Constructing Guardians and Threats: Digital Epistemology in War-Themed Entertainment Media

Representation shapes meaning, yet that meaning remains latent until activated through media. This mechanism is manifest in digital entertainment media’s [DEM] dissemination of a guardian/threat binary narrative, portraying American soldiers as protectors of pax mundi and Arab militants as threats. Despite the pervasiveness of this binary logic, research in this area remains limited. Using critical theory, this study examines how the guardian/threat binary is constructed and communicated in DEM and the possible implications for intercultural communication. We conducted auto-ethnographic, para-textual, and quantitative content analyses of war games (N=14) and movies (N=15), based on their popularity, release time (2001-2021), and representation of conflicts in Arab/Muslim nations. Findings indicate that the digital communication of American and Arab identities within a binary logic legitimizes US military interventions in Arab nations. This work highlights the ethical dimensions of digital mis/representations and aims to guide policymakers and media creators toward more nuanced representation.

Keywords: Digital Epistemology, Guardian/threat Binary, Military-Entertainment Complex, Proxy Representation, Identity Communication.