Content Analysis Of Images Of Muslims And Islam In American Media

After 9/11, there was an increase in both the incidence of hate crimes and government policies that targeted Arabs and Muslims and the proliferation of sympathetic portrayals of Arabs and Muslims in the U.S. media. Arabs and Muslims in the Media examines this paradox and investigates the increase of sympathetic images of “the enemy” during the War on Terror. Evelyn Alsultany explains that a new standard in racial and cultural representations emerged out of the multicultural movement of the 1990s that involves balancing a negative representation with a positive one, what she refers to as “simplified complex representations.” This has meant that if the storyline of a TV drama or film represents an Arab or Muslim as a terrorist, then the storyline also includes a “positive” representation of an Arab, Muslim, Arab American, or Muslim American to offset the potential stereotype. Analyzing how TV dramas such as The Practice, 24, Law and Order, NYPD Blue, and Sleeper Cell, news-reporting, and non-profit advertising have represented Arabs, Muslims, Arab Americans, and Muslim Americans during the War on Terror, this book demonstrates how more diverse representations do not in themselves solve the problem of racial stereotyping and how even seemingly positive images can produce meanings that can justify exclusion and inequality.

The Media can problematize, marginalize, exclude or sterotype social groups. This is often done by writing or speaking negatively about other social groups through text or talk. The purpose of this study is to linguistically examine the creation of a stereotyped image of Muslims through priming and framing in the media. Hence, this study explores if a stereotyped image of Muslims was identified in Dutch and British mainstream newspapers –De Volkskrant, Trouw, NRC, De Telegraaf, The Guardian, The Daily Mirror, The Daily Telegraph and the Sun– in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on Theo van Gogh in 2004, the 7/7 attacks in 2005 and the Charlie Hebdo attack 2015. In this way, this study is primarily occupied with; (1) if a stereotyped image of Muslims is created through language; (2) the agenda setting of Muslims; (3) the language used by journalists to describe Muslims in response to terrorist attacks at home or abroad. The analysis of language in the newspapers is conducted from a critical discourse analysis perspective and is done for both countries separately. The analysis of Dutch newspapers provides more evidence of stereotyped frames compared to the UK but there is not enough evidence to claim that any of the eight newspapers created a stereotyped image of Muslims in the aftermath of the studied terrorist attacks. Includes: - Priming Theory; - Agenda Setting Theory; - Framing Theory; - Critical Discourse Analytics; - Priming of Muslims in Newspapers; - Framing of Muslims in Newspapers

A contribution to understanding how the Western media have interpreted and misinterpreted Islam, the Arab world and the countries of the contemporary Middle East.

"For decades, scholars and observers have criticized negative media portrayals of Muslims and Islam. Yet most of these critiques are limited by their focus on one specific location, a limited time period, or a single outlet. This book offers the first systematic, large-scale analysis of American newspaper coverage of Muslims through comparisons across groups, time, countries, and topics. It demonstrates conclusively that coverage of Muslims is strikingly negative by every comparative measure examined. Muslim articles are negative relative to those touching on Catholics, Jews, or Hindus, and to those mentioning marginalized groups within the United States as diverse as African Americans, Latinos, Mormons, and atheists. Coverage of Muslims has also been consistently and enduringly negative across the two-decade period between 1996 and 2016. This pattern is not unique to the United States; it also holds in countries such as Britain, Canada, and Australia, although less so in the Global South. Moreover, the strong negativity in the articles is not simply a function of stories about foreign conflict zones or radical Islamist violence, even though it is true that terrorism and extremism have become more prominent themes since 9/11. Strikingly, even articles about mundane topics tend to be negative. The findings suggest that American newspapers may, however inadvertently, contribute to reinforcing boundaries that generate Islamophobic attitudes. To overcome these drawbacks, journalists and citizens can consciously "tone-check" the media to limit the stigmatizing effect of negative coverage so commonly associated with Muslims and Islam"--

This collection provides a cross-cultural comparative analysis, both qualitative and quantitative, of how Islam is represented in the media in various countries, from Western Europe to Russia, China, and India.

Offering readers an engaging, accessible, and balanced account of the contributions of American Muslims to the contemporary United States, this important book serves to clarify misrepresentations and misunderstandings regarding Muslim Americans and Islam. Unfortunately, American mass media representations of Muslims—whether in news or entertainment—are typically negative and one-dimensional. As a result, Muslims are frequently viewed negatively by those with minimal knowledge of Islam in America. This accessible two-volume work will help readers to construct an accurate framework for understanding the presence and depictions of Muslims in American society. These volumes discuss a uniquely broad array of key topics in American popular culture, including jihad and jihadis; the hejab, veil, and burka; Islamophobia; Oriental despots; Arabs; Muslims in the media; and mosque burnings. Muslims and American Popular Culture offers more than 40 chapters that serve to debunk the overwhelmingly negative associations of Islam in American popular culture and illustrate the tremendous contributions of Muslims to the United States across an extended historical period.