The power of media and its use as a political tool

For years, the media and entertainment industries have negatively portrayed communities of color. To date, there are over 1,000+ films produced in Hollywood that paint Arabs and Muslims as terrorists or as the plot-villain. After 9/11, reputable news outlets pumped out headlines connecting Islam to terrorism. All of these images, films and articles have desensitized the general population. They have inhibited the public from being able to see those “different” from their majority white Christian selves as equal humans, causing a rise in hate crimes, industry bias and exclusion, and further division across all communities.

Halfway through university, I switched majors and began working towards a Journalism degree. Initially, I wanted to pursue a career in psychology, helping other third-culture kids to connect with their identities and persevere through the discomfort that is being a child of Arab immigrants raised in the west. During my semester abroad in England, I took a social psychology course that taught me the importance and power that is a job in media.

During the communications and journalism courses I took, I became enchanted by how people’s minds worked. Particularly with how easily they were influenced on such massive scales. The power to influence people’s thoughts was mesmerizing to me - in an almost seductive way - and I wanted it.

People underestimate the PR industry. It’s laughed off, considered a silly job for “girls who don’t want to work hard”. Maybe it’s being Palestinian, seeing my ancestral homeland being destroyed and stolen using one of the most powerful modern-day public relations campaigns that help me see through all of that. PR is responsible for some of the world’s greatest and also its most horrifying moments.

We are currently witnessing the positivity a public relations campaign can hold as we follow along the “This Is Our Shot” campaign to encourage the public to get the life-saving vaccine against COVID-19. Like anything else, public relations can be manipulated for one’s own ends.

Being a Palestinian of the diaspora has seeped its way into every aspect of my life. I ultimately decided on a career in the media industry to gain enough power to help my people. We are in a pivotal moment where we have the potential to change the narrative surrounding Palestine and the western mindset of what they believe the Arab world to be that could result in real positive change. Coming from a marginalized community often results in one pursuing paths of activism, social justice, and reform of some type. When you aren’t benefiting from the system it’s difficult not to focus on changing it.

Earlier this year I launched my company ZAYTOUN Publicity as a way of combining all of my education, industry knowledge, and personal experience to positively impact and influence the public through storytelling for brands and people who deserve the coverage who would otherwise not get media exposure, to tell stories that would otherwise never be heard - to make a difference.

In the words of Shirley Chisholm, “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.” It’s long overdue that people of color - particularly women, non-binary and gender-fluid folx - recognize that no one will make room for you at the table. You must find ways to insert yourself, be it via a folding chair, or the creation of an entirely new meeting table filled with like-minded changemakers. The power to change the narrative in all of our industries across the board be it media, entertainment, medicine, education, business, etc. is in our hands. You must be willing to do what is necessary to make positive change.

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Jenan Matari is the founder and CEO of Zaytoun Publicity, discusses the power of media and its use as a political tool across the world.