Reinforcement of Stereotypes in Television and Media

Reinforcement of Stereotypes in Television and Media Since the invention of television, racial, culture and ethnic stereotypes have been used to explain unknown cultures and ethnicities to those consuming content from this medium. Stereotypes on television were also used to gain new viewers whose ideals aligned with what was being presented in the programming as well keep viewers who may have been turned onto the show because of the stereotypes shown fit their perceptions of other races, cultures and ethnicities. However, many of these stereotypes paint certain racial, cultural, and ethnic groups in a negative light. These portrayals of race, ethnicity and culture in television negatively impact the way the groups portrayed as seen by people and are controlled by those who are in ownership positions at television conglomerates. Stereotypes are used in television to both frame what little is known about a race, ethnicity, or culture and to frame people in a way that make the characters relatable to those who are not informed. Media has long been criticized for their representations of African Americans on television. While the quantity of African-American portrayals has increased, the quality of these images has not. 1 Research using perceptions have shown that negative exposure to African-American portrayals in the media significantly influences evaluations of African-Americans in general and have an effect on viewers of all ages and races. 2 Studies have shown that on television, African-Americans are generally put into blue-collar occupations such as a house cleaner or postal worker while have shown that they are portrayed in roles such as servant, criminal, entertainer, or athlete. This is in stark comparison to the supervisory occupational roles regularly given to white television characters. 3 African- Americans are also regularly given negative personality traits and low achieving statuses. For viewers without their own base knowledge of African-Americans, these stereotypical portrayals cause them to create negative assumptions about African-Americans based on what they have seen on television. 4 Many programs on television do not display African-Americans in positive roles, but instead focus more on reaffirming negative stereotypes. However, media shapes and influences public perceptions and these negative stereotypes have the same impact on public perceptions. 5 Stereotypes are reinforced through the media, particularly on television. Because of time and dramatic constraints, producers, casting directors and casting agencies freely admit to stereotyping and using stock characters which are familiar to the audience. Characters are typecast based on what the script calls for based on stereotypes in an effort to make the hiring and writing processes easier and faster. For decades, working class men were portrayed as dumb, immature, irresponsible, and lacking in common sense. 6 As African-American men are more frequently typecast into working class, blue-collar occupations, this especially extends to African-American men. The production process in Hollywood studios and associated organizations gives rise to the use of stereotyping to meet the time demands of production. If a production company had an entire year to complete a season of 22 to 24 episodes, an episode would have to be produced on average every 2 weeks, which includes script writing , casting, staging, filming, and editing. 7 This pressure on the production team causes them to simplify as much as possible in order to streamline the process and thus allows for using stereotypes to make script writing and character casting easier.8 Creators will become more likely to stick to what is familiar to them as they do not have the time to become familiar enough with a racial, ethnic or cultural group to present a realistic portrayal of that group. For producers, casting directors and casting agencies, unless the idea behind the story is a contradictory to the stereotype, there is a strong pressure to use existing stereotypes to decrease the time spent casting characters and writing scripts. (Butsch 2014) This pressure also comes from media conglomerates whose main aim is to produce as much content as possible to make as much money as possible. One of the most obvious trends in media ownership is its increasing centralization into fewer and fewer companies. Media ownership has become so concentrated that as of the mid-2000s only five global firms dominated the industry in the United States; The Walt Disney Company, Time Warner, News Corporation, Viacom and the German company Bertlsmann AG. (Croteau, Hoynes, and Milan 2011).These conglomerates wield influence that extends to all parts of the multimedia entertainment. They produce newspapers, magazines, radio, television, books, and movies. Narissra M. Punyanunt-Carter. The Perceived Realism of African American Portrayals on Television. The Howard Journal of Communications. Accessed October 2, 2014. https://library.uoregon.edu/sites/default/files/data/guides/english/howard_journal_communications.pdf Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Richard Bush, â€Å"Six Decades of Social Class in American Television Sitcoms.