‘Not A Terrorist’: The Representational Alternative of Reality TV in All-American Muslim

Authors

  • Nolwenn Anne Mingant University Paris 3-sorbonne nouvelle (France)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/cinej.2013.74

Keywords:

Reality TV, Muslims, film, stereotypes, media

Abstract

The reality TV show All-American Muslim depicts the lives of five Muslim families of Lebanese descent in Dearborn. Although the project was conceived as mainstream entertainment and not as a political statement, it led to a controversy over the representation of ‘true’ Muslims. Indeed the interest of the show lies in the fact that it offers its participants an opportunity to express themselves in an otherwise hostile media environment. The reality TV format seems particularly apt at providing a different vision of American Muslim, a vision clashing with images usually conveyed by TV news and Hollywood films. The show proposes a radical shift in the representational paradigm by making the Muslim families typical representatives of the U.S.A.

Author Biography

Nolwenn Anne Mingant, University Paris 3-sorbonne nouvelle (France)

Associate professor in American Studies

References

Florida Family, "The Learning Channel officially cancels All-American Muslim Supporters, emails to advertisers made the difference.", March 2012. Accessed May 2, 2013.

http://floridafamily.org/full_article.php?article_no=108

Kamalipour, Yahya R. ‘‘The TV Terrorist : Media Images of Middle Easterners.’’ Global Dialogue, 2(4) (2000) : 88-96.

David, Gary C., and Paul L. Jalbert. ‘‘Undoing Degradation: The Attempted ‘Rehumanization’ of Arab and Muslim Americans.’’ Ethnographic Studies 10 (2008): 23-47.

Cainkar, Louise A. Homeland Insecurity: The Arab American and Muslim American Experience after 9/11. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2009.

Discovery Corporate website, ‘‘TLC.’’ Accessed May 2, 2013.

http://corporate.discovery.com/brands/us/tlc/

Kaleem, Jaweed ‘‘Muslim Reality Show, ‘All-American Muslim,’ To Premier on TLC.’’ The Huffington Post, October 21, 2011, accessed May 2, 2013, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/21/muslim-reality-show-all-american-muslim_n_1024101.html

Laurence, Robert P. ‘‘Cable Guise: Channels built on arts, education and high culture now go low cheesy programming.’’ UT San Diego, August 15, 2005. Accessed May 2, 2013.

http://www.utsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050815/news_1c15bravo.html

Murray, Susan, and Laurie Ouellette Reality TV : Remaking Television Culture. New York: New York University Press, 2009.

Shaheen, Jack G. Guilty : Hollywood’s Verdict on Arabs after 9/11. Northampton : Olive Branch Press, 2008.

Shaheen, Jack G. Reel Bad Arabs : How Hollywood Vilifies a People. Northampton : Olive Branch Press, 2009 [2001].

ShedMedia US official website. Accessed May 2, 2013.

http://shedmediaus.com/program/574/AllAmerican-Muslim.aspx

‘‘TLC filming new reality show ‘All American Muslim’ in Dearborn.’’ The Arab American News.com, July 29, 2011. Accessed May 2, 2013.

http://www.arabamericannews.com/news/index.php?mod=article&cat=Community&article=4546

Wajahat, Ali, ‘‘The Reality of the ‘All-American Muslim’ reality TV show,.’’ Guardian.co.uk, November 17, 2011. Accessed May 2, 2013. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/nov/17/reality-all-american-muslim-reality-tv

Downloads

Published

2014-04-08

How to Cite

Mingant, N. A. (2014). ‘Not A Terrorist’: The Representational Alternative of Reality TV in All-American Muslim. CINEJ Cinema Journal, 3(1), 4–27. https://doi.org/10.5195/cinej.2013.74

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 1 (2013): Fall 2013

Section

Articles

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
  2. Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
  3. The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
    1. Attribution—other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;
    with the understanding that the above condition can be waived with permission from the Author and that where the Work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license.
  4. The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  5. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a prepublication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
  6. Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
  7. The Author represents and warrants that:
    1. the Work is the Author’s original work;
    2. the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
    3. the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
    4. the Work has not previously been published;
    5. the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
    6. the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
  8. The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.

Revised 7/16/2018. Revision Description: Removed outdated link.