This book explores how terrorists have been portrayed in the Western media, and the wider ideological and social functions of those representations. Developing a theory of scapegoating related to narrative closure, as well as an integrated, genealogical method of intervisuality, the book proposes a new way of thinking about how political images achieve power and influence the public. By connecting modern portrayals of terrorists (post-9/11) with historical and fictional images of villains from Western cultural history, the book argues that the portrayal and punishment of terrorists in the Western media implicitly perpetuates neo-Orientalist attitudes. It also explains that by repeating these narrative patterns through a ritual of scapegoating, Western media coverage of terrorists partakes in a social process that uses punishment, dehumanization and colonialist ideas to purge the iconic ‘villain’, so as to build national unity and sustain hegemonic power following crisis.
| ISBN: | 9783030048815 |
| Publication date: | 14th January 2019 |
| Author: | Christiana Spens |
| Publisher: | Springer Nature Switzerland AG |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 253 pages |
| Genres: |
Terrorism, armed struggle Peace studies and conflict resolution International relations Media studies Political structure and processes Communication studies Central / national / federal government policies |