Media as a Weapon and a Shield: The Role of Reputation in Resilience
Introduction:
Throughout my Media and Politics minor, I’ve explored how reputation plays an important role in resilience, whether for individuals, movements, or states. To me, reputation is more than just how people see you, it’s about credibility, influence, and navigating challenges. It can be built over time but is also easily damaged. Likewise, resilience isn’t just about overcoming difficulties, it’s about adapting, standing firm, and maintaining strength despite external pressures. A major takeaway from my coursework is how media actively shapes both reputation and resilience. More specifically, I have come to see that media is not just a tool for communication. It actively constructs and contests reputations, which affects resilience. Actors use media to improve their reputations, which strengthens their ability to withstand challenges.
A recurring theme has been how media serves as both a tool for strengthening resilience and a battleground where reputations are constantly challenged. Looking back at all my courses, I’ve realized that reputation isn’t just about image, it’s about power and survival. Whether analyzing digital artifacts, youth media, or the strategies of small states, I’ve seen how strategic storytelling can protect, enhance, or even rebuild credibility in the face of crises. In this essay, I will examine how actors use media to shape their reputations, which in turn strengthens their resilience. By analyzing how media functions as both a weapon and a shield, I will explore real-world examples that show this connection.
Thematic Link:
One of the most important ideas I’ve taken from this minor is that media plays a huge role in politics, shaping identities, and deciding whose voices are heard. This has changed the way I understand news and communication, not as something neutral, but as a space where different sides compete to control the story. Whether it’s a government trying to push its agenda, an activist movement fighting to be heard, or a news network choosing how to frame a story, media has the power to shape reality. This is especially clear in times of crisis when controlling the narrative can mean the difference between maintaining credibility or losing public trust. Governments, activists, and journalists all use media to shape stories determining whether the media is being used as a weapon to attack or as a shield to protect reputations.
However, resilience is often tied to power. Those who can successfully manage their public reputation through media are often those with the resources to navigate crises effectively. It’s not just that media protects the resilient, rather, having control over media narratives is what allows actors to appear resilient in the first place. This realization has helped me connect different topics in media and politics, especially with digital media because it has transformed the way narratives are created and controlled. Whether it’s a viral hashtag movement, a government media campaign, or independent journalists exposing the truth.
Furthermore, I learned about the rise of the #MeToo movement, which started as a grassroots campaign on social media and quickly became a global movement (Alcalde & Villa, 2022). Survivors of sexual harassment and assault used X, Instagram, and other platforms to share their experiences and by doing so they challenged the dominant narratives that previously downplayed or silenced these issues. In this case, social platforms functioned as a shield, helping survivors push back against harmful portrayals and reclaim their stories. The movement not only changed public perception but also forced institutions like Hollywood, to hold individuals accountable. From my interpreting digital artifacts course I learned about how what started as a digital hashtag can become a powerful tool for resistance.
Similarly, I also learned in my African youth course that during the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests, social media played a crucial role in challenging mainstream media narratives (Klein et al., 2022). While traditional news outlets often framed protests as “riots” or focused on instances of property damage, activists used platforms like X and TikTok to share firsthand videos of police brutality and control their own narrative to create a strong reputation. By avoiding traditional media, the movement was able to stay strong and keep growing, proving that digital platforms are crucial for challenging mainstream narratives.
Also, the way media constructs and deconstructs resilience is even more pronounced when it comes to political and global affairs. This is shown in how different regions are portrayed in Western media. For example, the portrayal of Africa, and the Middle East, in Western media often follows reductive narratives that shape global perceptions. This was evident in Binyavanga Wainaina’s How to Write About Africa, which humorously criticizes how Africa is often shown in a stereotypical and exaggerated way. (Wainaina, 2005). These portrayals do not just reflect bias, they actively contribute to the challenges that these regions face.
Just as African creators and activists have used media to reclaim their stories, small states must also harness media to challenge dominant narratives. The 2017 Gulf crisis, impacted me not just academically, but also personally. As a Qatari with family in the UAE, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia, I experienced firsthand how media narratives shaped public opinion and relationships during this time. Learning about it in multiple courses deepened my understanding of how media can be used to shape resilience and reputation on a global level. The blockade on Qatar by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt wasn’t just about politics and economics, it was also a fight over narratives. The countries behind the blockade tried to paint Qatar as a supporter of extremism, using their media and diplomatic influence to cut it off from the world. The objective was to damage Qatar’s reputation to justify political and economic sanctions.
But Qatar pushed back by using media, diplomacy, and economic strategies to fight those claims. Al Jazeera played a big role in showing Qatar as a victim of unfair treatment. By controlling its own narrative, Qatar was able to position itself as a nation that stood firm against external pressures rather than as an isolated or weakened small state. This example shows that resilience isn’t just about surviving challenges, it’s about controlling the story to stay strong and influential.
The blockade affected me deeply as I saw my family members in different countries suddenly divided by politics, making me realize how media shapes not just national reputation but also personal relationships. The way the blockade was portrayed in different media outlets influenced how people around me viewed Qatar, and I often found myself having to defend my country in conversations with friends and extended family.
