“These stereotypes and the grouping of all Muslims as terrorists can
lead to prejudice, discrimination and violence against them, and even to
their segregation from communities”.
To what extent and
why are Muslims represented as terrorists in the UK news media?
When the word ‘terrorist’ appears in the news, people
automatically link them to Muslims. Whenever Muslims are in the headlines, they
are often linked with one topic which is terrorism. UK newspapers headlines
categorise their stories in their sample by what they call a ‘news hook’, which
refers to the main focus of the story. The UK newspapers are reinforcing the
stereotypes of Muslims, as they are making out that they are dangerous by
linking them to the word ‘terrorist’, as when that word is mentioned, people
automatically think of Muslims. Linking to Edward Said, as he argued that the
West constructed a meaning of the East suggesting it was different, dangerous
and uncivilised
.
The negative stereotypes began after 9/11 occurred. Before
9/11, Muslims weren’t in the media headlines as much, the stereotypes weren’t as strong, this all changed after
9/11. The way Muslims were seen in general changed, which links back to Edward
Said’s’ theory of orientalism. They were labelled as ‘terrorists’. Not only did
they get labelled, majority of headlines were about Muslims. Headlines changed
dramatically in all the major UK newspapers such as The Sun, Daily Mail and The
Guardian had headlines about Muslims every week relating to 9/11 and other
terrorist attacks. According to the analysis of the Lexis Nexis database, the
coverage of British Muslims in the British Press increased dramatically after
9/11. This was the starting point of an increased focus on British Muslims. In
2002, there were only 1673 stories about British Muslims in newspapers, this
rapidly increased over the years with all the stereotypes and other terrorist
attacks that took part, which resulted in 34667 stories in 2008. This links to
Galtung and Ruges news values theory of surprise.
This event was unexpected;
this was a rare event which led to its circulation in the public domain. This
led to many views and opinions changing across the world about Muslims.
An extract from Kenan Malik’s Channel 4 programme ARE
MUSLIMS HATED? In which he states that’9/11: for Muslims it appeared to open
the floodgates to a new wave of hatred and discrimination. Suddenly, it seemed,
racists had licence to attack them, police to harass them, politicians and
journalists to revile their religion’
. This opinion is coming
from a Muslim, which shows that a lot has changed since 9/11, this links with
the post 9/11 theory which shows that representations of non-white groups has
arguably changed since the events of 9/11.
News hooks is
something
that draws a reader into what they a reading. ‘36%
of stories’
about British Muslims were on terrorism or the war on
terror’
, however majority of these
stories were about terrorism, not a specific event or story. Which again shows
a negative representation of Muslims, as 36% is a high number and a lot of
stories come under this percentage. There are other topics that British Muslims
are related to such as ‘religious and cultural issues’
which ‘22%’
of stories are about.
There are many debates circling around British Muslims such as wearing of the
veil, dress codes, forced marriages and Sharia Law.
An example from a newspaper article which was about Muslims
stating that UK TV is too selective and from the article it was concluded that ’over
70% of Muslims interviewed said that they thought British TV news bulletins
were guilty of selectivity and gave an unfair portrayal of Islam’
. This shows that Muslims
think that the UK news exaggerate some of their stories and make them look
dangerous, linking to Edward Said’s theory of orientalism
.
Nowadays, it is seen as normal for British Muslims to be
the subject of news, this includes front pages of newspapers or television news
bulletins. The stories normally include violence, conflict and arguments. This
links to Galtung and Ruges news value theory of negativity
, as Muslims are always
linked to bad news which portrays them in a negative way, which is good for the
newspapers, as they will get more attention, as the threshold for is much lower
for bad news than good news. Examples of news stories involving Muslims include
the London bombings that took place on the 7
th of July 2005,
controversies involving Muslim girls and school uniforms; a BBC Panorama film
questioning the ideological roots of the Muslim Council of Britain and the
turmoil at the Central North London mosque in the Finsbury Park area of London’
. All of these are examples
of either conflict or violence.
The headlines in the UK news media portray Muslims in a
negative way, due to the stereotypes that have been created from previous
incidents such as 9/11. An example of a
headline is ‘Muslims are being
"demonised" by the British media, with 91% of reports being negative,
research commissioned by London's mayor has found’. Out of 91% of reports,’36% of stories
overall are about terrorism or war on terror, including stories about hostage
taking, although most of the stories in this category were about terrorism’.
