Media Theories

Ideologies:

An ideology is a world view, a system of values, attitudes and beliefs which an individual, group or society holds to be true or important; these are shared by a culture or society about how that society should function.

Capture the anarchy of Africa:

 In the film it shows Joe going to Niger in Africa on a fact finding mission to be able to tell the CIA if Niger was in fact selling yellowcake uranium to Iraq. The film captures the anarchy of Africa. That is, it shows an old building, everything is dirty. It does a good job of portraying Africa the way Americans view it based on movies and TV shows. The only thing that most Americans know about Africa is that it is hot and not everyone has the same luxuries as those in other countries.

"Classic Domestic Chaos" and Stereotype of a Father:

Another ideology portrayed in the movie is the American dream. At one point in the movie it shows the families typical morning; kids, work, breakfast, forgot to tell your husband the babysitter was going to be late. In the movie, Valerie and her family are shown as the classic, white-American family. They are a married couple with two children; a boy and a girl. This is a common culture in the U.S. created by society on how an American family should function. When Joe Wilson wakes up for work and Valerie is running around the house busy, and the kids are making loud background noise, we see how America portrays and views classic domestic chaos. It’s early in the morning, everybody is in a hurry to get out of the house, they’re trying to get breakfast ready, the kids won’t cooperate, and Valerie forgot to tell her husband the babysitter was going to be late. This is how many view the family dynamics in an American household.

During the morning scene where Valerie is rushing off to work, Joe takes charge of the kids until the babysitter arrives. As soon as Valerie goes out the door, Joe turns to his kids and says, “You guys wanna watch some television?” (9:14). This is a stereotype showing that fathers don’t interact with their children much, and try to give the children something to keep them occupied with so they have less responsibility in taking care of them. Traditionally in America, fathers have been the breadwinners, and mothers have taken care of nurturing their children. However, that role has increasingly shifted to where both mothers and fathers spend more time working and being out of the home. In this film, both Valerie and Joe have jobs, making it difficult to interact much with their children.

Gifts from America:

    In Fair Game, when the Iraqi doctor is sent to her brother in Iraq in search of information from her family in order to assist Valerie in her investigations, the doctor takes gifts to her family. After watching this clip and seeing how it was constructed as if the Iraqi’s were ecstatic about anything coming from America. . . It made us wonder why this is? Why is America glorified? Why are items coming from the U.S. in such demand from people of other countries?

    This scene presents an ideology. It shows the attitudes of those outside of the U.S. glorifying American “things.” This may not be the case. In real life, maybe they were just excited to be receiving gifts from their aunt/sister that they rarely ever see and that they didn't care if the gifts were American or not. This scene put a common Hollywood ideology in mind about items coming from America into other countries.