Media sympathy for accused terrorists depends on their social identity markers

Evidence

Going native and going Muslim both signify a regression or the loss of a civilized state of being; a transformation from civilized to barbaric. The regulation of sympathy is inflected by the racial, sexual, classed, gendered, and religious identity of the alleged terrorist. — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 907

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The phrase ‘regulation of sympathy’ names something rarely articulated — that audience sympathy is not natural but socially regulated through identity categories.
• XREF: Connects to work on moral worth hierarchies and ‘grievability’ (Butler) — who counts as a sympathetic subject. — connects to: Media framed a humanitarian’s conviction as a web of terror uncovered.