Yes it is.. We can observe the situation of image of Muslim Communities in the world. its the Western Media which is creating negative impact on the minds of the people around the world, about the Muslims. Muslims in the world have suffered because of the "Social Construction of reality" by the western media.

I think at present media is the tool to shape our understanding of reality, and Hollywood movies palyed a great role in this perspective. Have a look on Rambo series on Afghan war with Russia when international communities projected epic image of Afghans against Russians. And after that what happened to them? they have immediately changed stance on Afghans to violent, fundamentalist and threat to humans. This is how media construct realities and people start beleiving them.

The problem with "realistic," therefore, as an evaluative criterion for judging how "good" or "bad" a film is results from the fact that all films provide a representation of reality; none simply show us "reality" in and of itself. We have no access to "reality" other than through representations, yet all representations only provide us single, particular perspectives upon, and, more than this, single, particular re-constructions and trans-formations of reality. so its kind of manipulation from producers and story writers. their reality is way too different from the actual one just one example is the documentary about killing of usma

Yes. Its agenda setting by Hollywood as they did in WW 1 and WW2.

This subject here is one of my major study areas both privately and in my research classes--representations of women, Muslims, and other minorities in American media. I am old enough to remember Vietnam and the post-Vietnam era--movie after movie (including Rambo) came out that offered some means of "getting even" with those "gooks" that drove the Americans out of the country. Then came the 80s and early 90's with the First Gulf War, the first attack on the World Trade Center--and Chuck Norris rides to the rescue--against the barbaric Arabs. Some of us used to joke that when we noted a rerun on TV of one of Norris's movies that "something bad must be coming because when American pride is hurting, we see Rambo, Chuck Norris, and those other "American hero" films. After 9/11, the films and TV shows have been relentless in the "bad Arab/Muslim" interpretation. Jack Bauer and "24" dominated the TV screens in the early years after 9/11. He represented "torture is OK if it is done against an Arab terrorist (whether he is one or not); there are no good Muslims; even the best middle-class Middle-Eastern family is suspect of being a "sleeper cell" just waiting to blow up something. Even the 1960s James Bond films usually had the Cold War enemy--the Russian or East German spy, killer, etc. As Attia has pointed out, we cannot access any reality beyond the one that is presented to us. And those of us who do have access to an "alternative view" of that "represented reality" have a difficult time ever being heard, much less respected.

I teach English as a Foreign Language, English composition and electronic research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. I teach chiefly freshmen and sophomores at the university. In the EFL classes, I teach incoming graduate students from all over the world to prepare for the Graduate Record Exam to enter graduate schools in the U.S. Many of my students are from countries in the Middle East and they remain surprised by the overwhelming ignorance of Islam by the vast majority of people here. This area is one of the most conservative right-wing Christian states in existence. Despite the large number of Muslims who live and work here (especially in the medical and engineering sciences), for probably at least eight years after 9/11, there were no Muslim women to be seen. It was literally dangerous. I try in my World Literature classes to present the Qur'an, the Arab historians on the Crusades, ibn Ishaq's "Life of Muhammad" and other Islamic texts, philosophers,etc. in an attempt to correct some of the "realities" most American young people know all too well. Most students are absolutely shocked to learn that there is a huge, historical reality that they have never heard of--and not one has objected to these studies; in fact, I get interesting papers about Islam from a number of them. But no matter how hard we may try to change the images, those images will probably not change until we find a new enemy to present.

Aysha Bey

University of Alabama at Birmingham