The Role of Media Literacy Education in Combating Islamophobia

04-05

Introduction

The new millennium has unfolded many drastic social transformations, most of which so novel that humanity can hardly draw reference from their predecessors. One particular phenomenon is believed to have contributed extensively to most, if not all, of these transformations, and that is the flourishing growth of media technologies and the media industry, which practically revolutionized mankind』s way of living, across cultures, to be a 「media-saturated」 one (Schmidt, 2012). With the rapid expansion of internet access and internet-based media forms, proliferation of media presence and services, the media, as it exists now, is far more than a source of information, it frequently defines and redefines our modes of communication and interaction, constructs and reconstructs our conceptualization of ideas and entities, directs and redirects our interests and attention, and ultimately becomes an inevitable agency between us and our environment. The power of media in the modern time was noticed rather early on, as the prominent civil right activist Malcolm X overtly stated in 1963 「The media』s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that』s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.」 (Griffith, 2012, p. 115) While the media doesn』t necessarily commit the crime as describe by Malcolm X and it surely provides various kinds of benefit to society, the possibility of its negative influence and certain repercussions, foreseeable or not, of its increasing power alerted academics of diverse fields, who, for the past several decades, have been collaborating to forge an educational paradigm that equips people with a new literacy, namely media literacy. The theoretical framework of media literacy education, according to Hobbs, Felini, and Cappello (2011), has matured quite successfully, reaching a stage of 「normal science」.

However, effort is still required for media literacy education to be effectively implemented in a way that contributes to desirable changes in society. The current challenge lies not only in the insufficient incorporation of media literacy education in public education system (Rogow, 2011), but also in a lack of empirical exploration of media literacy education』s role in specific contexts (Scharrer & Ramasubramanian, 2015). The author attempts to contour the role of media literacy education in a topic that has attracted escalating interest in the past decade or so, which is the relationship between media and Islamophobia, a term that roughly encompasses the irrational and biased sentiment of hatred, prejudice, discrimination and so on against Islam and Muslims, especially after the 9/11 incident. The author contends that media literacy education can play a significant part in combating the 「cultural racism」 (Saeed, 2007) against Islam and by extension other types of prejudicial attitudes and behaviors. This essay will briefly introduce the background of media literacy education, review previous research on how media and Islamophobia are related, and illustrates the role that media literacy education can undertake in combating Islamophobia.

Theory and Practice of Media Literacy Education

It is as astonishing as it is delightful that the development of media literacy education has been a largely converging process, with contributions from various disciplines including education, psychology, cultural studies, sociology, politics, among others, collaboratively moving toward agreed directions and expressions. Hobbs et al. (2011) summarized four aspects of consensuses that are found in the current theoretical framework of media literacy education. Firstly, they argued, there is a more coherent perception of media, viewing it neutrally and objectively instead of from a reactionary protectionist standpoint that sees media as a source of evil and bad influence in and of itself. Secondly, the awareness that 「literacy」 now contains expanded meanings and alludes to new competencies and skills due to the ubiquity of media communication and messages has spread widely, which provides motives for establishing a corresponding education system, for historically education has been strongly connected to the need to obtain literacy (Kellner, 2002). Thirdly, media literacy scholars and media practitioners are starting to share the same progressive definition of media literacy, which is not only pertaining to the skills to use media technologies, but also, perhaps more importantly, the ability to critically analyze media messages and to interpret the symbols and mechanisms behind media representations. Fourthly they mentioned the fact that these shared ideas and perspectives are the result of earnest interdisciplinary cooperation, which enriched the constitution of media literacy education as a versatile discipline of itself. Interestingly, the same Hobbs (1998) was also the one who famously presented 「The Seven Grate Debates In the Media Literacy Movement」. Retrospectively, it is perhaps during the process of settling these debates that scholars deepened their inquiry and broadened their perspectives, leading gradually to the aforementioned consensuses.

