Complex media portrayals may not overcome entrenched prejudice against Arabs and Muslims.

Evidence

If more and more Americans were to see more and more complex portrayals of Arabs, Muslims, Arab Americans, and Muslim Americans on television and film, who knows what the effect would be. Racism is endlessly flexible; resentment of the Other can be easily stoked; stereotyped assumptions are difficult to overcome. Perhaps the emergence of honest, and varied, and human portrayals of Arabs and Muslims would make little difference in a country, and a world, attuned to prejudice. At the same time, television can have a surprising effect on its viewers. Television shows, as these few comedies demonstrate, have the potential for more complexity than we often give them credit for. Perhaps, en masse, they could compel an audience to reject the logics that legitimize the denial of human rights. — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 1418

Categorization

• QUESTION: Does representation change attitudes at all, and is there measurable evidence either way? Worth chasing the empirical literature on media representation effects.