Shared local identity, not national division, shapes local reporting on Muslims

Evidence

Rather than adopting the ‘Othering’ frames of national newspapers where Muslims (‘Them’) are placed in opposition to British society (‘Us’), local journalism’s purview of Muslims as an integral part of local society shape how they report on stories. Here, a shared local identity informed the basis of their journalistic practice rather than a divided, national identity where Muslims are represented as outsiders. Such an approach reflects a much more inclusive way of imagining Britishness in line with Taylor’s (2004) concept of social imaginaries as a way of understanding how people ‘imagine’ how they ought to live together as a collective. — Nadia Haq, ‘The National Media Just Sees Muslims…, 60

Categorization

• XREF: Directly counters the national-press ‘Us vs Them’ framing documented in media studies of Islamophobia.
• SEED: Angle: local news as a quieter, more plural model for imagining Britishness.