Generally speaking, the current media literacy education framework is concerned with two major themes, one being 「protection」 and the other being 「empowerment」, and they are now seen as 「two sides of the same coin」 (Hobbs, 2010, p. ix). Media literacy education aims to foster inquiry-based critical thinking, which can help media consumers protect themselves from being unconsciously manipulated by carefully constructed and packaged media messages. On the other hand, media users are no longer perceived as passive receivers but are in fact active participants in media-related environments. Therefore, media literacy education also aspires to equip people with the concepts, skills and competencies needed to make use of media productively and responsibly. The themes of protection and empowerment can be further broken down to several key abilities that usually define media literacy in a general sense, with one of the most frequently citied expression being 「it is the ability of a citizen to access, analyze, and produce information for specific outcomes.」 (Aufderheide, 1993, p. v). Hobbs (2010) presented an expanded definition of media literacy as containing five competencies, namely 「access」, 「analyze & evaluate」, 「create」, 「reflect」 and 『act」. It is noteworthy that the more updated definition summarized by Hobbs incorporated elements that are beyond individual well-being, as 「reflect」 and 「act」 emphasize social responsibilities and ethical actions. This complementation implies a growing awareness that media』s influence applies not only to consumers individually but also to social groups collectively by ways of stereotypical depiction, overgeneralized representation and so on (Scharrer & Ramasubramanian, 2015). As a result, media literacy education should also have community-level strategies and intergroup dynamics, aiming at societal issues that are closely related to media.

Although the theoretical understandings of media literacy education as a new pre-requisite preparation process for media-literate citizens have reached a more or less pleasing state of harmony, there is still much room for its effective implementation. Over the past few decades, the number of schools offering media literacy programs and courses is evidently increasing, especially secondary schools (Schmidt, 2012) in western democracies, though often in elective and vocational settings. However, Rogow (2011) commented, unsatisfied, that the coverage is still much less than it should be and so is the general perceived level of legitimism of media literacy education in public education system. Furthermore, Schmidt (2012) found that there is less exposure to media literacy education in the U.S. at the university level than the K-12 level, which has worrisome implications because university is where students start proactively and critically engaging with social issues, and without sufficient reinforcement of media competencies, other aspects of their readiness to social identities, responsibilities and citizenship may be limited and affected.

Apart from inadequate presence of media literacy education, the current pedagogies are also being criticized for not effectively accomplishing the desired outcomes. One common concern is that the current approaches to teaching media literacy are often found to be top-down, instructor-centered and lacking flexibility, which in essence contradicts the theoretical vison of an inquiry-based, guided but not told, student-centered method (Rogow, 2011). Another critique is that media literacy education is usually conducted separately from other subjects as an independent set of skills while in theory media literacy should be seen as inseparable from other essential literacies, practiced and applied along with other fields of inquiry in order for students to be able to utilize the skills and competencies interdisciplinarily and sustainably (Kellner, 2002). Many of these current challenges facing effective implementation of media literacy education have practical reasons such as limited experience and lack of teacher training. One probable consequence of this limited effectiveness is that we may recognize the link between certain social problems and the need for media literacy education but still largely fail to tackle the problems by media literacy education. This is not to say that media literacy education is futile or unhelpful, but there is more work to be done to make media literacy education more relatable, practicable and operative. Except for continuing to raise awareness of the necessity of media literacy education, improving teacher training and optimizing pedagogies, another of the most urgently needed efforts is that of empirical studies, attempts to analyze the connections between media literacy education and contemporary issues. Kellner (2002, p. 15) summarized this trend aptly: 「This is a time of challenge and a time for experiment.」