It was a difficult but eye-opening experience. I saw how differently people in each country viewed the crisis. We were all consuming different media, shaping our perceptions of each other. In Saudi and Emirati media, Qatar was framed one way, while Qatari media told a different story. These contrasting narratives created tensions within families, friendships, and communities. I realized that media doesn’t just shape national reputations, it changes how we see each other. The blockade didn’t just divide governments, it divided people, fueled by the narratives each side was exposed to.
Relevant Example:
The Israel and Palestine case, which has been ongoing for over 75 years, became especially meaningful to me after the events of October 7. I always knew about the issue, but I never fully grasped how much media shapes global awareness until I started following it more closely. The recent escalation on October 7 made it even clearer that media isn’t just about reporting events, it’s a battlefield for different narratives. News channels and online platforms cover the case in completely different ways, some focus on Israeli security concerns, while others highlight Palestinian resistance. Al Jazeera provides extensive coverage that includes Palestinian voices, showcasing the reality of occupation and resistance, while Western media outlets like CNN and BBC often soften their language, using terms like 'conflict' instead of 'genocide’. This difference in framing impacts how global audiences perceive the situation, shaping their opinions on the conflict.
What makes this conflict even more significant in today's media landscape is how social media has allowed for greater awareness. With platforms like TikTok, people from around the world can now access firsthand accounts that mainstream media may not fully cover. This experience made me feel like I had a responsibility to do something. I started actively posting on social media, sharing boycott lists, and spreading awareness about what was happening. But I quickly realized how challenging it was, certain posts would get little to no engagement, and I saw firsthand how platforms like Instagram were limiting the reach of pro-Palestinian content. It was frustrating to see how algorithms can silence voices, making it harder for the truth to come out which in turn revealed another layer of control. Despite the censorship, I kept posting. The boycott movement became especially important to me, and I used my platform to encourage others to rethink the brands they support. It was empowering to see so many people around me also participating, but at the same time, it was disheartening to see how mainstream news ignored or misrepresented the movement.
At times, I felt helpless, no matter how much I posted, the reach seemed to be deliberately restricted. It made me question how much control we really have over what information spreads online. But then I saw how TikTok was allowing more voices to be heard, how firsthand videos and personal stories were making their way into people’s feeds, and how people were learning about the reality on the ground in a way mainstream media refused to show. This shows how media can be both a weapon in the fight for truth and a shield for silenced voices. Platforms like TikTok and X have become spaces where Palestinian activists and journalists share firsthand accounts, forcing mainstream media to acknowledge perspectives they might otherwise ignore. This experience has made me see media in a new way. It’s not just a tool of those in power, it’s also a way for people to fight back, to be heard, and to create real change. Through my own social media activism, I realized that even though platforms can try to silence certain voices, digital resistance is still possible. My involvement in this has helped me connect everything I’ve learned in this minor to real-world action. It has shown me that media is not just something to study, it’s something to engage with and use as a force for change. Being able to tell your own story is key for any group trying to stand its ground and be heard.
Reflection and Self-Assessment:
My experience with the Media and Politics minor has meant a lot to me because politics has always been something I found interesting, but I never wanted to pursue it as a full degree. This minor allowed me to explore my passion for politics while still focusing on my communication studies, which was exactly what I wanted. At first, I expected the minor to be mostly about news, world leaders, and international conflicts. However, I quickly realized that it went much deeper than that. The topics we covered were not just about global politics but also about how media and power influence people on a personal level. The courses I took challenged me to think critically, about how public opinion is shaped, and how media plays a role in everything from policy-making to everyday conversations.
At first, it was overwhelming because I didn’t have much background in politics, and some of the topics seemed complicated. However, over time, I found ways to connect broad political ideas to my own experiences. I went from feeling overwhelmed by political discussions to confidently engaging in them, which made the minor even more meaningful to me. It helped me step out of my comfort zone and challenge my own way of thinking. Now, when I reflect on my journey, I can see how much I’ve grown. I think differently about the media, my country, and even the people around me. One of the biggest changes in my perspective was learning how media is not neutral. Before, I used to take the news at face value, but now I understand how every piece of information is framed in a certain way, depending on who is telling the story. This realization changed the way I consume news, and it also made me more conscious of the media I engage with and share. I’ve learned how easily opinions are shaped and influenced by the media we consume, and I now recognize that politics isn’t just about governments and world leaders, it affects all of us on a personal level. This realization is something I didn’t expect to gain from this minor, but it has changed the way I see the world.
I also realized how much my own voice matters. Through my involvement in digital activism, especially around Palestine, I’ve seen firsthand how media can be used to resist oppression and amplify marginalized voices. Posting about the boycott movement and sharing news on social media felt like a small action, but it helped me understand the power of online resistance. At the same time, seeing how algorithms silence certain narratives made me even more aware of how media can be manipulated. Looking ahead, I know I’ll carry these lessons with me. I no longer see media and politics as distant or abstract concepts, they are deeply connected to my own experiences and the world around me.
Conclusion:
Through my experience in this minor, I have come to see resilience isn’t just about getting through tough times but also the ability to actively shape narratives that protect and strengthen one’s position. Whether it’s a person managing their image online, a social movement redefining representation, or a country trying to protect its influence, media plays a crucial role in determining how resilience is built and sustained. Reputation isn’t just a result of resilience, it’s a tool that helps people stay credible and shape public opinion. Overall, media can be used as both a weapon and a shield, influencing how individuals, movements, and countries stay strong in a fast-changing world.
References
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