Articles Analysis Essay on Hollywood Films Representation of Arab Culture

Peter Bradshaw. (2011, September 8), 9/11: how did Hollywood handle the tragedy? The Guardian, retrieved 06/02/18 from https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2011/sep/08/9-11-films-hollywood-handle

The site provides essential information on how Hollywood films epitomize the 9/11 tragedy. According to the author, since the attack, Hollywood has released several movies as it attempts to illustrate to the audience what happened during that time. Despite the site being for commercial purposes, it has essential academic content that can be used on this topic. From the films listed, it offers some primary sources, which show the depiction of the Arabian culture. In most of the movies highlighted in the article, they depict the Arabs as terrorists.The films produced by Hollywood according to the author have used loads of fiction relying on myth-making and image production. The result of such is that the Arabian culture has become highlighted in a perturbing manner to the audience. I would use this site for my research without additional outside sources because it has credible information including the mentioning of real films. I accessed the article through Google.com with the key search terms used being Arabian culture representation in Hollywood Films.

Steve Rose. (2016, March 8), Death to the Infidels, why it is time to fix Hollywoods problem with Muslims. The Guardian, Retrieved htpps://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/mar/08/death-o-the-infidels-time-to-fix-hollywoods-problem-muslims

The site provides information on how the representation of Muslims in Hollywood films has been over the years. According to the author, Hollywood is part of the problem concerning the negative stereotype that people have toward Arabs and Muslim culture. Despite being an academic site, the website has sound information on the subject. It mentions the involvement of the US government in trying to fight off the deleterious depiction of Arabian and Muslim culture in films. The article says some vital primary sources such as the State Department through its Countering Violent Extremism have program that aim at stopping this undesirable representation of Muslims and Arabs. This depiction as terrorist creates fear and people refuse to associate with them. I would use this source for my research. However, that will include going through the various state agency website mentioned to verify the content of the article. I used Google.com to access the website with the key search variable being occurrences of 9/11 and Arabian characteristics in the films.

Padget Kenneth. (2014 September 12). The History of Racist Arab Stereotypes. Arabface, Retrieved from https://www.arabface.us

The site provides necessary information on the history of Arab culture stereotyping in Hollywood films. The author of the article does raise some important points through tracing when the stereotyping begun. In the article, the writer states that, the representation of Arabs in films started as a thief, seducer, villain, and hustler before 9/11 attacks. The report outlines various movies through which this Arab culture representation was before 9/11 dating back to 1897 when the first stereotypical cinema featuring an Arab aired known as Fatima dances. According to the author, starting from the 20th century, most Arabs appear as terrorists in the Hollywood films. Despite the site not being an academic website, it does provide beneficial information on the history of Arabian culture labelling in cinema. The primary sources contained in the article include the various movies mentioned which are accessible speedily from multiple websites such as IMDB and YouTube. I would use the information from this site in my research. Nevertheless, this would involve watching the diverse movies provided to prove the credibility of the information given. I accessed this resource through Google.com using the search terms the history of Arab stereotypes in films.

Alsultany, E. (2012). Arabs and Muslims in the Media: Race and Representation after 9/11.nyu Press.

The books primary audience is the public aimed at showing how the media represents the Arabs and Muslims and effects of this on their general well-being. The author traces this representation back to the 1990s where she illustrates how the media strains to balance an adverse description with a positive one. The author is a co-editor of various magazines involving Arabian stereotyping; she has first-hand knowledge on the levels of the cultural image in Hollywood films. According to the author, she states that since the 9/11, there has been an increased rate of federal policies and hate crimes that target Muslims and Arabs. It has similarly trickled into USA media houses as they continue to represent the Arabs as being the enemy during the war on terrorist activities. Chapter 1 and 2 provides scores of information about the exemplification of the Arabian culture in films. I found this book at the New York University Press Books library. I searched for the terms Arabs and Muslims in media.

Shaheen, J.G. (2012). Guilty: Hollywoods Verdict on Arabs after 9/11.Interlink Publishing.

This book provides an insight into how US-Based commercial media has played a considerable role towards negatively representing minority groups, which has led to negative public perceptions. It draws on various films dating decades ago and how this has affected the USA and global audience. The author tracks how the Arabs culture depiction in movies leads to stereotyping. The author gives an example of movies from Hollywood and in them one can see that Arabs appear as terrorists with bearded faces driven by voracity and covetousness. According to the author, these movies do not know that Arab men and women undertake what other average Americans do on a daily basis. The media has created the adverse climate through which Arabs live in the real world with their neighbors, friends amongst other people. I accessed the book from Google Books. I searched the term Hollywoods verdict on Arabs after 9/11 from the search tab and sorted the results to pick the most recently published book.

