The Role of Media in Shaping the Arab/Muslim American Identity

Media has always witnessed a significant role in directing societies or changing a society's point of view upon an issue or a conflict. Far away from being objective, a lot of articles, movies and advertisements contributed to creating a new opinion about certain political issues or raised and emphasized the negative aspects of certain events that harmed minorities. It is the example of Arab Americans in the United States of America who were looked down upon because of political events they just heard about. Especially before 9/11, Arab Americans were not seen as a minority of citizens, but they were more considered as Muslim terrorists. This identity redefinition created an identity dilemma, a clash between Arabs and other minorities, and civil disobedience in the US. Yet, after 9/11 media witnessed a change in sympathizing with Arabs which again redefined the position of this minority in the US to gain some of its value. Although media teaches people how to criticize, it changed the whole American society from an ethnic to a civic country, then opened the path for its criticizers to point on the civic values which are the basics of the American nation. This article aims to analyze how far Arab Americans and Arab Muslims are defined by the American media and accepted in American society.