Abstract

Eurocentrism and Orientalism are practices of ordering, bordering and othering in knowledge production that shape our geographical imaginations and our geopolitical representations. Both are reinforced by uneven patterns in the media coverage of different places around the world. Eurocentrism points at the Western biases that underpin the selection and the framing of news, with greater attention and nuance for Western places than for places in other parts of the world, while Orientalism pertains to the negative stereotyping of non-Western places and people. This chapter examines the persistence of these phenomena from the perspective of cultural and political geography, and more specifically popular geopolitics (the critical geopolitics of popular culture). It discusses different examples of Orientalism in the news media and the importance of visual representation in the systematically deficient coverage of African places and people. It then turns to attempts to decenter the Eurocentric bias of popular geopolitics. Finally the chapter considers the impact of globalization and digitalization on the circulation of geographical imaginations and new forms of Eurocentrism and Orientalism. These technologies include satellite television and the emergence of self-proclaimed alternative channels (such as Al Jazeera) and the social media based on internet and mobile telephony.