† In Gender, Race, and Class in the Media: A Critical Reader. (Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publishing, 2014), 507. Ibid., 513. Ibid. Bibliography Butsch, Richard. â€Å"Six Decades of Social Class in American Television Sitcoms.† In Gender, Race, and Class in Media: A Critical Reader, 507-516. Los Angeles: SAGE Publishing, 2014 Croteau, David P., Hoynes, William D., Milan, Stefania. â€Å"The Economics of the Media Industry.† In Gender, Race and Class in Media: A Critical Reader, 28-30. Los Angeles: SAGE Publishing, 2014. Originally published in David P. Croteau, William D. Hoynes and Stefania Milan, â€Å"The Economics of the Media Industry,† in Media/Society: Industries, Images Audiences (2011). Monk-Turner, Elizabeth, Mary Heiserman, Crystle Johnson, Vanity Cotton, and Manny Jackson. The Portrayal of Racial Minorities on Prime Time Television: A Replication of the Mastro and Greenberg Study a Decade Later. Studies in Popular Culture. http://pcasacas.org/SiPC/32.2/Monk-Turner_Heiserman_Johnson_Cotton_Jackson.pdf (accessed October 2, 2014). Punyanunt-Carter, Narissra M.. The Howard Journal of Communications. The Perceived Realism of African American Portrayals on Television. https://library.uoregon.edu/sites/default/files/data/guides/english/howard_journal_communications.pdf (accessed October 2, 2014). Randall, Steve . Primetime Racism on Fox. FAIR. http://fair.org/extra-online-articles/primetime-racism-on-fox/ (accessed October 2, 2014). The Opportunity Agenda. Social Science Literature Review: Media Representations and Impact on the Lives of Black Men and Boys. The Opportunity Agenda. http://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/Media-Impact-onLives-of-Black-Men-and-Boys-OppAgenda.pdf (accessed October 2, 2014). UPDATED: Fox News Long History Of Race-Baiting. Media Matters for America. http://mediamatters.org/research/2011/06/13/updated-fox-news-long-history-of-race-baiting/180529 (accessed October 2, 2014).

Happy: Gender and Old Fashion Remedies Essay

The Woman Box is full of old fashion remedies that took placed a very long time ago. Its basically saying that woman are less than men and that men are in charge and women aren’t, women should just follow and do what they say do because they are superiors and women are inferior, women are weak and are less value, and view them as property of men, and sexual objects. I totally disagree with this and to me this is totally insulting. Even though I know that’s how things went back in the day and I’m glad that things changed and everyone are consider equally. As a woman, I know that I can do almost everything that a man can do and just like they can work for 12 hours or more, I do that every day with no problem. How hard is it to act outside the rules society has set for each gender? Well for men, for them to act outside of the rules society has set for them is like being a punk or they would be looked at differently and less of or they just are not consider cool anymore. Women on the other hand act outside of the rules society has set for them because we are no longer living in the past where we are inferior to anyone. We work and do as we please and over 90% of women today are leaders and we are stronger than ever. Do you think The Man Box or The Women Box is the same in all families? In all cultures? I don’t think that The Man Box or The Women Box is the same in all families and cultures, however in some families and cultures it still exist. Like in Afghanistan, I know their women still live up to these rules and more cultures do also. In the United States there are many families that still live up to these rules and they think its okay to be looked down at. Tony Porter says that the contents of The Man Box lead men to believe that violence against women is OK. Do you agree or disagree with this assertion? I definitely agree with Tony saying that the contents of The Man Box lead men to believe that violence against women is ok because it give men to many excuses to treat women unequal and treated like they are inferior and it also tell men that it is ok to be violent, controlling and basically flat out abusive. Tony Porter says â€Å"My liberation as a man is tied to your liberation as a woman.† What do you think he means by this? Tony meant that all human is equal and should be treated as one. That it is ok to teach and raise out son that violence against women is unacceptable and that as a boy, young man and adult man that it is ok to cry have feelings. What else did you find provocative in this talk? I found that when his father waited until the women left the car to cry and share his emotions with his son provocative. Its strange because I know a lot of men who will not cry or show emotions in front of women because they don’t want to be looked at different. Some men think that it is not okay for men to cry. I was really happy that he got it out no matter who he was in front of because holding anything in can also tear you to pieces.

