Representing the rise of the rest as threat

Abstract

Like a giant oil tanker, the world is turning. New growth poles of the world economy have been emerging in the South and East. Globalization once belonged to the West and now the tables are turning. We have entered the era of the ‘rise of the rest’. Western media and politics of representation have celebrated the rise of the West for 200 years, how then do they represent the rise of the rest? The main trends are that the rise of the rest is ignored, or represented as a threat, or celebrated in business media as a triumph of the marketplace. Media echoing free market ideology have contributed to vast wealth polarization; representing the rise of the rest as a threat contributes to global political polarization; recycling the 9/11 complex produces cultural and political polarization; and overusing celebrity narratives contributes to existential polarization. These are the global divides discussed in this article. In the wake of the economic crisis of 2008 there have been marked changes in discourse and a new motif has taken shape: recruiting the rest to rescue the West.