Contrasting Religious Realities: Media Representations of
Religious Issues in Jerusalem
WRIT2011 MAJOR ESSAY
By Chloe Yates
In twenty-first century society,
the media play a key role in framing religious topics in order to manipulate
audience perceptions of religious groups to align with a political, social or
ideological agenda. The way in which audiences perceive the actions, attitudes
and beliefs of a religious group are directly determined by the information
presented to them by the media. This essay seeks to analyse the role the role
that specific television media productions have represented Jews and Muslims in
the city of Jerusalem in recent years, the accuracy of this representation, and
the implications and influence this representation has had on public perception
of the two religious groups. Using a case study of two BBC documentary
productions, Louis Theroux’s The Ultra
Zionists and Yotam Ottolenghi’s Food
of Jerusalem the motivations behind conflicting and divergent religious
groups will be analysed within the framework of the way western viewers are
mobilised to perceive Jews and Muslims in Jerusalem.
The influence of the media in
shaping public attitudes towards religion is a debated and contested scholarly
topic. As Savigny and Marsden suggest, there are two major schools of thought
on the topic. The Frankfurt school suggests that the media inject ideas into
unsuspecting audiences (Marsden and Savigny 2009). On the other hand, scholars
such as Klapper suggest that audiences interpret media information within the
context of their lived experiences (Marsden and Savigny 2009). Both schools agree that the
media plays some role in shaping public attitudes. Elizabeth Poole and John
Richardson assert that the dawn of globalisation has led to a homogenised
journalistic ideology that largely portrays the west as inherently good, and
Islamic nations as ‘other’ (Poole and Richardson 2006). These homogenised accounts
of journalism and media framing of religion are influenced to a degree by local
contexts such as immigrant presence and neighbouring populations, but mostly
represent a dichotomised view of religions within the modern world, suggesting
that Judeo-Christian traditions are incompatible with Muslim beliefs and
culture(Stout and Buddenbaum 2009).
It is important to note that the
content of media productions is strongly affected by the availability of, and
access to picture and text resources (Poole and Richardson 2006). Without entertaining photos
or video, media outlets are unable to create a story or production that will
appeal to audiences, and will thus present only the most readily available and
entertaining material. This, as Greg Philo (2006) writes, can lead to gaps in
information about key current affairs issues, and perspectives of one group
over another being more prominent in media presentations. Philo states that in
the case of the Israel-Palestine conflict this is a key issue surrounding
public opinion on Jews and Muslims in the West Bank, with western media
foregrounding Israeli perspectives and Muslims seeing as agitating the volatile
situation towards violence and discord (Philo 2006).
Another key issue surrounding
religion in the media, and specifically the Israeli-Palestine conflict is the
advent of “Islamophobia” in the media since September 11 (Ishak and Solihin 2012). Padgett and Allen suggest
that in times of crisis, the western media scrambles to find an alien ‘other’
to personify a threat to safety and national integrity (Padgett and Allen 2003). Thus, following the
September 11 attacks on the twin towers in New York, Muslims became demonised
as the enemy of the west (Padgett and Allen 2003). 2001 also marked a
re-ignition of territorial conflict in Jerusalem, and In many cases the phenomenon of
“Islamophobia” has characterised news
and other media representations of the Israeli-Palestine conflict since then (Jung 2004; Ishak and Solihin
2012). However, in Theroux and
Ottolenghi’s documentary representations, a dichotomised and divergent Islam is
not as evident.
Louis Theroux’s The Ultra Zionists is a documentary
series that examines the lives of extremist Jews and Zionists living in
Jerusalem, and how this affects the ongoing conflict between Jews and Arab
Musilms in Jerusalem (Theroux 2011). Theroux represents Ultra
Zionists as driven by their religious claims to an unwavering claim and loyalty
to the land of Jerusalem. Implicit throughout Theroux’s work is the allusion to
the unnecessary and unreasonable nature of the claims and desires of these extremist
Jewish groups (Smith 2011). Largely, viewers could easily
interpret Theroux’s criticisms of these groups as suggestion that without the
insistence of these groups that they remain in the West Bank, Jerusalem would
be a peaceful city. However, this suggestion is overly simplistic and misleads
audiences about the nature of conflict and religious identity in Jerusalem.
