Covering Muslims : American newspapers in comparative perspective /
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 news...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
New York :
Oxford University Press,
[2021].
|
| Subjects: |
| Summary: | 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. |
|---|---|
| Physical Description: | xii, 198 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages [171]-186) and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780197611715 0197611710 9780197611722 0197611729 |