Beyond Orientalism

Abstract

/ Factors beyond the control of journalists and media organizations are essential in the construction of news about the Middle East. Ideology plays a role and so do ignorance and prejudice, but even when as a correspondent one knows the local language and is hypersensitive to the pitfalls of ethnocentrism and orientalism, still the coverage one produces often reinforces stereotypes. The cause seems to lie in the dilemmas inherent in the collection and representation of information, in particular in non-western, non-democratic contexts. A solution may be to embrace rather than obscure these dilemmas but this requires a fundamental rethink of what news is, both on the part of journalists and of audiences.