Fox News and the Construction of the Islamic Peril

This article by Fred Vultee gave an interesting look into the modern Western media’s depiction of Islam, particularly Fox News, and a culture of fear and distrust developed by said coverage. Vultee attempted to answer the question of “How can this happen?” particularly regarding Fox News’ ability to produce content that alienated Islamic culture and created an “us versus them” mentality for viewers, Vultee did some analysis of Said’s Orientalism and other scholarly works from the 1970s to the early 20005 and made the argument that, based on these works, that the Islam-Christian relationship is “essentially politicali” He used examples of the coverage of Iraq and al-Qaida to demonstrate the strategic reasons for alienating coverage and a “characicaturial” depiction of Islam He also focused heavily on the West’s definition of Islam, which he claims is incorrect and unfair, and Fox News’ tendency to describe Islam and Islamic groups and nations as “them” and the US as “us,” and the deeply complex repercussions of such I found the article interesting and also very explanatory of, what I consider, an unbelievable phenomenon in modern “news“ coverage.

I have always been amazed at Fox News’ ability to provide such obviously and painfully narrow coverage and still maintain a substantial viewing audience.

However, the cultural process of, essentially, demonizing Islamic countries has been a “long time coming,” even prior to Fox News’ prominence. Additionally, the following of Fox News is fairly specific but strong in numbers. The values, particularly ”unashamedly patriotic”, or in reality very conservative politically and militarily, resonate with a sector of Americans who remain unfalteringly loyal to the network, allowing them to continue to tailor the news to their own agenda and essentially “get away with it.

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” The coverage of Islamic nations plays a big role in the development of Fox News‘ specific agenda.