Bias in Popular Culture – Anas Al-Shaikh-Ali – Mahya Yayınları

THE POWER of VISUAL and LINGUISTIC NARRATIVESBIAS IN popular culture is one of the most effective strategies to win over hearts and minds and shape public opinion. This book shows that public opinion and popular culture do not grow organically but are significantly shaped and manipulated, using fear and emotion, to generate consensus and exert political and social influence. Whether covert and deceptive or open and transparent, the campaign of persuasion in the modern context is sophisticated, intensifying, and has become almost universal with the rise of social media and digital technology. In this vividly told and richly illustrated study the author examines the machinery used to inform public perception, rooted as it is in a historical context which reinforces the framework of contem- porary understandings and engagement. Mechanisms and tactics employed include the use of symbols, metaphors, stereotypes, and slogans operating through linguistic and visual narratives in fiction, art, films, plays and political satire to promote desired worldviews. Passive consumers, unable to detect the interplay at work, follow the path of illusion and ultimately internalise the bias."An essential text for exposing and confronting the curse of Islamophobia." Dato' Seri Anwar bin Ibrahim Prime Minister of Malaysia "The author shows clearly that much anti-Muslim bias and distortion is propagated through popular culture. It generates fear and loathing of Islam and Muslims, promotes prejudiced policies rampant in Western nations, and fosters intolerance. For people to live together peaceably while respecting their differences, they must recognize and then address the harm caused by such fiction."Professor Charles E. ButterworthEmeritus Professor, University of Maryland, USA"Timely and insightful, Bias in Popular Culture offers a creative, ambitious and critically important look at Islamophobic bias through the world of culture: art, photographs, children's books, cartoons, popular fi...