TV dramas evoke sympathy, remorse, and mourning to position viewers as benevolent

Evidence

TV dramas that focus on the Arab/Muslim American plight post-9/11 tend to evoke a particular cluster of emotions: sympathy, remorse, and mourning. Stories about Arab/Muslim Americans as the unjust victims of hate crimes or as victims of post-9/11 government policies evoke feelings of sorrow for their misfortune (sympathy), feelings of regret that a better decision could not be made under the circumstances that would not adversely affect their civil rights or well-being (remorse), and feelings of grief that their plight reveals certain compromises in American ideals (mourning). This set of emotions, what I refer to as benevolent emotions, contribute to a sense of benevolence in the ideal viewer, a sense that viewers, and Americans more broadly, are well meaning in even the most difficult circumstances. — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 338

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces the author’s coined term ‘benevolent emotions’ and its three components.
• SEED: An essay angle: how media-engineered empathy can function as a substitute for actual political redress — feeling benevolence replaces demanding rights.
• XREF: connects to: Television replaced moral guidance with emotional guidance and redemptive hugs — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 153