2017/04/03 by Jacqui Ewart, Adrian Cherney, Kristina Murphy · 2 citations
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Media, Religion, Digital Communication #Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence #Social Media and Politics
paper · doi:10.1080/13602004.2017.1339496
openalex publication_date 2017/04/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Existing research has explored the ways the mainstream news media covers Muslims and Islam, but few studies have examined Muslims’ reactions to this reporting. Studies that have investigated this issue have identified that the responses of Muslims to news media coverage tend to be largely negative because of the lack of Muslim news sources, the stereotypical representation of Muslims in news coverage, the portrayal of Muslims as the enemy within, and the conflation of Muslims with terrorism. This paper further explores the attitudes of Muslims to news media coverage of Islam and Muslims by drawing on data from 14 focus groups (N = 104 participants) conducted with Australian Muslims. Similar to previous research, findings reveal that Australian Muslims are highly critical of news media coverage of Islam and Muslims and express concern about the divisiveness that such portrayal can have for Australian society. However, the study participants also had positive comments to make about the news media. Possible solutions to negative news media portrayals of Muslims are considered.