Should Prisoners be Treated as Humans

Some people believe that once a person commits a crime or breaks the law, they no longer get to exercise their human rights. In fact, they believe that prisoners do not deserve human rights. The treatment of these inmates come into question; especially when most facilities and prisons are overcrowded, receiving more mentally ill prisoners, and female incarceration is on the rise. The problem with some of society is they do not want prisoners to be treated with any common, human decency. They believe inmates have it great by eating healthy and receiving adequate medical care.Being able to work out and learn new trades for the future has some of society’s members upset with paying tax monies for these types of â€Å"amenities†. I believe that every human has the right to meals and preventive health care. People should not have to fear for their safety or health because they have committed a crime. I do not feel they should receive good treatment: punishment should be adeq uate for the crime committed, but the prisoner should not be in threat of starvation, abusive treatment from other inmates or staff, or fear of medical neglect.Prisoners are in fact human beings and of course punishment was much worse in ancient times. There would be severe physical punishment, and living conditions while incarcerated were much worse than conditions today. Let’s explore some of the treatment of prisoners and the and how they are sometimes affected by this treatment. I believe treating prisoners as you would any other person: with the most basic human rights. This is an ethical dilemma we as society are faced with. The world and the incidents that occur in it are very unpredictable.There are plenty of people who never expected or thought they would ever become incarcerated. I, personally, was incarcerated from age seventeen to age thirty-three. I have experienced quite a bit of unethical treatment, as well as been a witness to this treatment. There is no self- defense law here in California. I was attacked by a girl with a gun. We fought over this gun and she was shot once in the neck. During the time of the scuffle, she was wanted for an outstanding warrant for the murder of a pregnant woman. I was convicted for attempted murder and sentenced to fourteen years of incarceration as an eighteen year old.My incarceration was to take place in a California State Prison for Women. Upon my reception to state prison, I have been victim to and witnessed unethical behavior towards the prisoners. With prison overcrowding and an influx off inmates who are mentally ill. There are also the drug offenders. The drug offenders make up a large group of prisoners. There are a variety of ethnicities, backgrounds, and classes of individuals incarcerated. Prison overcrowding contributes to a lot of the unethical treatment of prison inmates. When the prisons are overcrowded, inmates are not segregated amongst other inmates of their same security levels or risks .Sometimes these conditions make it easy for crimes to be committed within the facility or institution. Many high risk inmates will make victims out of the less violent, vulnerable inmates. The prisoners can become victims of rape, theft, assault, and sometimes murder. Some prisoners have been known to commit suicide because the conditions in prison are too difficult to deal with. To report any crime committee against you while a prisoner, can lead to retaliation from the prison population; terrorizing one with fear.There is what is called â€Å"moral† intuition. According to Mosser (2010),  intuition is described as unexplainable feelings a person may have about something being â€Å"right† or â€Å"wrong†. My intuition tells me it is wrong to treat anyone with inhumane behavior. It is not correct to put an individual in harm way just because they have made a mistake to society. Yes, they should definitely pay the price for whatever crime is committed. Mental ly ill persons have also contributed to the prison population. Several inmates really just need to be placed somewhere that can provide the mental help needed to help rehabilitate them. With so few doctors and staff for the mentally ill, it seems rehabilitation is just an illusion.With mentally ill patients integrated into a prison population, there are bound to be conflicts, as well as abuse. Abuse occurs among the inmates as I have mentioned earlier. Although, half of California’s mental hospitals were closed by the late 1960s, Governor Reagan, during the late 1970s shut down the mental hospitals completely (Torrey, E. F. , M. D. , Kennard, A. D. , Eslinger, D. , Lamb, R. , M. D. , Pavle, J. , 2010). With overcrowding, and barely enough of a budget to care for the health of the inmates, how can a prisoner’s mental hygiene be taken care of?Most of these prisoners are forced to be confined in solitary confinement. Metzner (2010) states, â€Å"The adverse effects of so litary confinement are especially significant for persons with serious mental illness, commonly defined as mental disorder (e. g. , schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder) that is usually characterized by psychotic symptoms and/or significant functional impairments (para. 4). Solitary confinement can do more harm than good. Inmates may possibly leave prison in a worse state than when they entered prison.People worry   about tax