Vanhala, H. (2011). The depiction of terrorists in blockbuster films, 1980-2011: An analytical study. McFarland

This book outlines the role of USA economic interests and foreign policy about the Arabs portrayal as international terrorists in the different Hollywood movies. The authors begin their analysis of the Iran hostage crisis all the way to the attack on the world trade center in 2001.In part one of the book written for the general audience including academic purposes, the book highlights the role of various USA entities in fuelling the terrorist image of the Arabs globally. Through part two, the authors have highlighted multiple movies that show the Arabs taking up roles as terrorists in the movie, which gets views by billions of people from all over the world. I found this book at Stanford Libraries; however, it can similarly be accessed through other book libraries using World Cat. The search term used in finding the book included Arab terrorist depiction in the USA.

Bednarek, M. (2015). Corpus-assisted multimodal discourse analysis of television and film narratives. In Corpora and Discourse Studies (pp. 63-8). Palgrave Macmillan London. https://link.springer.com/chater,10.1057/781137431738_4

The article discusses the importance of discourse in films. According to the author, discourse refers to how a films narrative becomes presented to the public. Movies have massive global audiences and once viewed, people create various social realities. Films similarly reflect various social events. The result of this is that other discourses become created by the audience and evidenced through multiple comments, reactions, and critics. The article is written for a scholarly audience and highlights how films have an impact on the viewers. Billions of people consume the contents of the movie globally. The author provides a literature review including a list of references that add credibility to the information. From the info proven, one can acquire expedient conclusions and points that emphasize the effects of the Arabian culture representation by Hollywood films to the viewers. I came across the article from the Springer Link database. I searched using the terms, power, discourse, and film.

Alawi, N. (2015) How Do Hollywood Movies Portray Muslims and Arabs after 9/11? Content Analysis of the Kingdom and Rendition Movies. Cross-Cultural Communication, 11(11), 58-62.

This article discusses how the Hollywood films have depicted Muslims after 9 /11. The article begins its analysis from a historical depiction of Arabs and Muslims in Western media and how these portrayals have changed after the September attacks. The analysis of the article draws its points basing on two moves The Rendition and The Kingdom both films released after the attacks in 2007.The report includes various discussions on how the attacks affected the USA including the international community in general. The report, written for a scholarly audience, it brings out how the Hollywood films have worked hard in making a connection between the ordinary lives of the Arabs and the terrorist activities to seem real. The author of the article highlights how the Arabs are linked to terrorism without any form of justification. The author indicates that the public views the Arabs as having been raised in such a manner and it is their religion that makes them adhere to Jihad. I found this article in the Canada database. I searched using the keywords Hollywood movies portray Muslims and Arabs after nine /11.

Abdullah, M.A.S. (2015). Muslims in Pre and Post-/11 Contexts. International Journal of Comparative Literature and Translation Studies, 3(3), 52-59.

The article outlines how the characteristics of the Muslims and Arabs have changed over the years especially after the 9/11 assaults on the USA. The west has vilified and stereotyped the two groups in the literature and films over the years. From the article, the author shows how the post 9/11 depiction of Muslim and Arabs has become heart breaking and terrible. The public now views them as either being compassionate to terrorist activities or being assassins. The article is scholarly and has an extensive literature review that brings to light this factor. The author uses two films, True Lies, and The Siege to show the extent of stereotypical attitude the public has developed since the attacks. The author similarly uses literature through two novels, The Promised Land and The Reluctant Fundamentalist to analysis the matter. At the end of the article, the author provides an extensive list of references an individual can use to add more information. I accessed the article from the IJCLTS database. I searched using the keywords Arabs, Muslims and 9/11.

Fadda-Conrey, C. (2011). Arab American citizenship in crisis: Destabilizing representations of Arabs and Muslims in the US after 9/11. MFS Modern Fiction Studies, 57(3), 532-555.

The article highlights the plight of Arab-Americans after the post 9/11 chaos. The report states that this has further become fuelled by the different fiction texts in the USA in this case film and literature. According to the author, the Arab Americans considered as being un-American by their fellow citizens. They have suffered from racial profiling and blanket labeling which continues to increase each day as Hollywood releases more movies and literature. The article is written for a scholarly audience, and it states that the post 9/11 attacks did not only fuel the stereotype but instead, it has existed in the USA as seen from other past attacks such as the Gulf War, 1993 bombing of the World Trade Centre and the 1967...