Overview
- Develops an integrated method of intervisuality
- Examines scapegoating and narrative closure
- Shows how neo-Orientalism manifests in media portrayals of terrorists
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About this book
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.
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Keywords
Table of contents (6 chapters)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Christiana Spens is the author of Shooting Hipsters: Rethinking Dissent for the Age of PR, and writes for Prospect, Art Quarterly, Studio International and The New Strategist on politics, art and visual culture. She is also a founder and director of Truth Tellers, a research centre focused on art, trauma and international relations.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Portrayal and Punishment of Terrorists in Western Media
Book Subtitle: Playing the Villain
Authors: Christiana Spens
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04882-2
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Political Science and International Studies, Political Science and International Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG, part of Springer Nature 2019
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-04881-5Published: 14 January 2019
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-04882-2Published: 29 December 2018
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: VII, 253
Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations
Topics: Terrorism and Political Violence, Conflict Studies, International Security Studies, Media and Communication, Political Communication, Media Policy