User:Sschieren/sandbox

Stephanie Schieren

For my article, "Islamophobia in the Media", I will be adding to the Media Bias section by including more examples of how Islam is not properly represented in film, television, newspapers, etc. I was able to find a couple of scholarly articles that relate to this, one of which centers on how two leading U.S magazines represent Afghanistan, and another that talks about a movie, The Seige, and how it portrays Muslims in a negative light.

Bibliography

Ali, S., Shabir, G., & Zafar, I.(2011) US mass media and image of Afghanistan: Portrayal of Afghanistan by Newsweek and Time. South Asian Studies, 26.1, 83-101

Bowe, B.J., Fahmy, S, & Matthes, J. (2015) U.S. newspapers provide nuanced picture of Islam. Newspaper Research Journal, 36, 42-57

Downing, J. & Wilkins, K. (2002) Mediating terrorism: Text and protest in interpretations of The Siege. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 19.4, 419-437

Draft for Article

There have been various instances in the media about how the Muslim community are often misrepresented to society, mostly in a way that centers heavily on terrorism, and paints Islam with a very broad brush. This is something that is seen in two major magazines, Newsweek and Time, which have been covering relations between the U.S. and Afghanistan over the last decade. It has been found that both of these publications distributed twenty leading articles that depicted about 57% of negative coverage in regards to current events in Afghanistan, while only around 6% was positive information. This negative content would often consist of excessive mentioning of Al-Qaida and the Taliban, mistreatment of women, the recruitment of terrorists, etc. These are in fact very real occurrences that are present in this part of the world, but primarily focusing on activities of radical groups could lead others to develop a one sided view of Islam. A 2010 Gallup poll has even revealed that about 43% of Americans reported feeling some type of prejudice against Muslims, while the religious group itself makes up one of the smallest populations in the entire country. This indicates that individuals have developed strong opinions about this group of people based on what has been heavily displayed by the media, which has often shown to be negative information. There have also been examples in the film industry in which Muslims are often associated with terrorism, such as in the 1998 movie, The Seige. Some critics of this movie have stated that the manner in which Islam is portrayed in this film only furthers the stereotype that Muslims in are correlated with terrorism and savagery.