Representation of Muharram Rituals in West Media; Semiotic Analysis of TotallyCoolPix Website’s Photos of Muharam and Ashura

Abstract

Protecting and upholding the ideology of media authorities, photo can be considered a tool for communication and meaning-making. Also the social-artistic activities of photograpy paly a significant role in communication as any other media does. The representation theory excessively concerned with media analysis. It should be noted that semiotic method gives the ability to examine hidden layers of media contents such as picture. Based on The representation theory and semiotics techniques, this paper involves in analyzing photography which represented in TotallyCoolPix Website with Theme of Muharam and Ashura (the 10th day of Muharram in the Islamic calendar). The outcomes of this analysis reveal that these photos represent Islam and Muslims as “other”, and also including a kind of deviation from the true Muharram rituals among Muslims. This set of pictures can be characterized by some features such as violence, masculinity, passive role of women in religious customs, cohesiveness and collective strength, which are become prevalent in Muslim communities. What is more, traditional Shiite symbols hinged upon these features and themes in these pictures. Overall, the concepts obtained from these pictures analysis illustrate that they are brimmed with violence which pave the way for more Islam- phobia in countries in the Occident.

Keywords

• photograph
• semiotics
• representation
• muharram ritual