After 9/11, there was an increase in both the incidence of hate crimes and government policies that targeted Arabs and Muslims and the proliferation of sympathetic portrayals of Arabs and Muslims in the U.S. media. Arabs and Muslims in the Media examines this paradox and investigates the increase of sympathetic images of “the enemy” during the War on Terror. Evelyn Alsultany explains that a new standard in racial and cultural representations emerged out of the multicultural movement of the 1990s that involves balancing a negative representation with a positive one, what she refers to as “simplified complex representations.” This has meant that if the storyline of a TV drama or film represents an Arab or Muslim as a terrorist, then the storyline also includes a “positive” representation of an Arab, Muslim, Arab American, or Muslim American to offset the potential stereotype. Analyzing how TV dramas such as The Practice, 24, Law and Order, NYPD Blue, and Sleeper Cell, news-reporting, and non-profit advertising have represented Arabs, Muslims, Arab Americans, and Muslim Americans during the War on Terror, this book demonstrates how more diverse representations do not in themselves solve the problem of racial stereotyping and how even seemingly positive images can produce meanings that can justify exclusion and inequality.

After 9/11, there was an increase in both the incidence of hate crimes and government policies that targeted Arabs and Muslims and the proliferation of sympathetic portrayals of Arabs and Muslims in the U.S. media. Arabs and Muslims in the Media examines this paradox and investigates the increase of sympathetic images of “the enemy” during the War on Terror. Evelyn Alsultany explains that a new standard in racial and cultural representations emerged out of the multicultural movement of the 1990s that involves balancing a negative representation with a positive one, what she refers to as “simplified complex representations.” This has meant that if the storyline of a TV drama or film represents an Arab or Muslim as a terrorist, then the storyline also includes a “positive” representation of an Arab, Muslim, Arab American, or Muslim American to offset the potential stereotype. Analyzing how TV dramas such as The Practice, 24, Law and Order, NYPD Blue, and Sleeper Cell, news-reporting, and non-profit advertising have represented Arabs, Muslims, Arab Americans, and Muslim Americans during the War on Terror, this book demonstrates how more diverse representations do not in themselves solve the problem of racial stereotyping and how even seemingly positive images can produce meanings that can justify exclusion and inequality.

Muslims have featured in many of the more significant news stories of the past few years - yet shockingly very few of these stories have been about anything other than the 'war on terror'. This urgently relevant book examines the role and representations of Muslims in the news media, particularly within a climate of threat, fear and misunderstanding. Written by both academic authorities and media practitioners, "Muslims and the News Media" is designed as a comprehensive and critical textbook and is set in both the British and international context. Bringing together a range of insightful perspectives on the subject into a coherent whole, the book clearly establishes the links between context, content, production and audiences, thus reflecting the entire cycle of the communication process. It reveals both the ways in which meaning is produced and reproduced in the news media, and the ways in which audiences themselves, both Muslim and non-Muslim, use or consume this media. Significant too and discussed here is the role of Muslims themselves in the processes of news production. Clarifying the circumstances and politics surrounding the representation of Muslims across a range of journalistic genres, "Muslims and the News Media" provides crucial insights into the representation - and misrepresentation - of Islam and Muslims today.

"For decades, scholars and observers have criticized negative media portrayals of Muslims and Islam. Yet most of these critiques are limited by their focus on one specific location, a limited time period, or a single outlet. This book offers the first systematic, large-scale analysis of American newspaper coverage of Muslims through comparisons across groups, time, countries, and topics. It demonstrates conclusively that coverage of Muslims is strikingly negative by every comparative measure examined. Muslim articles are negative relative to those touching on Catholics, Jews, or Hindus, and to those mentioning marginalized groups within the United States as diverse as African Americans, Latinos, Mormons, and atheists. Coverage of Muslims has also been consistently and enduringly negative across the two-decade period between 1996 and 2016. This pattern is not unique to the United States; it also holds in countries such as Britain, Canada, and Australia, although less so in the Global South. Moreover, the strong negativity in the articles is not simply a function of stories about foreign conflict zones or radical Islamist violence, even though it is true that terrorism and extremism have become more prominent themes since 9/11. Strikingly, even articles about mundane topics tend to be negative. The findings suggest that American newspapers may, however inadvertently, contribute to reinforcing boundaries that generate Islamophobic attitudes. To overcome these drawbacks, journalists and citizens can consciously "tone-check" the media to limit the stigmatizing effect of negative coverage so commonly associated with Muslims and Islam"--

After September 11, many in the American public and media zeroed in on Muslims in America and the world, irresponsibly linking_intentionally or not_Muslims at large with terrorism. This well-researched book explores this focus and its implications. At the same time, the authors do not leave out the opinion of Muslim Americans, exploring their views about the American media and its influence, their attitudes toward non-Muslim Americans and, just as important, their opinions on postD9/11 U.S. counterterrorist policies and practices. This book not only serves students and scholars in the fields of Middle East studies, media studies, and international communication but is also an enlightening read to anyone interested in mainstream America's perception of Muslims.

The roots of America's image problem in the Middle East

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2013 im Fachbereich Amerikanistik - Literatur, , Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: America is undoubtedly one of the biggest players in international politics and foreign affairs. Its military involvement in the Fight for Freedom in Iraq and Afghanistan has cost America much international reputation though. In a poll, conducted by The BBC in 2007, America was ranked fourth in the list of the most unpopular countries in the world, with worldviews continuing to worsen. Only Israel, Iran and North Korea turned out to have an even worse reputation in the public eye. But how come? America has always pictured itself as the pioneer of freedom, the beacon of human rights and the figurehead of righteousness and humanity in the fight against al-Qaida. However, this freedom and the human rights that America proclaims to stand for have slowly been falling apart since 9/11. The image of the American dream or the city upon a hill is crumbling under the weight of America’s foreign policies, post-9/11 law enforcement and public scaremongering of people perceived Arab. These circumstances raise a significant question: Where does America’s fear and hatred toward Islam (Islamophobia) come from? As a matter of fact, after 9/11, America faced an increasing trend towards Islamophobia and otherization of Muslim and Arab American, which is still ongoing. Statics show that in the months following 9/11 hate crimes against Muslims and people perceived to be Arab increased to 40 times their pre-9/11 number. Public and workplace discrimination against Muslims had already quadrupled a year after 9/11. The scaremongering of Arabs as the “terrorist among us” was also greatly fueled by media representations and new laws, such as the USA PATRIOT ACT that legalized interventions with civil law of alleged Arabs and Arab-Americans and thus legitimized public racism. The fear of Islam led to discrimination, otherization a random detentions and deportations of many Arabs and Muslims. This public hysteria, fueled by propagandist media representation, increased the already pre-existing negative stereotypes of Arabs and Muslims.

Framing Terrorism argues that the September 11 attacks precipitated a critical shift in the predominant "news frame" used by the US mass media for understanding issues of national security, thereby altering perceptions of risk at home and abroad.