Traces of orientalism in media studies

Abstract

This article is a response to calls for more reflexivity in media scholarship. It argues that despite various attempts towards challenging the ‘Western-centrism’ of the field (notable among them is the ‘de-Westernisation’ project), media studies has remained highly captive to the distinctions between ‘West’ and ‘non-West’ as the principal starting point for analysis. Building on Edward Said’s concept of Orientalism, and employing Said’s idea of methodological self-consciousness, this paper critically assesses the often taken-for-granted assumptions in media research. It reflects on anecdotal and personal experience, and on observations that I have made in the literature I have consulted, in the queries by colleagues, and in teaching. This article shows how and through which terminology the Orientalist discourse materializes in the field of media research. It reveals how a network of interests is shaped on any occasion when media and journalism in contexts that are deemed ‘non-Western’ are in question. This paper shows that media scholarship is marked by the use of binary terminology, collective terms and generalities, a one-sided relationship between the ‘West’ and ‘non-West’, and the notions of the superiority of Anglo-American research.