In the Clash of Civilisations Myth, the Goalposts Are Always Changing: Deconstructing the Trope of Vilification
In the Clash of Civilisations Myth, the Goalposts Are Always Changing: Deconstructing the Trope of Vilification

Summary/Abstract: The tendency of portraying the world through binary frameworks of reference has become a fixture in a mainstream media landscape based in the infotainment culture and more recently, adapting to the native advertisement phenomenon. This paper addresses the systemic problems affecting the contemporaneous media discourse on the Others by examining them through the lenses of the ideologically charged civilisational dyads. Moreover, the analysis assesses the media bias in reporting ‘the other side’ by looking at elite media coverage. In doing so, the research aims to reveal the flawed referential system under which ‘faux-centric objectivity’ operates. This being a practice that relies on cognitive dissonance necessary to justify deviations of Western behaviours from their own standard of civilisation, when dealing with ‘barbaric threats’.

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