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I have been watching episodes of Homeland with increasing interest. The story is a compelling one of espionage, intrigue, suspense, double-dealing, sex and violence. But it is Homeland‘s environments and discourses that intrigue me and have caused me to consider its media literacy implications.

The story involves a bipolar CIA agent and a US Marine who has been captured, tortured, brainwashed and’turned’ into a terrorist conspirator by an Arab leader. There are many twists and turns in the events and their relationship, including sex, drugs, physical abuse and a bid to become vice-president of the US.

That is the stuff of many good spy thriller narratives. What is different in Homeland are the discourses and their ideologies. I have to wonder how they might affect American viewers’ attitudes towards their elected officials and government agencies.

For example, the CIA uses a range of manipulations: blackmail, sex, violence, patriotism, torture, surveillance, kidnapping and incarceration in coercing their ‘asset’—the Marine— to help them prevent another 9/11 attack and capture or kill the Arab leader. These actions are taken against an American citizen without any regard for his rights.

How might these representations influence the ways that Americans perceive their CIA? Will it give them pause to consider that they, too,—not just the nationals of other countries—could become victims of rights violations?

The Arab leader successfully engineers the Marine POW into a position of power as a congressman and potential vice-presidential candidate, considerably upping the ante on the actions of a brainwashed soldier in The Manchurian Candidate. The Marine willingly takes on a suicide bomb mission that will eradicate a significant portion of the US anti-terrorism workforce.

How might these representations influence the ways that Americans perceive their elected officials? Will it give them pause to consider that some of those hundreds elected to Federal office or their unelected staffers might be ‘turned’ and capable of terrorist acts or governmental influence?

The Arabs are represented not as stereotypes of irrationality and religious zealotry but as multi-national human beings, calm, calculated, articulate and empathetically seeking to avenge the deaths of innocents. We see the Arab leader’s young son killed in a US drone attack sanctioned by the vice-president.

How might these representations influence the ways that Americans perceive Arabs? Might it help them to understand why Americans are considered evil in many parts of the Middle East? Might it give them pause when they receive news that President Obama has sanctioned still more drone attacks?

Homeland is good storytelling. But every story contains ideological messages. Homeland‘s settings (legislative offices, CIA offices and secret worksites, the homes of elected officials and agents, Middle Eastern homes, markets and streets) and the amoral behaviours of some of its characters provide a great opportunity for people to consider the ancillary effects that a story might have on its target audience, and maybe on an unintended audience if the series is shown on television in the Middle East.

• Homeland image source:  https://shorturl.at/GUvlN