National Geographic Photo Contest 2012

Controversy
Linda Steet in her book Veils and Daggers: A Century of National Geographic's Representation of the Arab World criticizes National Geographic for its masculinist rhetoric, the one-directionality of its cross-cultural contact, its claim of objectivity and representations that build layers of a... world hierarchy.
Lutz and Collins in their book Reading National Geographic argue that National Geographic is intimately tied to the American establishment and "cultivates ties to government officials and corporate interests". Rothenberg suggests that National Geographic, as a part of mainstream popular culture, has historically helped to articulate a particularly American identity in opposition to "both old Europe and primitive non-Western regions... an identity of civic and technological superiority but yet, a distinctly benign and friendly identity".