Right-leaning journalists are markedly harder to recruit for research on Muslim coverage

Evidence

The sampling procedure comprised multiple stages. Initially, a selection of journalists who had covered Muslim-related subjects was compiled by shifting through hundreds of online articles from various newspapers. After identifying this pool, journalists were approached in successive waves to achieve a balanced representation across the sample spectrum. For instance, if an initial tranche yielded more left-leaning newspaper journalists, the subsequent tranche would prioritise recruiting right-leaning counterparts and vice versa. This iterative approach entailed four recruitment and interview rounds in total (for sample breakdown, see Table 1). Journalists from the right-leaning newspaper titles were much more difficult to recruit. Right-leaning newspapers have come under considerable criticism for the way they portray Muslims and, as similar studies have found, journalists working for these newspapers are more reluctant to participate in this type of research (Holohan and Poole, 2011). — Nadia Haq, ‘The National Media Just Sees Muslims…, 25

Categorization

• XREF: Methodological echo of the classic nonresponse asymmetry: hostile or defensive institutions opt out of research, biasing samples toward the criticizable-but-willing.
• QUESTION: Does the reluctance of right-leaning journalists itself function as data about the discourse — an unwillingness to be observed while representing Muslims?