Media and Islamophobia

In the previous section the author reasoned that more empirical explorations are needed to situate an effective role for media literacy education to undertake so as to address pressing social issues. One example of such an on-going exploration is that of media』s influence on the perception of Islam and Muslims in non-Muslim societies, particularly the relationship between partial, biased and negative representations of Muslims as a social group in mainstream media and a worrying increase in anti-Muslim prejudices, discriminatory attitudes and even physical insults. Researches on this relationship have been carried out from various angels including multiculturalism, politics and social justice, in the contexts of Germany, Australia (Gardner, Karaka?o?lus, & Luchtenberg, 2008), Europe (Ogan, Willnat, Pennington, & Bashir, 2014), the U.S. (Jackson, 2010; Ogan et al., 2014), the U.K. (Saeed, 2007), Canada (Perry & Poynting, 2006), among others. These researches noticeably point to some unified conclusions. For example, the negative portrayal of Muslims and Islam in media is found to be strongly associated with general public』s hateful attitudes and behaviors toward Muslims, due in part to the fact that popular media has, in many societies, taken up the position of being the primary, and occasionally sole source of information regarding Islam and Muslims. The representations of Islam and Muslims circulated by most mainstream media in the studied societies often emanates a sense of 「otherness」, views the over 1.6 billion world Muslim population (Kettani, 2010) homogeneously, overlooking the internal diversities within Muslim communities (Jackson, 2010), and tends to instigate stereotypical and imbalanced perceptions basing on exceptional or even presumed materials. The fear of Islam and Muslims caused by the media portrayal of them and the consequent repellent attitudes and behaviors are increasingly referred to as 「Islamophobia」 in recent years, though the use of this term has been debated since the 「phobia」 in fact is not usually directed at Islam as a religion or its theological tenets, but rather the perceived 「threatening」 characteristics of Muslims and their 「incompatibility」 to the 「civilized」 and 「modern」 societies conceptualized by prevalent western liberal ideologies (Saeed, 2007). Despite various and continually evolving interpretations of the term, the author intends to use it in this essay in a broad and general manner, espousing the expression of Saeed (2007, p. 15) 「the effects of such hostility on both the individual Muslim and the wider Islamic community」. The following passage will discuss in more depth the reasons behind and the implications of the relationship between media and Islamophobia.

National Association For Media Literacy Education (2007) offered a great table of 「key questions to ask when analyzing media messages」 and the author believes that answering a few from these questions within the context of media representation of Islam and Muslims can offer valuable insights into the relationship between media and Islamophobia.

From NAMLE』s Core Principles of Media Literacy Education in the U.S., April 2007 http://www.namle.net/core-principles

1. Who made the messages about Islam and Muslims in mainstream media in Non-Muslim majority societies?

One of the most salient reasons for the current popular misrepresentations of Islam and Muslims is that Islam and Muslims are introduced in western mainstream media mostly by western, Non-Muslim agencies from western, Non-Muslim perspectives based on western, Non-Muslim interpretations of what Islam is and who Muslims are. As a result, the features of Muslims as a social group are molded or even defined by outgroup members who do not share the beliefs, perspectives and practices of the group being represented. However, this 「we (the West) represent them (the East)」 (Saeed, 2007) scenario is not the root of the problem because to claim that western, Non-Muslim commentators necessarily misrepresent and distort the image of Islam and Muslims merely because of their outgroup identity is as unfair as Islamophobia itself and in fact shares similar underlying mistakes with it. With that said, what does deserve attention is a rather widespread underpinning approach by western popular media and the stakeholders behind to perceiving cultures, ideologies and civilizations that are different from the western liberal democratic ones in a paradigm of the superior 「us」 vs. the inferior 「them」 (Nurullah, 2010), which leads us to the next question.

