. Additionally, media literacy allows society to dissect and analyze these issues by interpreting these messages in different perspectives and coming together to form one main goal to exhibit self expression. As Jad Melki reveals that the Salzburg Academy is a great space to do so, i was fortunate enough to experience that this past summer where fake news and media literacy conferences were available. I was able to learn about media literacy in private space and/ or public sectors as well as the influence of fake news in society.

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.

— Oscar Wilde.

This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.