Structural media economics favor religious explanations over complex political ones

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 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

This discourse has been aided by the many images in the media of Muslims committing acts of violence or terrorism. The list of events is quite long and, on the surface, appears to reinforce the link between Islam and violence: the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979 to 1981, the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, the USS Cole bombing in 2000, the 9/11 attacks in 2001, the Madrid and London train bombings in 2004 and 2005, the shootings in Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009, and the beheading of Western journalists by ISIS in 2014. Moreover, when one moves beyond individual episodes and takes into account the ongoing violent conflicts involving Muslims in the Middle East, it seems that Muslims are guilty as charged. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 282 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: Media framing constructs the reality audiences accept about Islam. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 497; Market incentives drive the media to reinforce rather than challenge religious explanations of terrorism; Crisis-time scapegoating of religious out-groups masks political and economic causes (+10 more)

Related

• Media framing shapes American attitudes toward Islam and jihad (similarity 0.87)
• Market incentives drive the media to reinforce rather than challenge religious explanations of terrorism (similarity 0.86)
• Media economics discourage the complex reporting that would undermine religious explanations of terror (similarity 0.86)
• Media coverage of Muslim violence superficially supports an Islam-violence link (similarity 0.86)
• The media codes only certain groups’ violence as religiously motivated (similarity 0.84)
• Among American Muslims who said it has become more difficult to be a Muslim in the U.S. in recent years, the second most-answered reason for this was ‘negative media portrayals.’ In addition, 53%… (similarity 0.83)
• Media framing constructs the reality audiences accept about Islam. (similarity 0.83)
• Media frames Muslim terrorists as religion-driven simpletons while psychologizing non-Muslim perpetrators (similarity 0.82)
• Representations of jihad in American film and television are also very relevant to how Americans view jihad and Islam. (similarity 0.82)
• Jihad, which has come to be perceived as ‘holy war’ in American media and by many Americans, is a hot topic of debate throughout the world but especially in the West. (similarity 0.82)
• Media and state mutually reinforce Islam-violence associations for distinct functional reasons (similarity 0.82)
• American commentators framed suicide bombing as repugnant and un-American (similarity 0.81)
• News organizations differ in how they frame Muslim religion as a public issue (similarity 0.81)
• Among American Muslims who said it has become more difficult to be a Muslim in the U.S. in recent years, the second most-answered reason for this was negative media portrayals. (similarity 0.81)
• Media reattributed the Iranian situation to timeless Muslim traits rather than real causes (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Market incentives drive the media to reinforce rather than challenge religious explanations of terrorism #corroborates (0.85)
• Media framing shapes American attitudes toward Islam and jihad #corroborates (0.75) — Asena Karipek, Portrayals of Jihad, 75
• Media and state mutually reinforce Islam-violence associations for distinct functional reasons #expands (0.70)
• Media coverage of Muslim violence superficially supports an Islam-violence link #exemplifies (0.70) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 282
• Islamophobia operates as a marketable commodity across media forms #expands (0.65) — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 354
• Attributing every social characteristic to religious texts erases contextual factors #corroborates (0.55) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 123
• Crisis-time scapegoating of religious out-groups masks political and economic causes #qualifies (0.50)
• Ideological premises in media encoding operate unconsciously even for the encoders #expands (0.50) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 921
• Structural Islamophobia and structural racism share embedded institutional stereotypes #complicates (0.40) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 130