The construction of Islam in the British and American Press 1998 -2005 A corpus-based (keywords and collocates) analysis Tony Mc. Enery Lancaster University
Objectives p p p 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?
Why Islam? Post WWII – demand for unskilled labour results in migration of Pakistani and Bangladeshi Muslims to the UK p April 2001 Robin Cook reports that Britain’s national dish is chicken tikka masala p September 2001 – terrorist attacks on US p July 2005 – terrorist attacks on UK p
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 p
Freqencies of articles over time
Analysis Word. Smith 4 used: p 1. Keywords analysis of UK broadsheets vs. UK tabloids p 2. Collocational and concordance analysis of Islam, Islamic, Muslims p 3. Keyword analysis of pre and post 9/11 articles in UK and US news p
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
Word. Smith settings 2 Frequency lists compared together p p value was set at 0. 000001 p 2180 keywords found p
Findings: Style and spelling p Tabloids Pronouns: I, my, me, myself, we, he, she Emphatic adjectives: stunning, fantastic, terrible, wonderful p Broadsheets Conjunctions/determiners: the, that, which however, thus, than Formal terms of address: Mr, Ms (See for example Biber et al 1998: 148)
Moslem – key in the tabloids 7, 282 tabloid uses p 4, 834 in the Daily Mail p 2, 208 Daily Express p
Bin Laden powerful (mastermind, terrorist godfather, millionaire, Al Qaeda leader) p warrior leader (chief, warlord) p outcast (dissident, exile, fugitive) p insane (maniac, twisted) p evil (gloating menace, evil, terrorist, murderous) p fanatical (extremist, fanatical) p
Tabloid villains p Direct references to terrorist attacks: terror, terrorists, Taliban, Osama, Bin, Laden, bombs, bombers, plane, suicide, killers, attack, crash, hijack, September, twin and towers p Emotive/evaluation reaction: atrocity, atrocities, tragedy, carnage, horror, terrible and evil
Other tabloid categories p Brainwashing: lure, 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 p Also, ’scrougerphobia’ and political correctness
Types of belief p In the tabloids, Muslims are fanatics and extremists p In the broadsheets, Muslims are radicals, fundamentalists, separatists but also moderates and progressives
Broadsheet keywords p p p More focus on Islam The media: book, novel, television, film, poetry Other religions: Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, Judaism World events: Iran, Iraqi, Arab, Israeli, Israel, Palestinian, Baghdad, Jerusalem, Lebanon, Syria War and conflict: military, conflict, army, resistance, violence, occupied, ceasefire, genocide, peace, invasion
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 p Broadsheets – more focus on Islam (as a religion) - stories on terrorism restricted to the word Islamic. p
UK and US keywords before/after 9/11 Moral panic categories developed by Mc. Enery (2005) 1. consequence 2. corrective action 3. desired outcome 4. moral entrepreneur 5. scapegoat 6. rhetoric
UK Keywords post 9/11 Category Positive Keywords in that Category Consequence anger, angry, bad, bombings, conflict, crime, dead, death, destruction, died, evil, fears, injured, killed, killing, murder, terror, threat, victims, violence, wounded, wrong Corrective action arrested, 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, attacks, bombs, criminal, extremism, failed, hatred, illegal, jihad, radical, regime, terrible, terrorism, weapons Scapegoat Arab, (suicide) bombers, enemy, extremists, immigrants, Iran, Iraqi, Islam, mosque, Muslims, Pakistan, Palestinian, religious, suicide, terrorists Rhetoric question, need, must, why
US keywords post 9/11 Consequence attacks, sept Corrective action American, Americans, forces, intelligence, 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, Hussein’s, insurgents, Iraq’s, Iraqis, (bin) Laden, Saddam (Hussein), Shiites, Sunni, Taliban, terrorists, Rhetoric NONE
Conclusions Muslims as victims or villains p Moral panics, PC, scroungerphobia p Few distinctions made or explanations given p More neutral global ‘reporting’ stance in the broadsheets p Focus on small number of villains in the tabloids p
Other areas to focus on Additional data – BBC news, Al Jazeera p Close examination of stories – e. g. Abu Hamza or types of Muslims (young women) p Comparison between right/left political stances p Examination of agency, metaphor, presupposition etc. p
Issues to address What is bias? What is fair? p Does lexical priming work in the same way for everyone? p Need to consider readership and audience response p Is news the only way that people are informed? p Bias of the researcher? p
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