Discuss the presentation of Muslim people in the two media texts you have studied; Carol Sarler's article (Sunday People) Casualty,

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Discuss the presentation of Muslim people in the two media texts you have studied;

Carol Sarler’s article (Sunday People)

Casualty, “Everlasting Love”

I have recently studied two different media texts. I did this in an effort to find out how Muslim people are sometimes treated and presented in the British media.

The first piece that I studied was an article written by Carol Sarler in the “Sunday People”. The article’s headline was “It’s time we stood up to these Muslim bullies”.

The second piece that I studied was an episode of Casualty. This was called “Everlasting Love” and was written by Barbara Machin.

Casualty is one of the BBC’s flagship shows and is shown on a Saturday night at 8 o’clock. The episode concerned was, in the public’s/audience’s view, the best ever. When it was shown, it received an audience of around 15 million, it’s biggest ever.

First of all, I would like to discuss the audiences of both pieces. Carol Sarler’s article, having been on page 33 of the Sunday People would not have had a very big audience. However small the audience though, it was definitely aimed at the white community. I can see this just by looking at the headline. The word “we” is used as if she thinks there is only one culture in Britain, the white community.

I also think that this article is potentially very dangerous. If its target audience (the white community) was to read it and believe statements that are written, such as “mosques in public places preaching the annihilation of infidels (that’s you and me?)”

They would most likely be angered and therefore turn against the Muslim community. It would cause unrest on the part of the target audience. The minority audience, the Muslim community, reading this article would also be angered. Yet, they would be angered in a different way. They would feel that the article degrades their community. They may feel stereotyped.

The article could also stir up fear in both audiences.

The target audience could read the article and then fear the Muslim community after what is suggested about them.

On the other hand, the Muslim people reading the article could then fear the repercussions of the article. They may feel that after reading the article the white audience may believe it and then think that all Muslims are like what Carol Sarler suggests. This (may!) lead to violence against the Muslim community.

Overall, I think that the article may cause unrest between the two communities/cultures and it does seem to stir up a lot of trouble. I think that if the article had been on been on, say, page 2/3, the effects would have been much, much bigger.

The episode of casualty could also have a negative effect on the audiences.

The only bad guy in the episode is Khalid, a Muslim man. When Khalid is introduced to the story, we know straight away, even before he speaks that he is a bad guy. The audience can see this by the way he is filmed, by the way he acts and by the fact that the scene is shot in a dirty, derelict location. As his big black car pulls up, Damien’s (the man that Khalid is after) facial expression is of fear. When Khalid, himself, comes into shot, he walks from a long shot into a close up. In this close up, his face is lit from the side. This cats a shadow over him; this may well suggest the dark side of his personality. From these shots the audience can clearly tell, even before he speaks, that’s he’s bad. Just to top the cameo off though, he lights a cigarette!

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Casualty aims for a massive and wide target audience. This includes Muslims, African and other ethnic minorities. It also aims at other minorities, such as homosexuals. Even though it aims at all these different minorities, I think that it is safe to suggest that the majority of the audience would be the white community. This is due, simply, to the fact that the white community is the majority of the population in this country.

So when the white majority audience see what this Muslim man is doing, but more importantly when they see that he is doing it to ...

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