Mapping Fear and Danger in Global Space

Abstract

This article explores how Arab American and other US-based communities map global place, fear and danger through their engagement with action-adventure film. While there is extensive literature demonstrating the limited characterization of Arab communities, of Islam and of the Middle East, we know much less about the consequences of these media portrayals. In discussions of action-adventure settings, Arab American groups and informants were much more likely than their counterparts to specify particular places over more generalized regions, and to be highly critical of rather than justify these constructions. These groups’ sense of danger in the world at large, dictating concern with travel outside the known and familiar territory of citizenship, seemed contingent upon cultural identification as well as direct experience. The connection between identification, whether as an American citizen primarily or as an Arab constituent, and fear in the world is critical in understanding how mapping predicates experiences and interpretations.