Looking closely at the News coverage concerning the middle east and the United States, there is an inherent media bias against Arabs and Muslims as foreign threats to domestic security. They were often portrayed in news reports as uniformly intolerant and anti-democratic. Such coverage has contributed to the public and government misconceptions of Arabs and Muslims as terrorists. Moreover, the media’s twisted depiction of the Arabs and Muslims has perpetuated countless stereotypes that affect the American opinion. These stereotypes and misconceptions of the Arabs and Muslims clearly indicate a media bias provoked by ignorance.
Arab-Israel conflict has also added the negative view toward the Muslims on the American public. American public are getting only one side of story from the media. Large numbers of Palestinians were killed by Israeli army, there was little mention is American media, their stories were never told but if one Israeli soldier is killed by Palestinians then they show repeatedly in American news channels. So we can find that American media does not accurately portray the going-on in the middle east. That’s why Arabs are seen as terrorist and murderers due to how the media presents them and in result of that, to many in America, Islam is seen in terms of killing and bombing by extremist groups. Newspapers also use words as extremists, terrorists and fanatics to describe Arabs and Muslims. And Islam is depicted in the media as the religion of war, hatred and destruction. These distortions of the Arabs and Muslim people have created a general mistrust and dislike for Arabs and Muslims among Americans.
It is very necessary to improve relations between Arabs and Americans so that all the people around the world can live in peace and harmony. From the economic point of view, it is even more important to improve the relation with Arab countries. Arab countries are the good market for the American products and in return for that, American can get oil in cheaper rate. There are lot to be done to improve the US public’s attitude towards the Arabs and Muslims. Relation may be improved with the Arab countries through dialogue and understanding, not through pressure and threats. The media must accept responsibility for being the major force in presenting the negative view of Muslims and it should accept responsibility by providing more balanced image of Arabs and Muslims.
American government and media should tell the public the fact that the war is against a small group of terrorist who may be Muslims, and it is not the war against Islam. Islam is not the religion of war and destruction, it is a religion of peace. Islam didn’t allow any one to kill civilians, diplomats and innocent peoples. That’s why terrorists are not true Muslims. It will be more effective if media provide the more balanced news of both Israeli and Palestine and also educate the American public about Islam and its basic principles so that they can differentiate between Muslims and terrorists.
