Ideologically Challenging Entertainment (ICE)
Keywords:
Ideologically Challenging Entertainment, The Arab-Israeli Conflict, Terrorism, Ideology, Radicalisation, Extremism, Two Merchants, Conflict, Genocide, TheatreAbstract
Ideologically Challenging Entertainment (ICE) is entertainment that challenges ‘us vs. them’ ideologies associated with radicalization, violent conflict and terrorism. ICE presents multiple perspectives on a conflict through mainstream entertainment. This article introduces the theoretical underpinnings of ICE, the first ICE production and the audience responses to it.
The first ICE production was Two Merchants: The Merchant of Venice adapted to challenge ideologies of the Arab-Israeli Conflict. A mixed-methods study of audience responses explored whether this production inspired audiences to shift their ideological views. Each performance included two versions of the adaptation: a Jewish dominated society with an Arab Muslim minority, contrasted with an Arab Muslim dominated society and a Jewish minority. A mixed-methods study of audience responses explored whether this production inspired audiences to shift their ideological views to become more tolerant of differences away from ideological radicalization.
Of audience members who did not initially agree with the premise of the production, 40% reconsidered their ideological views, indicating increased tolerance, greater awareness of and desire to change their own prejudices. In addition, 86% of the audience expressed their intention to discuss the production with others, thereby encouraging critical engagement with, and broader dissemination of the message. These outcomes suggest that high quality entertainment – as defined by audience responses to it - can become a powerful tool in the struggle against radicalised ideologies.
References
Adwan, S., & Bar-On, D. (2004). Shared History Project: A PRIME Example of Peace-Building Under Fire. International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, 17(3), 513-521. doi: 10.1023/B:IJPS.0000019616.78447.5e
Aldis, A., & Herd, G. P. (Eds.). (2007). The Ideological War on Terror: Worldwide Strategies for Counter-Terrorism. London, UK; New York, NY: Routledge.
Appel, M., & Richter, T. (2007). Persuasive Effects of Fictional Narratives Increase Over Time. Media Psychology, 10(1), 113-134. doi: 10.1080/15213260701301194
Appel, M., & Richter, T. (2010). Transportation and Need for Affect in Narrative Persuasion: A Mediated Moderation Model. Media Psychology, 13(2), 101-135.
Bar-Tal, D. (2000). From Intractable Conflict through Conflict Resolution to Reconciliation: Psychological Analysis. Political Psychology, 21(2), 351-365. doi: 10.1111/0162-895x.00192
Barnes, H. (2011). Mapping Ethics in Applied Drama and Theatre (pp. 131-143). Rotterdam: SensePublishers.
Bayer, M. (2008). The Merchant of Venice, the Arab-Israeli Conflict, and the Perils of Shakespearean Appropriation. Comparative Drama, 41(4), 465-492.
Bloom, H. (Ed.). (1991). Shylock. New York, NY; Philadelphia, PA: Chelsea House Publishers.
Browning, C. (1992). Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battallion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland. New York, NY: Harper Perennial.
Castro, F. G., Kellison, J. G., Boyd, S. J., & Kopak, A. (2010). A Methodology for Conducting Integrative Mixed Methods Research and Data Analyses. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 4(4), 342-360. doi: 10.1177/1558689810382916
Chalk, F. (2007, 13 October 2007). The Seeds of Genocide: Hate Propaganda and the Banalization of Evil. Paper presented at the Global Conference on the Prevention of Genocide, McGill University.
Chalmers, D. L. (2014). If you wrong us, shall we not revenge? Daring entertainment to challenge ideologies of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Doctor of Philosophy Doctoral Dissertation, University of British Columbia Vancouver. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2429/46326
Chalmers, D. L. (2015). Resisting Radical Ideologies, One Play at a Time: A Mixed-Methods Study of Audience Responses to Ideologically Challenging Entertainment. Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies, 12(2).
Clarke, C. C. (1865). "Merchant of Venice" Shakespeare - Characters, Chiefly Those Subordinate. London, UK: Smith, Elder.
Cohen, C., Gutierrez Varea, R., & Walker, P. (2011). Acting together: performance and the creative transformation of conflict (Vol. 2). Oakland, CA: New Village Press.
