Media framing shapes American attitudes toward Islam and jihad
Evidence
What Americans know—or think they know—about Islam is largely influenced by the media, especially for Americans who are not acquainted with a Muslim or who have little to no formal education about Islam. 66 This is because the media is right at our fingertips. However, when the media determines who is telling the story, what is included or excluded, and how the story is packaged and presented, there is an obvious bias in the information being presented. 67 Many Americans (politicians, Islamophobes, etc.) are afraid of the “Islamization of America,” in which shari’a would take precedence over the U.S. Constitution. They are afraid that armed jihad (violent extremism) is just one step of this elaborate plan to Islamize America, in which all Muslims will participate because that is what the Qur’an and Muhammad supposedly call for. For this reason, they oppose jihad, Islam, and Muslims as a whole. — Asena Karipek, Portrayals of Jihad, 75
Categorization
- XREF: Parallels research on media framing effects and agenda-setting in political communication. — connects to: American commentators framed suicide bombing as repugnant and un-American; Mass media act as primary definers shaping public crime attitudes; The media’s attraction materially amplifies professional Islamophobes’ reach — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 493 (+37 more)
- SEED: Potential essay angle: how selective media packaging of religious terms (‘shari’a,’ ‘jihad’) manufactures public fear without Islamic literacy.
Broader Connections
- Media and state mutually reinforce Islam-violence associations for distinct functional reasons
#expands(0.80) - American media conflated Iranians, Arabs, Sunnis, and Shiites into one Muslim menace.
#exemplifies(0.80) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 254 - Market incentives drive the media to reinforce rather than challenge religious explanations of terrorism
#corroborates(0.70) - Islamophobia operates as a marketable commodity across media forms
#expands(0.70) — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 354 - Private media Islamophobia extends rather than deviates from state structural Islamophobia
#expands(0.70) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 375 - Four interconnected groups jointly project the Muslim-enemy image
#expands(0.70) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 537 - Media framing of hate crimes as individual acts obscures state and media complicity
#expands(0.50) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 103