Discuss a TV show or film that you have watched that has shaped your perception of terrorism, counter-terrorism, and/or other dimensions of national governmental policy or practice.

Watch and comment on the following:

Uploaded to youtube on Mar 8, 2007.  CNN reports that Human Rights First is working with the military to raise awareness about the impact that shows such as 24 are having on troops in the field. www.primetimetorture.org.

Do you find the notion that Jack Bauer’s conduct in 24 informed U.S. soldiers’ interrogation tactics in the War on Terror plausible?  In your view, how important are popular TV shows such as 24 in shaping public opinion about torture and other extralegal counter-terrorist measures?

Derek Johnson writes the following of the popular post-9/11 television series, 24: 

Undoubtedly, we could read the television text of 24 in terms of its neoliberal ideologies. Jack Bauer’s controversial heroism derives from his embodiment of a do-it-yourself ethic that leads him to take action individually when government institutions and policies fail (Johnson, 152).

Stephen Prince writes:

Jack is a rogue agent. He doesn’t spend time in the office; he’s always on the verge of being fired, often is fired and then rehired. He spends his time in the field, dashing here and there, bashing witnesses and bystanders, shooting people and/or knifing them in the interests of national security (Prince, 239).

Prince also writes:

Jack’s behavior manifests the series’ core political outlook, which verges on an authoritarian contempt for due process and a belief that methods of extreme brutality offer the best way to counter terrorism, The show, in other words, was in love with torture…(Prince, 239).

Based on your own examination of clips from the television series and subsequent miniseries, do you agree with these statements?  If you like, you can comment on how the show’s conception of neoliberalism, national security, and the utility of torture relates to Donald Trump’s statements about torture and terrorism during the presidential campaign.

In “Influencing American Foreign Policy through Popular Media,” discusses the tradition of protest music in the United States.  Among the songs he discusses is “Where Is the Love,” by the Black Eyed Peas (2003).  Below is the music video.  Among other things, the song addresses the way that the media contribute to a climate of violence.  Discuss the song in relation to Sharp’s argument.

Boulton and Sharp discuss the role of popular music in the context of post-9/11 U.S. politics. Popular music also played a role in the 2016 presidential election.  Discuss an example of how popular music — a song, a performer, a musical genre, an event — influenced national political discourse in 2016.

We read several short essays for today’s class.  Which essay did you personally find most helpful in comprehending the 2016 presidential election.  Explain.

Larry Wilmore writes: “Questioning Obama’s birthright, threatening to ban Muslims, painting entire immigrant groups as felons to be feared—these are not policy positions. They are incendiary words and images meant to ignite a movement.”  Wilmore relates Trump’s racist appeals to President Woodrow Wilson’s enthusiasm for D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation (which celebrated the birth of the KKK) in 1915.  If Wilmore invokes the racism of Woodrow Wilson, other essayists invoke different historical comparisons, such as the conflict over U.S. slavery or Russian anti-Semitism in 1979.  Still others have, controversially, compared Trump’s victory to the early political ascendancy of Adolf Hitler. Do you have an opinion on any of these (or other) historical comparisons that writers have used to frame Trump’s election?

Economic insecurity was an important factor in the decision of many voters to cast their ballots for Donald Trump.  Yet, as Hochschild describes, economic anxieties mixed together with white resentment in the consciousness of working-class Trump voters in Louisiana.  Having read Hochschild’s essay, do you feel that you have a better perspective on the political outlook of white, working-class Trump voters?  Given what Jane Mayer and Nicholas Lemann suggest in their essays about Trump’s likely economic policies, do you believe that the concerns of working-class Trump voters will be alleviated under a Trump Administration?