Ignorance & Insensitivity

In the article, ABC News (2008) reported on the apology that Tempo gave to the Christian community for publishing a cover depicting former Indonesian president Suharto and his children in an arrangement re-enacting Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper, which caused a group of Christian activist to gather at Tempo’s office to complain. They were offended because Tempo compared Suharto to Jesus Christ. After that, Tempo’s chief editor apologised saying, “We were only inspired by the composition of the Leonardo painting, and not in the concept or context of the event told in the holy bible.”

Suharto's Last Supper (source:https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7wKI7lt9RinGHUlv0UQfKM4pYo1RUSQs4NPFZpH5i_WQNTqcEZ4ADQjUxKi-5Uf2gVcTksHaV_YNbKbDRAVSA1SmhMdKgiCFrV659NXwh54D2ZY2ZIA3QXMMXd4EyzqgQB9C1LUAdmi-n/s320/Suharto.jpg)

Another issue similar to this is the demonstration by the Danish Muslims in Copenhagen reported by BBC News (2008) which is about their displeasure against the reprinting of a cartoon of Prophet Muhammad. The cartoon basically depicts The Prophet having a bomb in his turban. The reason behind this drawing is because of the trend of Islamophobia (Vries 2006).

Cartoon of Muhmmand with a bomb in turban
(source:http://www.granitegrok.com/pix/MohammadTurbanBomb.jpg)

Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) mentioned that people of different cultural background and personal experience will have different interpretation of subjects. In the case of the Tempo issue, it is purely a result of ignorance of other cultures. To the news organisation, the cover they did on the re-enactment of the composition of The Lord’s Supper it is a work of art. However, to the Christians, it could be an insult or defamation to their God, Jesus Christ; putting a man in the position of God.

On the other hand, the demonstration caused by the reprinting is because of insensitivity by the printing press towards the Danish Muslims. The Prophet Muhammad is considered a respectable and holy man to the Danish Muslims because they have been taught as such, hence there is displeasure, whereas the Danish printing press were not expose to such a teaching and influence, hence, reprinting a cartoon of the Prophet with a bomb in his turban would not offend them, just as Schriver (1997) argues, individuals perceive meaning from words and images are strongly due to cultural influence.

Therefore, to produce a good content for publishing, a competent designer must first research the background and culture of the target audience. This is because contents that are not well researched will cause cross-cultural miscommunication, hence evoking unnecessarily anger and confusion amongst the audience, which would definitely affect the credibility of the designer.

References
ABC News 2008, Indonesian weekly apologises over Last Supper Suharto cover, viewed 18 November 2009, http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/06/2156269.htm.

BBC News 2008, Danish Muslim in Cartoon Protest, viewed 18 November 2009,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7247817.stm.

Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 2006, Reading Images, Routledge, London.

Schriver, A 1997, Dynamics in Document Design: Creating Texts for Readers, Wiley Computer Pub., New York.

Vries, LD 2006, U.s.: muhammad cartoon ‘offensive’, viewed 18 November 2009, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/03/world/main1277068.shtml.