Theroux reports the extremist
Jewish and Zionist groups as finding their motivation directly derived from the
bible, and frames their violent and aggressive behaviour and attitudes towards
neighbouring Arab Muslim communities. Thus commenting on the religious nature
of Judaism and representing religion as a negative influence over social
conflict and an inhibitor to peace (Theroux 2011). While Theroux is accurate in
his assertion that these fringe groups exist, he over emphasises the role they
play in the conflict and their prevalence in Jerusalem. Jews living in
Jerusalem characterise themselves as twice as religious as Jews living in other
regions of Israel, however ultra-orthodox and Zionist Jews make up less than
one quarter of the Jewish population of Jerusalem (Choshen and Korach 2011). This means that fringe
groups such as those Theroux interviews make up less than 15% of the population
of Jerusalem and less than 4% of the total population of the West Bank (Choshen and Korach 2011).
Furthermore, while the number of
orthodox Jews in Jerusalem is increasing by 1% each year, Arab Muslim
populations are increasing by 3% per year, with a rising trend of more secular
Jews emigrating from Jerusalem (Myre 2007). Thus, based on statistics
alone, it can be seen that Therouz over stretches the volatile and fragile
nature of the presence of these fringe groups in Jerusalem.
The lived experience for people
living in Jerusalem in the twenty-first century, according to Theroux, is a
volatile cauldron, bubbling just under tipping point, in which ultra-orthodox
Jews have the potential to explode into violent uprisings instantaneously. This
representation is over simplified and places too much impetus on the role and
religiosity of these fringe groups. Theroux’s representation of the religious
conflict in Jerusalem is contrasted by Ottolenghi’s production.
Yotam Ottolenghi’s Food of Jerusalem is a travel
documentary that showcases the cultural and culinary experiences on offer in
Jerusalem (Ottolenghi and Tamimi 2013). Returning to his childhood
home towin, Ottolenghi endeavours to show viewers that the lived religious
reality for residents of Jerusalem is not the frighteningly antagonistic and
volatile situation it is often portrayed as by Western media. Ottolenghi is
careful not to side with either religious group and shares experiences with
both. Implicitly, Ottolenghi suggests that what is more important than the
conflict between Jews and Muslims in Jerusalem, is the rich cultural and
religious life both groups preserve and celebrate. Ottolenghi emphasises that
the conflict situation is not present every day for people of Jerusalem, but an
underlying current that sometimes ebbs to the surface; “there’s a lot in the
Jerusalem experience that is shared and common to everybody”(Qureshi 2012). Ottolenghi foregrounds an
acceptance of life in Jerusalem as “normal” and enjoyed by many.
History is important to Ottolenghi,
in a sense that although informed by historical struggle and conflict, the
Jerusalem of today has great potential for peace and many residents hope for
this. Ottolenghi’s representation of religion in Jerusalem moves away from the
classic western interpretation of a city divided along religious lines (Carroll 2011). The contested terrain of
holy sites between Jews, Christians and Muslims are not evident in Ottolenghi’s
production as is the case for a majority of western works on Jerusalem. What
Ottolenghi emphasises explicitly is the importance of lived experience and
tradition in religious groups, and he effectively showcases this through a
culinary journey. Another key to Ottolenghi’s representation of Jerusalem as
moving forward to peace is his revelation of groups, organisations and
establishments that combine Muslims and Jews, and their traditions, to better
represent Jerusalem and its unique identity.
The media plays an important role
in framing viewers perceptions of religious identity, religious groups and
issues and conflicts surrounding religion. Through selective choice of content
and pictures, the media are able to address an agenda and stimulate a
manipulated public opinion towards an issue. Since the terrorist attacks of
September 11, Islamophobia has dominated much western journalism. However,
Therouz and Ottolenghi both move away from this homogenised representation of
religious issues and characterise the religious conflict in Jerusalem under
divergent frameworks. For Theroux, extremist Jewish fringe groups pose a threat
to peace and exacerbate centuries of conflict motivated by sacred biblical
texts. For Ottolenghi, the lived experience and reality of religion for people
of Jerusalem is important to represent to western audiences. Both Theroux and
Ottolenghi provide examples of the way in which the media influence
representations of religious groups and inform viewer perceptions and opinions
towards religious issues.
Bibliography
Choshen, M. and M. Korach. (2011). "Jerusalem: Facts and Trends
2011." Retrieved June 5, 2013,
from http://jiis.org/.upload/facts-2011-eng-internet.pdf.
Qureshi, B. (2012). "Jerusalem: A Love Letter to Food and Memories
from Home." Retrieved June 8,
2013, from http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/10/15/162805706/jerusalem-a-love-letter-to-food-and-memories-of-home.
Smith, P. (2011). "Louis Theroux: The Ultra Zionists BBC Two
Review." Retrieved June 4, 2013,
from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8302128/Louis-Theroux-the-Ultra-Zionists-BBC-Two-review.html.
Theroux, L. (2011). "My time among the Ultra Zionists." Retrieved June 7, 2013, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12347050.
