Remix maker Joe Sabia has teamed up with the Norman Lear Center and the ACLU to illustrate their “Prime Time Terror” study in fair use video mashup form. You might remember Joe from his Rent is Too Damn High + Up remix posted last year. This new remix dynamically highlights the study’s findings by borrowing clips from two dozen popular primetime TV episodes depicting the “war on terror” including NCIS, CSI, Law & Order and Fox’s 24. Its always exciting to see remix video employed for for educational purposes.
Also note Joe’s detailed sources media list in the YouTube description which make it easier for educators, academics and other remixers to track down the clips he used.
I found it particularly interesting to see how Hollywood writers will often build off of the expected racial stereotypes to throw in a plot twist where we find out that the terrorist bad guy is actually an American white guy in the end. I would note that many of these plot twists only work if the characters, and by extension the audience, is still surprised that the “terrorist suspect” does not fit the preconceived stereotype. In this way I think many of these shows are still relying on (if not reenforcing) widely held Western racial stereotype of what a terrorist is “supposed” to looks like.