However Barker and Galasinski believe that ‘texts are
unable to police the meanings to be constructed from them’.
Other social media platforms other than newspapers, contribute to the
stereotyping of British Muslims that society has created due to the terrorists
attacks in the past. However, when people do read newspapers, they may have
different representations of Muslims. The media has a heavy impact on society;
it has the ability to influence people’s opinions and views.
Many UK newspapers such as The Daily Mail have many stories
both online and on TV which portrays Muslims in a negative way. An article from
the Daily Mail portrayed Muslims in a negative light, as the headline read
‘Secret NYPD report reveals how police spied on Muslim’s and mosques due to
fears of terrorist links’
. People are still in
worry about terrorist attacks, and shows that the media have blamed Muslims for
the attacks and have fears of another attack commencing. One article from the
Guardian said that a ‘torrent’ of negative stories has been revealed by a study
of the portrayal of Muslims and Islam in the media’
. Majority of stories
about Muslims are negative, which links to one of Galtung and Ruges news value
of predictability. After 9/11 it is very predictable that the news will portray
Muslims in a negative way. The representations that are being shown are not
accurate, which isn’t fair on the Muslims in Britain. The previous London
Mayor, Ken Livingston has said that ‘there is a scale of imbalance which no
fair-minded person would think is right’, he shows that he doesn’t think there
isn’t a fair representation of Muslims being portrayed and says that ‘the
‘finding showed a ‘hostile and scaremongering attitude’ towards Islam’. The
stories that are published make out Muslims to be ‘terrorists’, which affects
both Muslims in Britain and other people, as people may see them as a threat
and Muslims may feel upset due to the representations and stereotypes they are
receiving, which can ‘damage community relations and create alarm among
Muslims’ as some may want to rebel against the stereotypes, which can lead to
more violence and conflict. This leads to Muslims reinforcing the stereotypes
that they have been given.
Both men and women Muslims are represented differently in
UK newspapers. Muslim women are frequently in the news due to many issues. The
way in which men and women are represented depends on what they are being
presented through, what events are being spoken about and what media platform
they are receiving news from for example television will use camera footage and
commentary to voice their story and newspapers print powerful print images to
suit their angle. However, the text produced with the images contributes to how
the readers will perceive their view on Muslim men and women.
Men are represented as terrorists and extremists. Depending
on the story, the images that will be used will help make their decision on
their opinion of the story. Images normally consist of men praying or Asian men
in white robes and long beards for example Abu Bakar Bashir. However, the way
women are represented, can either demonise Islam or generate sympathy for
Muslims depending on the story
’. One example of a story
that has been in the news for quite a long time now is the veil. The veil marks
a Muslim woman’s religious identity. There have been many discussions and
debates around this topic, there are many different opinions on the veil. Many
people see women who wear the veil as threats, such as ’a significant number of
Western women in particular have questioned the use of the veil and have argued
it is oppressive’
, for example two women in
France were briefly detained while wearing Islamic veils, after a law banning
the garment in public came into force. However, many Muslim women wear the veil
and think it is non-oppressive.
Some people see women who wear the veil as a ‘threat’, due
to the representations that women and the veil have received in the media.
These are misrepresentations aren’t fair, and people believe these views due to
the hypodermic needle model, which suggest that a message is directly received
(what the media is portraying Muslims as) and accepted by the receiver (the
audience). The news is linked to this theory, as it influence people’s views
and thoughts on this matter. The news causes a moral panic. According to
Stanley Cohen, the media overreact to an aspect of behaviour which may be seen
as a challenge to existing social norms
. The media exaggerate
some stories for example some terrorist acts. The news portrays Muslims to the
audience, in a way which makes people that Muslims are terrorists. They
reinforce an unfair stereotype. However, some people disagree with the
stereotypes that Muslims are given, for example some extreme Muslims can argue
that terrorism is the way forward and that they agree with the views and
opinions of Al-Qaeda.
