At War with Metaphor: Media, Propaganda, and Racism in the War on Terror

by Erin Steuter, Deborah Wills

When photographs documenting the torture and humiliation of prisoners at Abu Ghraib came to the attention of a horrified public, national and international voices were raised in shock, asking how this happened. At War with Metaphor offers an answer, arguing that the abuses of Abu Ghraib were part of a systemic continuum of dehumanization. This continuum has its roots in our public discussions of the war on terror and the metaphors through which they are repeatedly framed.

Arguing earnestly and incisively that these metaphors, if left unexamined, bind us into a cycle of violence that will only be intensified by a responsive violence of metaphor, Steuter and Wills examine compelling examples of the images of animal, insect, and disease that inform, shape, and limit our understanding of the war on terror. Tying these images to historical and contemporary uses of propaganda through a readable, accessible analysis of media filters, At War with Metaphor vividly explores how news media, including political cartoons and talk radio, are enmeshed in these damaging, dehumanizing metaphors. Analyzing media through the lenses of race and Orientalism, it invites us to hold our media and ourselves accountable for the choices we make in talking war and making enemies.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Sociology

266 pages, Hardcover

First published August 15, 2008

Reviews

[Balaclava_sweetheart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting Book about the power and terrors of propaganda in combination with racism and orientalism.

[Matthew Keays · Rating 5 out of 5]

She thought the class with her book and it was a fundamental understanding on how the media uses invisible tactics that keep racism alive, such as the portrayals of races in the media with subtle terms like comparing them as "insects" and what not, and thus all ties in to a big sociological issue about how the media subconsciously keep racism alive in the status quo

[Paula Van voorthuizen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and very relevant topic, but in my view often stating the obvious (open deur intrappen)