dollars going to prisoner’s food and shelter, but if a prisoner can be â€Å"corrected† by the department of corrections, that will lower the recidivism rate and less prisoners will return to prison. Earlier, I mentioned drug offenders making up a great deal of the prison population. Some people’s addiction does not stop because they are incarcerated. Male officers outnumber female officers by two to one. Male officers make up at least two-thirds of the officers and guards. There are times I have witnessed my cellmat e receiving drugs forsexual favors for the officer. The officer will come at a time when there are no there are no other people around and request these sexual favors. Some guards would even make a girl have sex with them. They would threaten to change the inmate’s release date, or cause the inmate to be placed in a position to be caused physical harm by other inmates. These unethical treatments should not be overlooked. Many women are victims of abuse and domestic violence. They have attempted to leave a situation with an abusive partner, and this leads to the homicide if the partner.Donna Hazley (2010) states, â€Å"The same legal system that fails or refuses to protect battered women prosecutes them vigorously when they fight back (para. 11). There are also women incarcerated with hopes of returning to society as a rehabilitated individual, and return to caring for their families. Not all people that are incarcerated always lose custodial rights of their children. They ho pe to return to care for these children. These children deserve a chance, if it is possible to rehabilitate their parents. Not everyone serving a prison sentence is an outcast, monster, or society’s reject.These are human people with human feelings, and emotions. Again, I say no one should be subjected   to these treatments because they have committed a crime. No one can truly know the remorse a person feels for the things they have done wrong, and therefore, should not impose upon them abuse. In approaching this issue of the unethical treatment of prisoners, I believe the classical theory of deontology could resolve this issue. Deontology is described as looking at the reason the act was committed instead of the consequences of an act (Mosser, 2010).It is a deontologist’s position that we treat everyone with respect, and consider each human being’s dignity when dealing with them. If it is considered why a woman has committed a violent crime against her spouse , then maybe she can be treated with ethical treatment, instead of what one feels is much deserved abuse because she is a prisoner. According to an article by the Human’s Rights Watch, A video tape at a California state facility showed two officers severely beating and kicking two inmates (2004). Deontologists theorize that no one should be beaten and kicked for no reason. It is unethical to treat a person with such excessive force.Virtue ethics is also an approach that can be taken to resolve the issue I have presented of unethical behavior of prisoners. Virtue ethics focuses more on the character of the person performing the act (Mosser, 2010). If we paid attention to the individual that performed the crime, we may better understand a way to effectively deal with the person without imposing any abuse upon the individual. Utilitarian’s ethical approach is basing a decision on the best outcome for the greater number (Mosser, 2010). It is likely to be beneficial to soci ety to treat prisoners with common human rights, and not subject them to inhumane behavior.If people can rehabilitate, instead of   become at risk for mental issues, high recidivism, and absence from the family, society will benefit as a whole. There will not be the need to spend so many tax dollars on prisons because so many prisons will not be needed. Families will be united and given the tools necessary to prosper and benefit, having a positive effect on children being raised with their parents. The problem with the deontologist’s theory is that a relativist will say that it is not their problem to concern themselves with how prisoners are being treated.Relativism is the values regarded by an individual based on their own ethical standards; usually based on their background and culture (Mosser, 2010). One will argue that it is what prisoners deserve because that is just what they believe. It may be acceptable in someone’s society to mistreat prisoners and the mist reatment not be considered unethical. Emotivism suggests that moral claims express an emotional response or attitude (Mosser, 2010). Mostly, people feel as if prisoners deserve unfair treatment. In fact, people feel as if they don’t deserve to be treated as human beings at all.Emotivism can reduce our moral judgment to something so simple like an emotional response; we may be robbing someone of a fair ethical decision. In my opinion, this can cause harm to the greater number of individuals effected by the decision, thus, presenting a challenge to the issue of utilitarianism. In this case the moral issue will not be examined because it is being responded to in an emotional way. Virtue ethics, I remind you, focuses on the virtues of the person performing the act. It is not an easy thing to do, trying to determine why a person made a certain choice.This person or group of individuals could have made this choice for a number of reasons. Sometimes, it is much more apparent why a p erson or group has done something. Other times, it is not.   