Saddam Hussein

Media is our means of communication and there is no denial in its enormous function in manipulating the facts and representing them as a reality to people who in turn get affected by it. Peoples perspectives and beliefs about politics in general and public figures in specific are changed, modified and altered in accordance to what is being represented in the media.

If we take Saddam Hussein as a public figure and investigate how the media affected his image it is only fair to not generalize because it all depends on your position from all of the events that were taking place. For somebody who is living in the area and very close to Iraq, we know the facts before they were even represented by CNN and Al-Jazzera because we lived it and were physically and mentally part of it. The acts that Saddam preformed on his people whether in Al Dujail or in the south was brutal and inhumane. He ruled by a regime that was worst than the military regime on its own. People despised his torturing strategies; however, once Iraq went to the war with Iran, media represented Saddam in a different manner to the point that his own people who were tortured by him completely changed their perspective about that domineering, arbitrary leader to perceive him as a hero and a protector as well as classifying him as a “Sword of the Arabs” and “ Guardian of the Eastern Gate”. The Western media or Eastern media, not to forget that it is under the influence of the west, was hiding Saddam’s government fear of the Shiites coming from Iran to empower its own Shiite. Not to forget that the United States and its powerful media played a big role during the war with Iran. The U.S. provided Saddam with the weapons and training that was necessary for him to go through this war and then the facts were twisted through media and represented to people differently. Saddam is the owner of the weapons of mass destruction. One day the media is with Saddam providing him with support and the other day they are against him.

All of these were facts whether they were true or false and regardless of what the media said, we as people living in the east of Saudi Arabia and from Iraqi descends were not affected by the media. The fact that we believed in is that almost all means of media serve certain people and certain politics. I am not disregarding the influence of media. Yes media definitely effect and change peoples perspective in how they perceive a specific figure for those who are unaware of the facts and unaware of media’s propaganda. Because media now and has been all about political strategies to manipulate those who don’t investigate for themselves.