The Mediating Role of Cinema in Representation of Hard Power Case Study: The movie "Zero Dark Thirty"

Abstract

In recent decades, critical geopolitics has worked to achieve a proper understanding of the conditions prevailing in the world by common discourse analysis along with power relations. One of the areas ­taken into consideration seriously by the critical geopolitical is the media. Media, due to its function in issues related to soft power and common discourse in geopolitics and soft power has the ability to influence the prevailing trends in public opinion through ­ influencing on audiences and conveying information.

Various media ­ are widely used to enhance the influence and expansion of soft power and also strengthening the function of hard power by the states ­and especially the world major powers like the United States of America. One of the Media ­ that has been utilized seriously to present an acceptable and also influential picture of states is cinema. In critical geopolitical perspective, ­ capabilities that cinema provides to represent different real and imaginative narratives and also its entertaining and attractive nature for people lead to represent different functions than news media represent of themselves.

One of the functions is to use cinema to represent the hard power in order to convince citizens and to convey the message of ­ threats to enemies. As in 2012, in movie "Zero Dark Thirty" the hard power of the United States in the fight against terrorism was represented. This study intends to use the discourse analysis of the film "Zero Dark Thirty" in responding to this question what the mediating functions of cinema are in representation of ­hard power.

Keywords: Media, cinema, representation, hard power, soft power