January 2016
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8,453 Reads
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2 Citations
Terrorism has long been a popular theme in theatrical films. Particularly since 9/11 incident, Hollywood film industry very often portrays the Muslims with negative stereotype image. After 9/11 incident, Muslims are being looked as suspicious people and portrayed as terrorists. This study was carried out to scientifically explore what kind of images of Muslims is being portrayed and to what extent the portrayal affects Muslim's image by using content analysis of a Hollywood movie entitled The Kingdom. The reason why The Kingdom is chosen because it is the first 'terrorist' film that was produced after the 9/11 incident. This study analyzes the selected scenes that involved with Muslims' characters based on three variables to prove the researcher's hypothesis: terrorist portrayals, violent acts and dressing of the terrorists. More specifically, it explores the relative importance of agenda setting theory and stereotype theory in the portrayal of Muslim in the film. The results indicate that The Kingdom does portray negative image of Muslims as terrorists and it does affect Muslims and Islam's image generally.