As we all know news about the Charlie Hebdo and Kosher store attacks in Paris blazed across the world in no time. Despite the fact that another terrorist attack took place in the same time period in Nigeria, where 2000 people were slaughtered. It is shocking to me that the death of 4 French citizens, 1 police man and 12 French journalists (17 total) was more important than 2000 innocent Nigerian lives. What could be the reason behind that?
I speculate that the reason Charlie gained worldwide attention is that because it is a western country and people relate more to countries that are similar to theirs or countries that they have visited and imagine visiting.
The Paris attacks fuelled a social media movement under the tag of #JeSuisCharlie (on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram), "Je suis Charlie" translates to I am Charlie in english, suggesting support to the satirical cartoon newspaper. Which got the #Jesuischarlie trending more than the Nigeria attacks.
People have tweeted the hashtag (#JeSuisCharlie) more than 5million times, peaking at 6300 tweets per minute (according to data collected on Friday evening [January, 9, 2015]. To see a map of the tweet locations press here.
Another reason for the world wide spotlight attention is the fact that the attacks were condemned as an attack against freedom of speech and freedom of expression. It was made clear by the United States, other western governments and media channels that whoever was not #jesuischarlie was against freedom of speech. This is related to the othering technique we discussed in class was driven by the othering technique, so if you are charlie then you are with us (westerners) and if not you are with them (othering with the others, terrorists, Muslims and Arabs) because these people were mainly offended by the cartoons and they were not charlie because they don't support cartoons of ending their religion. and this distinction was made clear. A dichotomous choice. You are either with free speech/expression or against it. They did not take into mind any grey area between.
Also a march was held in Paris that was lead by some of the world's leading figures including, leaders from arab countries like Jordan and Palestine, European countries like Germany and many others...
Before continuing my blog article please complete these polls:
I want to argue that the Western Media has long been biased, and continues to be in reporting the Charlie Hebdo attacks. News reports, and articles about the Charlie Hebdo and Kosher attacks had no if little mention of the 2 muslim heroes, in the Paris attacks. The Western media managed as always to villanize and slap terrorist labels to the criminal brothers. And they never bring to light, the achievements of the muslim heroes, who sacrificed their lives protecting the victims, their country and the lives of others. I just want to bring to attention that the Police officer (Ahmed) killed by the Kouachi brothers was a muslim that worked to support his family.
And the worker at the Kosher store was also a muslim who managed to disconnect the Fridge's electricity and hide some customers in the fridge of the store to keep them safe and out of sight from the criminals who attacked the store.
The question is WHY didn't we hear much about this?
Another recent event where this warped strategy of media plays a role is in before yesterday's killing of 3 innocent muslim students in their North Carolina home, they were killed by their White American Athiest Neighbour. Such crimes are on the rise because of the continuous representation of muslims as villains in the media. As long as all muslims (without exceptions) are portrayed as a whole entity of backward, violent and savages, and are not portrayed as people who have lives, jobs similar to another human, . It is causing Islamophobia and hate sentiments against islam, and arabs. As seen in the picture below, presenting the contrast of reporting a crime committed by a person who has arab/islamic origins, and an atheist American is favouring the American, extreme hateful diction (like terrorist, terrible) is used in reporting crimes by islamists and a euphemistic milder language that provides benefit of the doubt to American criminals. This is why I consider the media as biased and warped.
In my opinion, Western media should start practicing decent ethical journalism, in order to achieve a safer, more peaceful world. But as long as they are planting the fear and hate in the hearts of their audiences/citizens, they can never expect true freedom.
I speculate that the reason Charlie gained worldwide attention is that because it is a western country and people relate more to countries that are similar to theirs or countries that they have visited and imagine visiting.
The Paris attacks fuelled a social media movement under the tag of #JeSuisCharlie (on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram), "Je suis Charlie" translates to I am Charlie in english, suggesting support to the satirical cartoon newspaper. Which got the #Jesuischarlie trending more than the Nigeria attacks.
People have tweeted the hashtag (#JeSuisCharlie) more than 5million times, peaking at 6300 tweets per minute (according to data collected on Friday evening [January, 9, 2015]. To see a map of the tweet locations press here.
Another reason for the world wide spotlight attention is the fact that the attacks were condemned as an attack against freedom of speech and freedom of expression. It was made clear by the United States, other western governments and media channels that whoever was not #jesuischarlie was against freedom of speech. This is related to the othering technique we discussed in class was driven by the othering technique, so if you are charlie then you are with us (westerners) and if not you are with them (othering with the others, terrorists, Muslims and Arabs) because these people were mainly offended by the cartoons and they were not charlie because they don't support cartoons of ending their religion. and this distinction was made clear. A dichotomous choice. You are either with free speech/expression or against it. They did not take into mind any grey area between.
Also a march was held in Paris that was lead by some of the world's leading figures including, leaders from arab countries like Jordan and Palestine, European countries like Germany and many others...
Before continuing my blog article please complete these polls:
I want to argue that the Western Media has long been biased, and continues to be in reporting the Charlie Hebdo attacks. News reports, and articles about the Charlie Hebdo and Kosher attacks had no if little mention of the 2 muslim heroes, in the Paris attacks. The Western media managed as always to villanize and slap terrorist labels to the criminal brothers. And they never bring to light, the achievements of the muslim heroes, who sacrificed their lives protecting the victims, their country and the lives of others. I just want to bring to attention that the Police officer (Ahmed) killed by the Kouachi brothers was a muslim that worked to support his family.
And the worker at the Kosher store was also a muslim who managed to disconnect the Fridge's electricity and hide some customers in the fridge of the store to keep them safe and out of sight from the criminals who attacked the store.
The question is WHY didn't we hear much about this?
This shows that one of the goals of western media is linked to one of the processes of Orientalism Where they aim to villainize arabs/muslims and to expose them as the bad people that need to be disciplined, causing an alienating other effect. Concealing stories that make them human especially when they are the real victims. This is the reason of Islamophobia on the rise, it is causing more hate and more unrest in the world, just to satisfy certain political goals.
Another recent event where this warped strategy of media plays a role is in before yesterday's killing of 3 innocent muslim students in their North Carolina home, they were killed by their White American Athiest Neighbour. Such crimes are on the rise because of the continuous representation of muslims as villains in the media. As long as all muslims (without exceptions) are portrayed as a whole entity of backward, violent and savages, and are not portrayed as people who have lives, jobs similar to another human, . It is causing Islamophobia and hate sentiments against islam, and arabs. As seen in the picture below, presenting the contrast of reporting a crime committed by a person who has arab/islamic origins, and an atheist American is favouring the American, extreme hateful diction (like terrorist, terrible) is used in reporting crimes by islamists and a euphemistic milder language that provides benefit of the doubt to American criminals. This is why I consider the media as biased and warped.
In my opinion, Western media should start practicing decent ethical journalism, in order to achieve a safer, more peaceful world. But as long as they are planting the fear and hate in the hearts of their audiences/citizens, they can never expect true freedom.