Ethical egoism can be the challenge to virtue ethics. Ethical egoism argues that our moral decisions should be based on our desires and goals (Mosser, 2010). Our personal goals and desires are what motivate us make many of the decisions we make in our lives. If an outcome does not appeal to our goals and desires, we tend to find a way to dispute that.Finding a person’s virtue may conflict with our personal goals and desires. A person may have been robbed once before, and now has a biased toward anyone that has committed a crime, regardless of their motivation to commit the offense. If the victim’s personal desire is to see any person who commits theft to â€Å"rot† in prison, they will not consider the virtue ethics of a prisoner, therefore, the unethical treatment of prisoners seeming completely ethical to the ethical egoist. Having served so much time in prison, deontology is the closest view to my own.I believe that every action has a consequence and people need to suffer a consequence when they have broken the law. Respecting this theory, I still believe that everyone should be treated with respect and human decency. Although, I shot the young lady in the struggle over the gun, she was already wanted and convicted of murder. I feared for my life, as well as did not intend to cause great bodily injury; otherwise, I would have shot her repeatedly. Finances and social class had a lot to do with my conviction. I was unable to afford the best attorney and I was what was considered â€Å"at-risk† urban youth.Society did not care about the reason the victim ended up shot once. It was argued by strangers who did not know me that I deserved to serve fourteen years, and maybe even deserved to be shot myself. Either way, I am a decent human being, who wanted nothing other than to reintegrate into society and make a positive life for myself. People could never understand that un less they have been in prison, or have a family member who has spent time in prison. There are people who deserve to be treated fairly no matter whether they   have committed a crime or not.I am sure I can benefit from therapy. It feels as if sometimes, I am suffering from post-traumatic stress. I feel I didn’t deserve to receive some of the abuse that I have fallen victim to. Inhumane treatment in prisons should be investigated. Society should take time to weigh all the issues and realize heinous crimes are committed and one absolutely should pay their debt to society, but never at the cost of their basic human rights. â€Å"All persons deprived of liberty shall be treated at all times with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person†, (OHCHR, 2005).

Essay on Karachi - 1130 Words

‘The city consists of relationships between the measurements of its space and the events of its past†¦A description of Zaira as it is today should contain all of its past. The city however does not tell its past, but contains it like the lines of a hand, written in the corners of the streets, the gratings of the windows, the banisters of the steps†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ (Calvino, 1974: 10-11) Like the city of Zaira, Karachi contains its past between layers of memories, each having a narrative of its own replete with personal history and anecdotes that help us understand the city for what it was and how it has changed over the years. In his essay on Karachi, In the Eye of the Storm, the author introduces us to the Saddar of his youth. His essay reveals a†¦show more content†¦Saddars clubs, bars and billiard rooms were seen as a den of vice and shady activities, hence there was a crackdown on all such premises which were forcibly closed down. In all seventeen bars and eleven billiard rooms were shut down. The hut bar and discothque is now an electronic shop, the paris bar and billiard room is a retail shop, the old tody shop is now Virgo restraint, the ritz bar –ritz snacks, Legourmnet bar and cabaret is the Sheraton hotel, lido bar and night club taken over by shops. Simultaneously the Karachi university whose student unions organized strikes and disruptions to destabalise the military government was deliberately relocated to the outskirts of the city. Deprived of its active youth population and participation Saddar quickly degenerated into its presnt state and the cafes and restraints lost a grea t chunk of there clinetale running into losses these places had to be shut down. Cultural activities now have to be relocated to other parts of the city problems of access, no centre for cultural activities. Karachi is essentially a dual city. The first a Victorian city of barracks, cantonments and municipal buildings runs as undercurrent to the present one of multinational corporations and banks, a chaotic city of noise, glamour and lights. This duality is apparent in the usage of street names in the Saddar district. Post independence, street names were slowly renamed from Victorian ones to those commemorating nationalShow MoreRelatedEssay on Isolation in Sherwood Andersons Winesburg, Ohio797 Words   |  4 Pagesholds true to the population of Winesburg, Ohio. This is the hunger of life.    