Book description
A riveting and sobering investigation into Australia s race problem
and how our media demonises Arabs and Muslims. Since 9/11 the Australian
media has been filled with bad news stories. Gang rapes in Sydney,
asylum seekers, the Tampa federal election, the war in Afghanistan, the
first year of the Palestinian intifada, the Cronulla riots - all hit the
headlines on a regular basis. One factor ran through all of these: Arabs
and Muslims. After the terrible anti-Muslim feeling after 9/11, Manning
had the shocking realization that he hadn't fairly portrayed Muslims in
the media, and had even used Australia's fear of Islam to sell stories.
His reaction to the media firestorm about one ethnicity and one religion
was to prepare a fully-refereed academic study on how both had been
portrayed in two newspapers - Sydney's two major dailies - in the year
before and the year after September 11, 2001. The results horrified him,
and he set out to redress the balance any way he could. Now Professor of
Media Studies at the University of Technology, he launched himself into
an undergraduate degree in Arabic studies, and immersed himself in the
Arab world. His subsequent trip to the Middle East was one of the best
times of his life. Us and Them is an attempt by a respected journalist
and media commentator to address the public, government-led and
media-driven hysteria about the group of Australians now known as
'people of Middle Eastern appearance'. A combination of memoir, travel,
culture, history and religion, Us and Them tells the story of one man's
passionate quest to see justice done: to humanise rather than demonise
the people our media - and us - tend to get so wrong. Peter Manning is
a former executive producer of the landmark ABC current affairs program
 Four Corners . Prior to that he worked as a reporter for a range of
publications and media, including The Sydney Morning Herald, The
Bulletin and edited Nation Review. He has worked behind the scenes in
television journalism for many years as a former head of news and
current affairs at both the ABC and the Seven network. He is now Adjunct
Professor of Journalism at Sydney s University of Technology, and a
sought-after commentator on media issues. Please visit www. usandthem.
com. au for more information.
