Through the alchemy of words, public rhetoric, and its choice of images, the American media - particularly since 2001 -- has created monsters in the collective consciousness of the American public. Taken together, these words and images are like puzzle pieces floating through the ether, taking form slowly and without fanfare, until what we think of when we hear the words "Middle East" are not the history of our collective civilizations, breathtaking architecture, ancient art or desert sands, but terrorism, hatred, violent Islam, danger... monsters.
Media Monsters
explores how this is accomplished, and delves deeply into not only our collective belief system about what Iran, Iraq, Syria, Saudia Arabia, Turkey and Palestine represent, but what effect that has on our psyche.
In a world in which images of turbaned men and burka-clad women instill fear, and our leaders' reactions are fear- and ignorance-based, Media Monsters breaks this dynamic apart, exposing not only its source but its ultimate end result.
Subjects covered include:
The Other
Othering
Orientalism
and
How by creating monsters we define ourselves.
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