2. What ideas, values, information and/or points of view are overt? Implied?

On the outside, Islam and Muslims have been repetitively associated with terrorism (especially after 9/11), violence, backwardness, oppression of women (with 「hijab」, or head-covering of Muslim women, as a frequently used symbol) and other negative themes in mainstream media of western societies. The way that media links Islam and Muslims to these themes is not necessarily a direct imposition of opinions, but selective juxtapose of these topics recurrently. For example, when an act of terrorism occurs and the perpetrator has a Muslim background, the media often mentions this religious affiliation emphatically without claiming explicitly that the perpetrator』s Muslim identity has anything to do with his/her motive, intent and the overall act itself, and it probably doesn』t, as Ehrlich and Liu (2002) concluded that geopolitical and socioeconomic factors are much more relevant to terrorist attacks than religion. When a Non-Muslim terrorist is reported in the news, on the other hand, the attention paid to the perpetrator』s religious affiliation is nearly invisible, or worse, the media would even be reluctant to use the word 「terrorism」 to describe an attack done by a Non-Muslim, which is the case of the recent Las Vegas mass shootings ("Las Vegas shootings: Is the gunman a terrorist?," 2017, Oct 3), as if 「terrorism」 had become an exclusive term reserved for Muslims. Jackson (2010) pointed out acutely that by focusing on the exceptional and unrepresentative examples and purposely underrepresenting ordinary and average Muslims as well as their positive images, though not directly propagating an untrue 「Muslims are likely to be terrorists」 or 「Islam encourages terrorism」 notion, the media still enforces a significant impact on public perception by normalizing this kind of mental connection, rendering it reasonable and acceptable. However, this covert hint that Islam and Muslims should be thought conjunctively with the negative themes that they have been made associated with is still likely to be the product of an even deeper basis and that is the widely employed, at times unconsciously, conception of the global divisions and sources of conflicts that stem from the famous the Clash of Civilizations discourse by Huntington (1993), which in a way laid the foundation for a 「The West and The Rest」 disparity, a habituation of unequal power structure and a perspective that tends to see values differing from those of western liberal ones as threatening and less worthy (Saeed (2007) called it 「cultural racism」). In another word, the biased media representations of Islam and Muslims and Islamophobia are concurrently causes and effects of each other. The media represents Islam and Muslims the way it does because they are prejudicially judged and processed by the 「alien other」 framework as well as its corresponding rhetoric and policies (Nurullah, 2010; Perry & Poynting, 2006). The representations then in turn further strengthen this framework and legitimize it as a social norm. Therefore, it is perhaps unreasonable to attribute Islamophobia entirely to the media and unrealistic to think that enhancement of media literacy education will completely resolve it.

3. Who might be harmed by it?

Studies have shown that the climate of anti-Muslim feelings and Islamophobia incited by negative media representations have practically victimized Muslims in a variety of societies on different levels ranging from personal safety, to immigration prospects, to social status (Ogan et al., 2014; Perry & Poynting, 2006). Previous studies on the potential harms and influences of media focused primarily on individuals and media consumers, while relatively less attention has been paid to how social groups as objects of depiction and representation in media can be harmed (Scharrer & Ramasubramanian, 2015). The 「protection」 and 「empowerment」 features of the current media literacy education framework, similarly, deals with mostly individuals and media consumers. Questions like this that ponders upon the detrimental effects of media on others but concerning a phenomenon or reality about which the media consumer as a media literate society member can and should make positive contributions, is a great manifestation of the progress made in the expansion of media literacy』s definition, moving beyond individual-centered personal improvement, incorporating social awareness and responsibilities. Consideration of these questions by media producers when portraying and representing Islam and Muslims, assuming they do not intend to cause harm, could help prevent media messages from reinforcing Islamophobia. Consideration of these questions by media consumers could help prevent media from provoking Islamophobic emotions and actions of themselves and even others around them. Hence, though the discussion on the previous question rendered the conclusion that media literacy education is not capable of eliminating Islamophobia by itself due to the complications in the relationship between media and Islamophobia, media literacy education can still play an important role in mitigating, remedying and continually combating Islamophobia.

