Mass communication Final proposal

Introduction:

Islam with about 2 billion Muslims world wide is one of the largest religions in world and continues to rapidly grow. Ever since the September 11th terrorist attack on the world trade center in 2001, Muslims became a widespread source of news stories worldwide, after catastrophic event of 9/11, it gave news organizations in America an enormous story, Muslims and Middle Eastern became the main focus in news media coverage, specifically in relating terrorism to Islam. It’s the media portrayal of Muslims in America that lead to many misconceptions and fear of it. Recently Muslims in America became a widely covered topic, due to the proposal of an Islamic center and mosque being built near the site of the attacks (Cagle, Cox, Luoma 2011). Park 51, originally named Cordoba house’s goal was to create peaceful existence between all religions, it was controversially named ground zero mosque, and Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf’s intent was to build a serene place of worship and a community center that all religions, races, and ethnicities would be welcome to. This sparked a flare in Americans appalling them that an Islamic center was to be build near the sacred ground zero. Those who were for it were promoting the fact that America is home for all religions and ethnicities, those against it were protecting their country and sacred ground from what they believed to be a threatening religion.

Rationale:

One of the problematic aspects of Islam in the new is the shortage of context and background, after the collapse of the soviet union in 1990, the global threat of communism was replaces by Islam and it became the new enemy of the west, Specifically, in the United States, and the American media continued to play a huge role in this portrayal and distortion that fueled violence and fear. (Ibrahim 2010)

Hypothesis:

The media portrayal of Muslims after September 11^th contributed largely to the reaction of the American people towards the Islamic center being built by ground zero.

Research questions:

R1: How did the news media frame Arabs?

R2: Do American news papers differ in their portrayal of Islam after September 11?

Literature Review:

Cagle, Cox, Luoma 2011 investigated the portrayal of Muslims in American media, the title of their article being “Content analysis of the portrayal of Muslims in American media”. The research team collected data from three major online news sources. Cable News Network (CNN), National Public Radio (NPR), and Fox News. Using the phrase “Muslims in America” to search online news databases, the researchers searched the topic and articles that came up between august 1^st 2010 and September 30^th 2010. Using CATPAC which is a system used to organize the order or words or concepts. After the team research their results showed that Fox News had different viewpoints, with the negative ones devastatingly outnumbering the positive ones, NPR showed equal amounts of arguments, both for the views of those for and against the building of the ground zero mosque/Islamic center. CNN offered the most negative thoughts and views towards the mosque/Islamic center and framed Muslims in a bad way.

Ibrahim 2010 studied Muslims in the news media after September 11, the name of her study “the framing of Islam on network news following the September 11^th attacks” she used transcripts and video of networks evening news casts in the three national networks; CBS, NBC, and ABC. The first 2 weeks after the attacks, from the 11^th of September to the 25^th of September, she also studied both verbal and visual frames of Muslims and Islam in general; she wanted to see how close the news framings of Islam related to the views of United Stated government officials. Her results showed that throughout the globe the objective coverage of Islam didn’t exist.

Love’s 2009 study of “confronting islamaphobia in the United States: framing civil rights activism among Middle Eastern Americans” explored the core of islamaphobic dialogue in the United states media in terms of hate crimes, stereotypes and biases. His in-depth research analysis reveals that Middle Eastern communities to remain separated in terms of origin; he finds the impact of islamaphobia in the US in beyond local.

Trevino, Kanso, and Nelson’s 2010, studies the misconception about Muslims and Islam, the name of their study being ‘Islam through editorial lenses: How American elite newspapers portrayed Muslims before and after September 11, 2001” their study is a content analysis of three major American newspapers; The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The New York Times. The purposes of their study and analysis are to discover if American newspapers portrayed Muslims more negatively after September 11^th, and to find out of the newspapers differed in their depiction of Muslims a year before and after the attacks. Their findings showed that the three newspapers did indeed depict Muslims more negatively after September 11^th, however they did no differ in their portrayal of Islam.

Ibrahim 2010, studies the network coverage of Arab countries after September 11^th, her study named “framing of Arab countries on American news networks following the September 11^th attacks”. Her investigation is of the coverage on CBS, NBC, and ABC. She talks about ideological framing of Arab countries; the results show the countries were different in the news media portrayals of them. Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia were framed as diplomatic and economic allies, whereas Iraq was portrayed as a threat to the United States and was discussed in terms of being militarily invaded.

Jackson’s 2010 studies how dishonesty in the united states media of Islam can effect cultural education, her study called “Images of Islam in US media and their educational implications” she discusses the ways in which terrorist attacks in history contributed largely to these misconception, and the effect of this media representation on people, specifically those who don’t have background knowledge or experience with Muslims. She finds that even though the media’s misconception may not directly influence students to relate Islam to terrorism, it still teaches students that these misconceptions in mass media mainstream are more acceptable to them, rather than discriminatory harmful to Muslims.