Gilbert, M. (2008). Israel: a history. Toronto: Key Porter Books.
Goldhagen, D. J. (1996). Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.
Green, M. C. (2008). Research challenges in narrative persuasion. Information Design Journal, 16(1), 47-47. doi: 10.1075/idj.16.1.07gre
Green, M. C., & Brock, T. C. (2000). The Role of Transportation in the Persuasiveness of Public Narratives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(5), 701-721.
Gross, J. (1992). Shylock: Four Hundred Years in the Life of a Legend. London, UK: Windus Ltd.
Gross, K. (2006). Shylock is Shakespeare. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
Harff, B. (2003). No Lessons Learned from the Holocaust? Assessing Risks of Genocide and Political Mass Murder since 1965. American Political Science Review, 97(1), 57-73.
Herf, J. (2006). The Jewish Enemy: Nazi Propaganda During World War II and The Holocaust. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Hillman, J. (1975). Re-Visioning Psychology. New York, NY: Harper Perennial.
Igartua, J.-J., & Barrios, I. (2012). Changing Real-World Beliefs With Controversial Movies: Processes and Mechanisms of Narrative Persuasion. Journal of Communication, 62(3), 514–531.
Joint trial of Ferdinand Nahimana, Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza, Hassan Ngeze (2004).
Kerr, D. (2009). Ethics of applied theatre. South African Theatre Journal, 23(Journal Article), 177.
Kiernan, B. (2007). Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur. New Haven, CT and London, UK: Yale University Press.
Knowles, E. S., & Linn, J. A. (Eds.). (2004). Resistance and Persuasion. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Lederach, J. P. (2005). The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, Inc.
Mazzocco, P. J., Green, M. C., Sasota, J. A., & Jones, N. W. (2010). This Story Is Not for Everyone: Transportability and Narrative Persuasion. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 1(4), 361-368.
Moore, D., & Aweiss, S. (2004). Bridges over troubled water: a comparative study of Jews, Arabs, and Palestinians. Westport, Conn: Praeger.
Moore, T. (Ed.). (1990). The Essential James Hillman: A Blue Fire. London, UK: Routledge.
Rowe, N. E. (2005). The Project Gutenberg EBook of Some Account of the Life &c. of Mr. William Shakespear. In R. C. Boys, E. n. Hooker, J. H.T. Swedenberg, W. E. Britton, E. L. Avery, B. Boyce, L. I. Bredvold, C. Brooks, J. L. Clifford, A. Friedman, E. Mossner & J. Sutherland (Series Eds.), S. H. Monk (Ed.)
Schechet, N. (2009). Disenthralling Ourselves: Rhetoric of Revenge and Reconciliation in Contemporary Israel. Madison, WI; Teaneck, NJ: Rosemont Publishing and Printing Corporation/Farleigh Dickinson University Press.
Schneer, J. (2012). The Balfour Declaration: the origins of the Arab-Israeli conflict. New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks.
Slater, M. D., Rouner, D., & Long, M. (2006). Television Dramas and Support for Controversial Public Policies: Effects and Mechanisms. Journal of Communication, 56(2), 235-252. doi: 10.1111/j.1460-2466.2006.00017.x
Symington, R. (2005). The Nazi Appropriation of Shakespeare: Cultural Politics in the Third Reich. Lewiston, NY; Queenston, Ontario; Lampeter, Ceredigion, Wales: The Edwin Mellen Press.
Tal-Or, N., Boninger, D. S., Poran, A., & Gleicher, F. (2004). Counterfactual Thinking as a Mechanism in Narrative Persuasion. Human Communication Research, 30(3), 301–328.
Troy, G. (2002). Why I am a Zionist: Israel, Jewish Identity and the Challenges of Today. Montreal, QC: Bronfman Jewish Education Centre.
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948).
Waller, J. (2002). Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing. Oxford, UK; New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Watson, M. A. (2004). Ethics in Entertainment Television. Journal of Popular Film and Television, 31(4), 146-148. doi: 10.1080/01956051.2004.10662047
Yaffe, M. D. (1997). Shylock and the Jewish Question. Baltimore, MD; London, UK: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
The JD Journal for Deradicalization uses a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND) Licence. You are free to share - copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format under the following conditions:
Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, andindicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
NoDerivatives — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.
