Media industry in Covering Islam by Edward W Said Essay

Media industry in Covering Islam by Edward W Said - Essay Example The book was first published in 1981. It primarily focused on the issue of Iran, cold war and war. â€Å"Covering Islam† is full of examples of the work of various media groups and journalists. The views and ideas have been appropriately supported by the facts and examples. Chomsky (2002) has raised various issues on the way media has represented various issues of war, trade union issues and terrorism. The issues ranged are from the presentation of these events by media and control of powerful groups over these mediums to control thought process of mass. Said’s work â€Å"Covering Islam† is another effort which seeks attention of readers towards the biased representation of Islam and Islamic community by mainstream media. In the words of Christopher Lehmann-Haupt for The New York Times Book Review for the same book:â€Å"[He] skilfully traces the origins of American misinformation about Islam to the way that Orientalist scholarship is financed and organized in t his country. And finally he pleads eloquently for the instrumentality of all historical knowledge and the needs of all scholars to be aware of their objectives. This plea amounts to a prescription for cultural self-awareness that will be wasted on none of us†Various studies and theories have been developed to study the development of the concept of Islamophobia. This is very clear from the previous studies and views of Chomsky, Said and others about portrayal of the Islam, Muslim and Muslim countries unfavourable from the past.