How Media Literacy Education Can Make a Change

Revell (2012) elucidated a predicament regarding representations of Muslim communities in Britain, arguing that although religious education subject in British secondary education has been becoming increasingly neutral and the coverage of major world religions in terms of quantity and objectiveness are overall balanced and unbiased, the knowledge about Islam and Muslims that students gain from religious education classes does not serve them well when they are bombarded by media representations of Islam that are so drastically different from what they learn in class. A discrepancy exists between the academic and literature-based image of Islam and Muslims and the mainstream media-propagated image of them. Students do realize this discrepancy, but they are often not clear about how this discrepancy came about, which causes confusion and hinders desired outcomes of religious education, be it multiculturalism or community cohesion. Revell』s demonstration shed light on the positioning of media literacy education in the task of resisting Islamophobia. With accumulating research and investigations vis-à-vis media and Islamophobia, there is growing awareness that mainstream media representations of Islam and Muslims tend to be inaccurate and potentially misleading, but in order for media consumers to navigate through the media messages and come to autonomous, rational and well-informed conclusions, they need to be able to see through the composition of those messages, to understand how they are constructed, to possess the habit of critical analysis and to have the desire to bear the social responsibility of practicing these abilities for social well-being and justice for all. That is where media literacy education comes into play. Ideally, media literacy education can help individuals identify Islamophobic rhetoric and narratives embedded in media messages, thus prevent themselves from generating Islamophobic attitudes and behaviors because of those messages and enable them to share their structured analysis with others. When the number of such individuals reaches a certain amount, the 「production」 or 「empowerment」 side of their media literacy becomes momentous, as they form a counter rhetoric, challenging the normalization of mainstream media misrepresentations and hence inspire further critical thinking among media consumers. Additionally, media literacy education can equip Muslims with the necessary skills and competencies to represent themselves, which is of course indispensable if a balanced representation is to be established. In short, media literacy education can protect media consumers from being imposed on Islamophobic perceptions and empower society members to apply their media literacy to challenging and rebutting prevalent misrepresentations as well as offering alternative representations, a binary result that links back to the fundamental definition of media literacy education.

On the practical level, Jackson (2010), Scharrer and Ramasubramanian (2015) provided valuable suggestions on how media literacy education should be implemented in light of the need to oppose stereotypical and biased media representations of social groups. Apart from the general principles of media literacy education such as critical thinking and inquiry-based exploration, two other important proposals were mentioned. Jackson (2010) advocated examination of various representations from multiple perspectives, both ingroup and outgroup, for students to comparatively experience the different ways that Islam and Muslims are being represented. Scharrer and Ramasubramanian (2015) emphasized that media literacy education curriculum should not shy away from controversial topics and should use contemporary examples as learning materials so that students can better relate their leaning experience to their daily life. The author would add that students should be encouraged to communicate with Muslims, who are the victims of Islamophobia, either as learning peers or objects, about their opinions and experiences concerning the relationship between media and Islamophobia, so as to obtain a more tangible understanding of the role of media literacy education in combating Islamophobia.

Recalling the appeal for experiments of media literacy education mentioned earlier in this essay, the attempt to fight Islamophobia by media literacy education is both an urgent need and a profound experiment, which can provide directions and guidance for future similar endeavors. Muslims have not been, are not and will not be the only social group to suffer from unfair and unjust media portrayals. Islamophobia has not been, is not and will not be the only social issue in which media literacy education can play an important role. The author believes that media literacy education can make a positive change in regard to diverse social issues, one that deserves appreciation, consolidation, continuing evaluation and maturation.

Conclusion

The past decade has seen a large amount of research on how media in non-Muslim majority societies can instigate and reinforce Islamophobia through negative and biased representations of Islam and Muslims. With the gradually maturing media literacy education framework, expectations are placed upon media literacy education to play an important role in combating Islamophobia on both individual and community levels. After analyzing the various factors underpinning the relationship between media and Islamophobia, an attempt was made to strategize the implementation of media literacy education in a way that mitigates, remedies and prevents the Islamophobic influences of media rhetoric and narratives. By 「protection」 and 「empowerment」 of individuals, particularly via multiperspective investigations of various representations of Muslims and Islam in contemporary examples as well as intergroup communications, media literacy education can serve as an effective means of progress in establishing a more balanced and accurate representation of Islam and Muslims. Empirical studies are much needed in the future to refine our conceptualization and application of media literacy education in the context of Islamophobia and by extension other prejudices, discriminations and injustices that have close relations with media.

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