Language Wars The Role of Media and Culture in Global Terror and Political Violence

by Lewis, Jeff

• ISBN13: 9780745324852
• ISBN10: 0745324851
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-10-20
• Publisher: Pluto Press

Summary

Language Wars is a fascinating account of the relationship between the media, culture and new forms of global, political violence. Using an innovative approach, Jeff Lewis shows how language and the media are implicated in global terrorism and the US-led reprisals in the war on terror. Through an examination of the language of terrorism and war, Lewis illuminates key events in the current wave of political violence -- the 9/11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon, the Beslan siege, the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, the Bali bombings and the ongoing occupation in the Middle East. He argues that the language used to report incidents of violence has changed, not just in official channels but in wider cultural contexts, and shows the impact this has on social perceptions. Lewis deconstructs these new discourses to reveal how Islam has been construed as the antagonist of freedom, democracy and the rule of law. Ideal for students of media studies and cultural studies, this is a subtle account of the relation between language and culture that exposes a dangerous new east-west divide in popular discourse.

Author Biography

Jeff Lewis is Senior Research Fellow in the Globalism Institute, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. He has written widely on the media and cultural politics. His major international text Cultural Studies was recently published by Sage.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	x
Introduction	1	(20)
Terrorism and Language Wars	1	(4)
The Mediation of Terror	5	(3)
Culture and the Political Signifier	8	(3)
Cultural Politics and Globalization	11	(4)
Government, Democracy and the Mediasphere	15	(2)
Structure and Methods	17	(2)
Key Concepts	19	(2)
1 Mediated Terror and the Politics of Representation	21	(34)
Terror	21	(10)
Televisual Media and the Broadcast of Violence	31	(6)
Representation and Violence	37	(6)
The First Casualty: War and Truth	43	(10)
Conclusions	53	(2)
2 Conflict and Culture: Civilization, History, Identity	55	(39)
Culture and Islam	55	(3)
The Clash of Civilizations Thesis	58	(5)
The Media and Cultural Division	63	(4)
Division and Identity Politics	67	(6)
History and the Roots of Islam	73	(6)
Modernization and Civil Society in the Middle East	79	(4)
Palestine and the 'Jewish Question'	83	(3)
The Body Politic: Interface with Globalization	86	(4)
Interdependence and the Formation of the Cultural Divide	90	(2)
Conclusions	92	(2)
3 The Meaning of 9/11: In the Midst of Infinite Justice	94	(36)
Meaning and the Aesthetics of Terror	94	(3)
Divine Justice: Global Order	97	(7)
Citizens, Consensus and Dissent	104	(4)
Hero—Victims	108	(2)
Public Opinion and the Not-Quite-Real	110	(2)
The Meaning of America and the Twin Towers	112	(6)
Freedom	118	(3)
Surveillance and Control	121	(7)
Conclusions	128	(2)
4 The Iraq Invasion: Democracy in the Field of Battle	130	(38)
The Purposes of War	130	(6)
From Freedom to Democracy	136	(3)
Coalitions of the Killing	139	(2)
Democracy in the Age of Terror	141	(5)
The Electronic Polls	146	(5)
Bomb the World	151	(3)
In Bed with al-Qa'ida	154	(8)
Al-Jazeera and the Alternative Media	162	(4)
Conclusions	166	(2)
5 Globalizing Jihad: The Bali Bombings at the End of Paradise	168	(38)
October 12 and Global Jihad	168	(3)
Jamaah lslamiyah	171	(3)
Paradise Defiled	174	(3)
Clash of Imaginings: Global and National Context	177	(6)
The Crisis of Contiguity	183	(6)
The Bombings: Media arid Political Discourses	189	(6)
The Blind Puppeteer: Atrocity and Civil Society in Indonesia	195	(5)
Development and Recovery in Bali	200	(3)
Conclusions	203	(3)
6 The Occupation of Iraq: Rule of Law and the New Public Sphere	206	(42)
Resolution	206	(2)
The First Casualty: David Kelly and Trial by Ordeal	208	(6)
The New Iraq	214	(5)
Privatization and Occupation	219	(4)
Ordeal and Execution	223	(3)
Al-Jazeera and the Rule of Law	226	(4)
Images of Violence: Photographs and the Transformative Public Sphere	230	(2)
Ordeals at Abu Ghraib	232	(6)
The Body Politic and Abu Ghraib	238	(6)
Theatre of War	244	(2)
Conclusions	246	(2)
Conclusion: Cultural Democracy, Difference and the End of Civilization	248	(19)
Language Wars Here and Over There	248	(3)
Democracy and Global Culture	251	(4)
The Hijab and Global Politics	255	(4)
World Government: Beware the Faithful	259	(8)
References	267	(10)
Index	277