Commercial incentives drive newspapers to frame Muslims around audience fears and anxieties

Evidence

The experiences of national journalists mirrored studies of newspaper coverage when it came to Muslims – namely, that Muslims are portrayed in ways that position them outside of cultural norms, as antagonistic and alien, as troublesome and deserving of the negative ways in which they are represented. The study found that national journalists believed there was often a commercial imperative behind negative representations, where stories involving Muslims were framed around the fears and anxieties held by audiences to appeal to newspaper consumers. — Nadia Haq, ‘The National Media Just Sees Muslims…, 62

Categorization

• SHARE: Send to someone tracking media-economics critiques — the journalists themselves naming the commercial motive behind hostile framing is a quotable insider admission.
• SEED: Angle: ‘The Market for Resentment’ — tracing how fear-based editorial framing is a revenue model, not a worldview.