Methodology:

Textual analysis

Findings:

American Muslims were framed as an essential part of America where as non American Muslims were framed as violent and threatening, news media framings of Muslims after September 11^th differed significantly, with the media portraying them more negatively after the attacks. The framing was also similar to the thoughts of government officials, particularly that of President Bush when he said “their either with us or against us”. After this the news media depicted Arab Muslims as either being with the US or against it. (Ibrahim 2010)

R1: How did the news media frame Arabs?

Arab countries are usually framed by news networks as either enemies or friends with the United States foreign policy. Particularly after September 11^th, the distinction between ally or foe became ever more distinct, in a way the Arab countries were on the hot seat and their every move was being watched.

The media framed both Egypt and Jordan as significant and sensible Arab countries, since both of them receive military and economic assistance and support from America. Saudi Arabia was framed as a financial and diplomatically after they declined prince Al Waleed Bin Talal’s 10 million dollar check to help financially aid the suffering Americans at the time. The reason the check was rejected was because the Saudi money was tainted with the implication of terrorism. Iraq’s media coverage was different that the other Arab countries the news media was covering; it wasn’t talked about much differently than the way it was discussed in the Gulf War. Its weapons were seen as a threat and Iraq was mostly discussed in the news in the context of invasion.

R2: Do American news papers differ in their portrayal of Islam after September 11?

A chi square test which is a statistical thesis test in which the sampling of test statistics is distributed in a chi squared distribution.

A study done by Trevino, Kanso, Nelson 2010 answers the same research question, a content analysis of the three major news paper The los Angeles Times, The Washington post, and New York times, they revealed that American newspapers had a considerable difference in their portrayal of Muslims after 9/11. The Washington post and the Los Angeles times had closer percentages to neutral term used in their articles. New York times percentage was double the other two’s percentages, out of the three The Washington Post showed the lowest percentage of favorable term, therefore the results show mutual agreement within American newspapers in their unfavorable portrayal of Muslims after 9/11.

Conclusion:

Researchers mostly discovered that Islam was mainly interpreted and represented anger, violence and that one of the fundamentals of the faith was within the context of violence, aggression, and crisis. There was no representation of Islam that was more dominant that the other, they were part of a constant changing worldly discourse (Ibrahim.) the mass media affects people in many different way, people learn what they thing and how to behave from media sources, people lacking prior learning encounters with Middle Eastern cultures or people. People are more prone to learn from fiction, it could be more beneficial for people to view the ultimate impact of media as a perception of framing of common beliefs and ideas about a culture. (Jackson 2010) overall the media portrayal of Islam after September 11^th had a major impact on the perceptions and belief systems of people all around the United states, it’s evident that the portrayals of Muslims after the terrorist attack were relatively more negative than those before. These misconceptions shaped and fueled the controversy over building the ground zero mosque.

Citations:

-          Trevino, Melina, Richard Nelson, and Ali Kanso. "Islam through Editorial Lenses: How American Elite Newspapers Portrayed Muslims before and after September 11. 2001." Academic Search Premier. EBSCO, 2010. Web. <http://http://ezproxy.hamline.edu:2053/ehost/detail?vid=5&hid=24&sid=94477d44-e496-4b50-9f3a-8af27de3d16f%40sessionmgr13&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=ufh&AN=55287180>.

-          Cagle, Alicia, Lindsay Cox, Kelly Luoma, and Anne Zaphiris. "Content Analysis of the Portrayal of Muslims in American Media." Academic Search Premier. EBSCO, 2011. Web. <http://http://ezproxy.hamline.edu:2053/ehost/detail?vid=9&hid=24&sid=94477d44-e496-4b50-9f3a-8af27de3d16f%40sessionmgr13&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=ufh&AN=61775249>.

-          Ibrahim, Dina. "Framing of Arab Countries on American News Networks following the September 11 Attacks." Academic Search Premier. EBSCO, 2010. Web. <http://http://ezproxy.hamline.edu:2053/ehost/detail?vid=11&hid=24&sid=94477d44-e496-4b50-9f3a-8af27de3d16f%40sessionmgr13&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=ufh&AN=43612389>.

-          Ibrahim, Dina. "The framing of Islam on network news following the September 11^th attacks." Academic Search Premier. EBSCO, Feb. 2010. Web. <http://http://ezproxy.hamline.edu:2053/ehost/detail?vid=10&hid=24&sid=c193a549-1e16-40fc-b114-3ffcdde55911%40sessionmgr14&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=47714483>.

-          Love, Erik. "Confronting Islamophobia in the United States: Framing Civil Rights Activism among Middle Eastern Americans." Academic Search Premier. EBSCO, July 2009. Web. <http://http://ezproxy.hamline.edu:2053/ehost/detail?vid=16&hid=24&sid=94477d44-e496-4b50-9f3a-8af27de3d16f%40sessionmgr13&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=ufh&AN=44302626>.

-          Jackson, Liz. "Images of Islam in US Media and Their Educational Implications." Academic Search Premier. EBSCO, Feb. 2010. Web. <http://http://ezproxy.hamline.edu:2053/ehost/detail?vid=15&hid=24&sid=c193a549-1e16-40fc-b114-3ffcdde55911%40sessionmgr14&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=48207762>.