The way Muslims are presented in the media, isn’t an
accurate representation of all Muslims, All the representations and stereotypes
Muslims have been receiving do affect some people in their daily life. Some
Muslims can receive daily racism and remarks for example being called
‘terrorists’. People are voicing their opinion in different ways, for example
through social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. There
are YouTube videos made by people that are Muslim and non-Muslim, talking about
the headlines in the news. In one video, there is a group of people giving
their opinion on the headlines and how Muslims are stereotyped. The video shows
newspaper headlines about different events that have happened, and is showing
the difference of when a Muslim commits a crime and another person does. This
video (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgeJcVzFju8) shows how people characterize the media’s portrayal of
Muslims. Different people with different religions show their views in this
video. One person said that ‘the more violent the issues, the more media
attention it receives’, ‘Muslims are portrayed unfairly, which means the
channels will get better ratings’. People do believe that a minority of Muslims
do fit the stereotype but majority of them work so hard to give a good image
out, but it’s ruined with the stereotypes.
Many
people have different opinions about the headlines that Muslims are making. On
the BBC website, journalists, Muslim groups and academic groups have debated
the way the media has been treating Islam and Muslims since the 9/11 attacks. ‘The
Islamic Foundation says that ‘Muslims should be able to feel that in the media
not everybody is against them
’. A professor from
Leicester University has said that ‘It cannot be denied that terrorists use
Islamic teachings or interpretations for their acts’.
‘Muslims audiences, believe that the media in Western
countries doesn’t portray Muslims with the same sense of completeness, as it
would for example, people of other faiths’
. They believe that
Muslims are shown in a completely different light, for example when a Muslim
commits a crime, their religion will be in the headline. Muslims are only seen
in the media as the ‘bad guys’, none of the good aspects that Muslims take part
in are shown. The media are so focused on the bad aspects, that they forget the
good ones. Even on social networking sites, such as Facebook, there are pages
people have created such as ‘MEDIA and FILMS should STOP Portraying Muslims as
Terrorists’. People are portraying Muslims in a negative way through Films and
the Media. The page has 10,076 likes which shows that many other people are
supporting the fact that Muslims are being portrayed in a negative way.
One example of how Muslims are represented when a terrorist
attacks occurs is the 7/11 bombings. In a way, these terrorist attacks
reinforced the stereotypes and representations that were given to Muslims from
the 9/11 attacks. There was a very long gap between the 9/11 attacks and the
7/11 attacks, the stereotypes may have been decreased, however the 7/11 attacks
may have reinforced them again. The stories about British Muslims increased
between 2006 and 2008, as the number of stories went from 4196 to 43667 by the
end of 2008. ‘The increase in stories is clearly related to the terrorists’
attacks in 2005, however it has also developed a momentum of its own, lasting
well beyond and independent of these highly newsworthy events
’.
In conclusion, I think that Muslims are represented as
terrorists to a high extent, due to the representations and stereotypes they
have received. I think that post 9/11 plays a big part in the way the public
view Muslims. The way the media portrays them isn’t fair and isn’t an accurate
representation, due to the moral panic that the media creates, it impacts other
people’s opinions and views. ‘Research shows that following 9/11, more
13 million people bought a national newspaper in Britain every day
’,
which shows that ever since 9/11 there has been more focus on British Muslims.
Also, ‘the Times, Telegraph, Guardian, Independent, Financial Times, Daily
Mail, Daily Express, Daily Star, Mirror and Sun added an additional 2.5 million
copies to their normal combined print runs
’,
which included stories about British Muslims relating to stories about either
terrorism or violence.
Not everyone believes in these representations and some
people do think that some Muslims are trying their best to live down the
stereotypes. These representations and stereotypes weren’t there in the past,
they only started after 9/11 and unfortunately, I think that Muslims will
always have these representations and stereotypes, even though it is a small
minority of Muslims that actually reinforce them. A study was conducted by Dr
Paul Baker, Professor Tony McEnery and Dr Costas Gabrielatos, into how the
media are bias towards Muslims and how only negative stories are reported as
they receive the most attention; they believe that only news that will get
attention is published. Knowing that nearly majority of all stories about
Muslims are negative, they are still published, ‘overall, the project
highlighted a serious journalistic problem; Muslims who just get on with their
lives aren’t seen as newsworthy
’.
Word Count: 2773
Word Count (without quotes): 2115
An Introduction to Edward Said’s
Orientalism
http://www.renaissance.com.pk/FebBoRe2y6.htm
The Representation of British Muslims in the
