The relentless assaults from popular broadsheets and tabloids are echoed by political leaders too. David Cameron’s language around refugees – “swarms”, “bunch of migrants” – contributes to the idea that they are a homogenous, threatening group. In January, he said that the “traditional submissiveness of Muslim women” was leaving young men vulnerable to radicalisation – reinforcing the stereotypes that Muslim women have to deal with daily. Cameron upset not only the mothers, but also their children – people of my generation, who have come through the British education system, and have navigated the path of being young, British and Muslim.
Analyse how Text A uses language to create meanings and representations. (25 marks)
Text A is written for the online version of the broadsheet newspaper ‘The Guardian’. This is clear to see as the logo is presented in the top right hand corner and the hyperlink is shown at the top of the page. The article is about how Muslims are represented in the media and it includes some of the writer’s personal experiences and opinions. By writing this article she hopes that it will open people’s minds to the true issue that is the misrepresentation of Muslims as a religious group. As the newspaper is a broadsheet, the article is just as we expect – quite a heavy and sophisticated read. This therefore suggests that the article is written for the older generations who would be able to comprehend the seriousness of the topic, and as the newspaper it is written for is the Guardian; perhaps the audience are more of an upper-middle class.
Firstly, in the title the writer uses a rule of three; ‘young, British and Muslim’. This is very interesting as the adjectives all have different positive and negative connotations and also as well as this their meanings slightly change when they are put together as one. The adjective ‘British’ for example has many positive connotations – people associate the Royal Family, a fry up and a good cup of English tea with this, however for the adjective ‘Muslim’, it is a completely different story. When people think of ‘Muslim’, it seems because of the portrayal that the media have given them, people automatically think ‘terrorist’ or ‘suicide-bomber’, and as expressed by the writer, this is upsetting for many Muslims as this is not what they truly believe in – yet they are judged for it and discriminated upon. When you hear ‘British and Muslim’, it is quite odd, as the collocation is not one that is used often, although this is strange as Muslims are a huge ‘part in British history’ and continue to be ‘a part of Britain’ today.
Furthermore, also in the title, the writer uses the interrogative ‘Why should I change my name?’. The use of the auxiliary verb ‘should’ suggests to the readers that the article they are about to read could create some debate. The fact that the writer also uses first person here and says ‘Why should I’ suggests that she is going to talk about some of her personal experiences and also suggests that the article will feature some of her own opinions on the subject – highlighting that it is one in which she is very passionate about. Further on in the text, it is highlighted that she is talking about her experiences as she uses the phrase ‘The other day’. She explains after this that she wasn’t allowed to stay somewhere for a short holiday break as the host wasn’t ‘comfortable’ with her staying there and she didn’t ‘trust’ her; all the host knew about the writer was her name – ‘Iman Amrani’. The adjective ‘comfortable’ suggests that the women wouldn’t have been relaxed with the writer staying there, highlighting how Muslims are attacked by the media and as a result people assume the worst from them. The abstract noun ‘trust’ also suggests the same thing and highlights how discrimination is happening to this misrepresented religious group, still in the 21st century.
Throughout the article, the writer uses complex and declarative syntax, which may suggest that she is well-educated. An example of this is ‘studies have shown that applicants with Muslim names are significantly less likely to be called in for a job interview’. This highlights the fact that the writer does really know what she is talking about and this suggests to the readers that it is a reliable source to read on the subject as it uses facts to back up points made. As well as using complex syntax, the writer uses standard grammar throughout and as well as declarative syntax, the writer also uses some exclamatory syntax to help express her opinions and personal feelings towards the subject, for example ‘none of us want to be defined solely by our religion’.
Further on in the article, the writer says ‘What it means to be Muslim for us isn’t the same as what it means for a lot of other people. Our generation have grown up in the shadow of 9/11’. The noun ‘shadow’ suggests that people try to put what happened behind them, however still, to this day, it is where the many negative stereotypes of Muslims began. The writer carries on to say ‘We have no recollection of the time before, when barely any non-Muslims cared what religion we were’. The phrase ‘the time before’ highlights the fact that the media weren’t always this negative about Muslims and this shows that it has had a real impact on the writer’s life and many others just like her because of one single tragic event.
Furthermore, the writer writes in the present tense, for example ‘Everyday’ and ‘weekly reports’ – this suggests that the issue with the misrepresentation of Muslims is ongoing and is still happening in the media almost constantly. Not only do the media have an impact however, it is also echoed by the government and the prime minister also. The writer states that David Cameron’s language regarding refugees just encourages the media to continue creating these negative stereotypes. Cameron used the words and phrases “swarms” and “bunch of migrants” to describe the refugees. The plural noun ‘swarm’ usually describes (stated in its denotation) the large group of flying insects – this highlights the complete lack of respect that not only people of the UK have, but the Prime Minister has towards migrants currently fleeing their countries. This highlights that if the Prime Minister speaks in such a way, it will be hard to change the way people think of the Muslim religion and its followers.
To conclude, following on from this idea, the writer says ‘the future is going to be more and more uncomfortable for all of us, with more division, more suspicion and more hate’. The abstract noun ‘hate’ used here really just highlights what the media are technically doing and it suggests that in the future, awful things could be sprung from these negative stereotypes that have been and are still being created by the media surrounding Muslims. Like what the writer previously said ‘views are shaped by what we read or hear in the media’.
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