Works Cited Anderson, David. Sherwood Andersons Moments of Insight. Critical Studies in American Literature A Collection of Essays. Karachi, Pakistan: University of Karachi, 1964. Anderson, Sherwood. Winesburg, Ohio. New York: Dover Publications, Inc. 1995. Howe, Irving. The Book of the Grotesque. Sherwood Anderson. New York: William Sloan Associates, 1957.   Read MoreFashion Marketing17446 Words   |  70 PagesASSIGNMENT TITLE CREDIT RATING LEVEL STAFF RESPONSIBLE TIME FRAME Spring The Context of Fashion Essay Ten credits H3 Dr Wessie Ling Issue date: week commencing 13.03.06 Hand in to School Office (Room 322 Davies Street) no later than 12.00pm on Mon, 24 April 2006. Attn: to Dr Wessie Ling. Essay are bound, marked with students’ names, and all pages are numbered. Choose from one of the following essay titles: - Conspicuous consumption: Past, present or future? - Democratisation of luxury: The futureRead MoreGuess Paper of Class 1sy Year English1570 Words   |  7 Pagesshading in your city. Letter to the editor expressing how you feel about some of the major problems of Karachi. Letter to the editor expressing your concern over increasing incidents of street crimes in the city. OR Important stories: Unity is strength Honesty is the best policy Tit for tat Pride hath a fall A friend in need is a friend indeed Q4- Important Essays: My Aim in life Problems of Karachi The happiest moment of my life Merits and demerits of internet Duties of a student Wonders of ScienceRead MoreDomestic Violence on Women in Society1730 Words   |  7 Pagesand mortality for women in every country where these associations have been studied. In a literature review one study in Karachi in 2000 reported that all husband surveyed admitted that they shouted at their wife, even when she was pregnant 32.8% admitted to having slapped, 77.1%admmitted to engaged in non-consensual sex with their wives. Another study conducted in Karachi in 1999 reported that 34% of the women had been physically abused by their husbands and 15% had been abused even while pregnantRead MoreImmigration Research : The United States Essay739 Words   |  3 PagesImmigration Research Essay Will Leach Mrs. Bademan 1/2A In recent years, millions of female middle eastern immigrants have fled the oppressive regimes from which they came from to seek safety in the U.S. During this seemingly abrupt process. However, many have found themselves sandwiched between the barriers of internal country complications and external country complications. These barriers are evident in the other side of the sky, when the farah is attempting to leave her home country but she canRead MoreQuaid E Azam3263 Words   |  14 Pages12 B Sir Giscard El khowry Feb-22-2009 Final Draft Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah My Topic is about any Leader, so In this world there are many leaders. We know most of them, but my essay is about â€Å"Quaid-e-Azam†. He was a Great politician and statesman of 20th century. He was generally known as the father of state of Pakistan. He was the leader of The Muslim League and served as the first Governor General of Pakistan. Quaid-e-Azam wasRead MoreIn this essay I will be discussing the role and impact of Corporate Social Responsibility in event1500 Words   |  6 PagesIn this essay I will be discussing the role and impact of Corporate Social Responsibility in event management in the 21st Century. I will research and report examples, with supporting evidence. Firstly, I shall begin with defining Corporate Social Responsibility and then I will turn my attention to the challenges of CSR along with, why it is crucial for businesses and what the outcomes are if Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is overlooked. Throughout this essay I will b e providing examples ofRead MoreThe Taliban Of The Swat Valley1092 Words   |  5 Pages Essay 1: Certain events change our impressions of life. For most people, it would be a dream to live surrounded by mountains and clear blue lakes, except if a terrorist group ruled the area. The Swat Valley, located in Pakistan, was reclaimed for its beauty, as it was situated near mountains. Tourism was one of the Swat Valley’s largest industries, until the area was seized by the Taliban. The Taliban used guns and bombs to terrorize the citizens of the Swat Valley, so citizens would succumb toRead MoreNeorealism As A Response Of Realism Theory Devised By Hans Morgenthau1662 Words   |  7 Pages(1993), Jervis (1997), and so forth with variations of definitions (Dibek, 2012). This essay uses the concept of neorealism from Waltz and its modification from Oye. The basic concept is that cooperation can still be developed under anarchy, or the absence of government, which associated with the occurrence of violence and lead to conflict (Waltz, 1979, p. 102-128 ; Oye, 1985, p. 1-24). The cooperation in this essay refers to the Indus Water Treaty (IWT). There are two main concepts of neorealism fromRead MoreThe Importance of External Factors in Influencing the Conducting of Us Foreign Policy1849 Words   |  8 PagesExternal Factors In Influencing The Conducting Of US Foreign Policy To answer the essay question, external factors are indeed important in influencing the conducting of American foreign policy, as they are for all countries. They are important because they determine the direction American foreign policy takes, and with it, can drastically alter the futures of entire countries (Iraq amp; Afghanistan post 9/11). This essay will devote itself to exploring and explaining how each external factor is important