The construction of Islam in the British and American Press 1998-2005

1
The construction of Islam in the British and
American Press 1998-2005

• A corpus-based (keywords and collocates) analysis
• Tony McEnery
• Lancaster University

2
Objectives

• How do news stories construct Islam?
• Have there been any (recent) changes over time?
• Are there differences between reporting on Islam
  (as a religion) and Muslims (as a people)?
• Are there any differences/similarities between
  tabloids and broadsheets
• Are there any differences/similarities between
  American and British newspapers?
• How can corpus-based methods be used alongside
  CDA or moral panic theory?

3
Why Islam?

• Post WWII demand for unskilled labour results
  in migration of Pakistani and Bangladeshi Muslims
  to the UK
• April 2001 Robin Cook reports that Britains
  national dish is chicken tikka masala
• September 2001 terrorist attacks on US
• July 2005 terrorist attacks on UK

4
Data

• 87 million words of British news
• Broadsheets The Business, The Guardian, The
  Independent Independent on Sunday, The
  Observer, The Times Sunday Times, Daily
  Telegraph Sunday Telegraph
• Tabloids The Daily Express Sunday Express,
  The Daily Mail Mail on Sunday, Daily Mirror
  Sunday Mirror, The People, Daily Star Sunday
  Star, The Sun
• 40 million words of American news Financial
  Times, New York Times, Washington Post, San
  Francisco Chronicle

5
Freqencies of articles over time
6
Analysis

• WordSmith 4 used
• 1. Keywords analysis of UK broadsheets vs. UK
  tabloids
• 2. Collocational and concordance analysis of
  Islam, Islamic, Muslim, Muslims
• 3. Keyword analysis of pre and post 9/11 articles
  in UK and US news

7
Broadsheet vs. Tabloid Keywords
Broadsheets (65 million words) Tabloids (22 million words)
The Business Independent Guardian Observer Times Telegraph The Sun Mirror Star People Express Mail
8
WordSmith settings

• 2 Frequency lists compared together
• p value was set at 0.0000000001
• 2180 keywords found

9
Findings Style and spelling

• Tabloids
• Pronouns I, my, me, myself, we, he, she
• Emphatic adjectives stunning, fantastic,
  terrible, wonderful
• Broadsheets
• Conjunctions/determiners the, that, which
  however, thus, than
• Formal terms of address Mr, Ms
• (See for example Biber et al 1998 148)

10
Moslem key in the tabloids

• 7,282 tabloid uses
• 4,834 in the Daily Mail
• 2,208 Daily Express

11
Bin Laden

• powerful (mastermind, terrorist godfather,
  millionaire, Al Qaeda leader)
• warrior leader (chief, warlord)
• outcast (dissident, exile, fugitive)
• insane (maniac, twisted)
• evil (gloating menace, evil, terrorist,
  murderous)
• fanatical (extremist, fanatic, fanatical)

12
Tabloid villains

• Direct references to terrorist attacks terror,
  terrorists, Taliban, Osama, Bin, Laden, bomb,
  bombs, bomber, bombers, plane, suicide, killers,
  attack, crash, hijack, September, twin and towers
  
• Emotive/evaluation reaction atrocity,
  atrocities, tragedy, carnage, horror, terrible
  and evil

13
Other tabloid categories

• Brainwashing lure, rant, rants, spew, rouser,
  brainwashed
• Children are being brainwashed into becoming
  Islamic extremists at 300 "Taliban schools" in
  Britain, it was reported last night. Youngsters
  are being indoctrinated with radical Islamic
  ideals by militant groups across the country,
  said leading British Muslim Dr Zaki Badawi.
• The Sun, December 28, 2001
• Also,scrougerphobia and political correctness

14
Types of belief

• In the tabloids, Muslims are fanatics and
  extremists
• In the broadsheets, Muslims are radicals,
  fundamentalists, separatists but also moderates
  and progressives

15
Broadsheet keywords

• More focus on Islam
• The media book, novel, television, film, poetry
• Other religions Hindu, Christian, Buddhist,
  Judaism
• World events Iran, Iraq, Iraqi, Arab, Israeli,
  Israel, Palestinian, Baghdad, Jerusalem, Lebanon,
  Syria
• War and conflict military, conflict, army,
  resistance, violence, occupied, ceasefire,
  genocide, peace, invasion

16
Muslim(s) vs. Islam(ic)

• Tabloids more focus on Muslims (the people)
  Muslims as terrorists evil preachers, Muslims as
  British and desiring peace, women as victims
  (honor killings, arranged marriage, hijab), men
  as potential terrorists or victims of racism
• Broadsheets more focus on Islam (as a religion)
  - stories on terrorism restricted to the word
  Islamic.

17
UK and US keywords before/after 9/11

• Moral panic categories developed by McEnery
  (2005)
• 1. consequence
• 2. corrective action
• 3. desired outcome
• 4. moral entrepreneur
• 5. scapegoat
• 6. rhetoric

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UK Keywords post 9/11
Category Positive Keywords in that Category
Consequence anger, angry, bad, bombing, bombings, conflict, crime, dead, death, destruction, died, evil, fear, fears, injured, kill, killed, killing, murder, terror, threat, victims, violence, wounded, wrong
Corrective action arrested, fight, fighting, invasion, jail, justice, moderate, occupation, police, revenge, troops
Desired outcome best, better, freedom, good, peace, support
Moral entrepreneur America, American, Britain, British
Object of offence atrocities, attack, attacks, bomb, bombs, criminal, extremism, failed, hatred, illegal, jihad, radical, regime, terrible, terrorism, weapons
Scapegoat Arab, (suicide) bombers, enemy, extremists, immigrants, Iran, Iraq, Iraqi, Islam, mosque, Muslim, Muslims, Pakistan, Palestinian, religious, suicide, terrorists
Rhetoric question, need, must, why
19
US keywords post 9/11
Consequence attacks, sept
Corrective action American, Americans, forces, intelligence, marine, marines, military, officials, (war on) terror, war (on terror)
Desired outcome NONE
Moral entrepreneur Bush, pentagon, (United) States, United (States), US
Object of offence terrorism
Scapegoat (al) Qaeda, afghan, Afghanistan, al (Qaeda), bin (laden), (Saddam) Hussein, Husseins, insurgents, Iraq, Iraqs, Iraqi, Iraqis, (bin) Laden, Saddam (Hussein), Shiite, Shiites, Sunni, Taliban, terrorist, terrorists,
Rhetoric NONE
20
Conclusions

• Muslims as victims or villains
• Moral panics, PC, scroungerphobia
• Few distinctions made or explanations given
• More neutral global reporting stance in the
  broadsheets
• Focus on small number of villains in the tabloids

21
Other areas to focus on

• Additional data BBC news, Al Jazeera
• Close examination of stories e.g. Abu Hamza or
  types of Muslims (young women)
• Comparison between right/left political stances
• Examination of agency, metaphor, presupposition
  etc.

22
Issues to address

• What is bias? What is fair?
• Does lexical priming work in the same way for
  everyone?
• Need to consider readership and audience response
• Is news the only way that people are informed?
• Bias of the researcher?