Unit 4 Coursework : First Draft

To what extent and why are Muslims represented as terrorists in the UK news media?

“These stereotypes and the grouping of all Muslims as extremists can lead to prejudice, discrimination and violence against them, and even to their segregation from communities”.

When the word ‘terrorist’ appears in the media, people automatically link them to Muslims. Whenever Muslims are the in the headlines, they are mainly linked with one topic which is terrorism. Majority of headlines that are about Muslims, are linked with terrorism or attacks. 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. Stories are categorised by a sample called a ‘news hook’, which [1]‘refers to the main focus of the story or the element that makes it newsworthy’. There are [2]three main ‘news hooks’ for stories that are about British Muslims. News hooks is something that draws a reader into what they a reading. [3]‘36% of stories’ about British Muslims were [4]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 [5]‘religious and cultural issues’ which [6]‘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.

The negative stereotypes began after 9/11 occurred. [7]9/11 was a series of our coordinated terrorist attacks launched by the Islamic terrorist group Al-Qaeda upon the United States in New York City and the Washington DC metropolitan area on September 1st, 2001’. Before 9/11, Muslims weren’t in the media headlines as much, they weren’t stereotyped, this all changed after 9/11. The way Muslims were seen in general changed. They were labelled as ‘terrorists’. Not only did they get labelled, majority of headlines were about Muslims. Headlines changed dramatically, all major newspapers such as The Sun, Daily Mail and The Guardian had headlines about Muslims every week relating to 9/11 and other terrorist attacks. [8]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.

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. Examples of news stories involving Muslims include [9]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 ‘[10]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, [11]’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 [12]‘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. One article from the Guardian said that [13]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, the representations that are being shown are not accurate, which isn’t fair on the Muslims in Britain. The 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 [14]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 [15]a significant number of Western women in particular have questioned the use of the veil and have argued it is oppressive’. 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, they are over exaggerating some stories, and 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 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. [16]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’.

[17]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. The 7/11 bombings took place on the 7^th of July 2005, they were a series of coordinated suicide attacks in London, which targeted people using public transport during the morning rush hour. On the morning of this day, [18]four Islamic home grown terrorists detonated four bombs – three in quick succession abroad London Underground trains across the city and later, a fourth on a double decker bus in Tavistock Square. Apart from the four bombers, 52 civilians were killed and over 700 more were injured’. In a way, these terrorist attacks reinforced the stereotypes and representations that were given to Muslims from the 9/11 attacks. 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. [19]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. 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. [20]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, [21]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, [22]overall, the project highlighted a serious journalistic problem; Muslims who just get on with their lives aren’t seen as newsworthy’.

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[1] Images of Islam in the UK http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/jomec/resources/08channel4-dispatches.pdf

[2] ibid

[3] ibid

[4] ibid

[5] ibid

[6] ibid

[7] September 11 attacks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks

[8] ibid

[9] British Muslims, Media Guide http://fairuk.org/docs/British_Muslims_Media_Guide.pdf

[10] Muslims demonised by the media http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7093390.stm

[11] The Representation of British Muslims in the National Print News Media 2000-2008http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/jomec/resources/08channel4-dispatches.pdf