Terrorist, a word that means many different things to many different people, is painted by the media as an easily identifiable, one-dimensional, criminal in modern society. Google “terrorist”, and the only thing portrayed is turban wearing, automatic rifle carrying, Islamic extremist. Based on what has been learned through movies and mass media, the ability to identify a “terrorist” even when fully covered can be done based on the clothing and the surroundings in the images. American stereotypes also imply the conclusion that the location is in the Middle East, therefore, they have to be terrorists which also identifies them as Muslim. After 9/11 the media inundated the American public with feelings of fear and outrage perpetuating islamophobia.
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The Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 was portrayed by the media to have been done by Islamic groups. Right out the gate reporters were calling the bombing ann act of terrorism on a state building. CNN provided names of Arabs that had been detained for questioning. The words bombing, terrorists, and Arab were splashed all over the media when in fact it was an American that bombed the state building. After 9/11, Christopher Bail, a sociologist at University of Northern Carolina and the University of Michigan collected 1,084 press releases from 120 organizations that included Muslim, and Christian, and other groups with similar interests. He then compared the 1,084 press releases with 50,407 newspaper articles and television transcripts from 2001 to 2008 to reveal which organization was the most influential (Pappas). Bail found that emotional press releases portraying fear and anger got the media’s attention while the 85 percent representing the non-violent press releases involving Muslims or Arabs went unnoticed by journalists. The majority of the attention went to the least represented messages and got the most attention (Bail). No wonder eight out of ten Americans feel the media influences our perception on world issues (Debate.org). Studies have also found that exposure to news portraying “Middle Eastern” or Muslims in a negative way causes viewers to support polices that are not in the best interests of
The Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 was portrayed by the media to have been done by Islamic groups. Right out the gate reporters were calling the bombing ann act of terrorism on a state building. CNN provided names of Arabs that had been detained for questioning. The words bombing, terrorists, and Arab were splashed all over the media when in fact it was an American that bombed the state building. After 9/11, Christopher Bail, a sociologist at University of Northern Carolina and the University of Michigan collected 1,084 press releases from 120 organizations that included Muslim, and Christian, and other groups with similar interests. He then compared the 1,084 press releases with 50,407 newspaper articles and television transcripts from 2001 to 2008 to reveal which organization was the most influential (Pappas). Bail found that emotional press releases portraying fear and anger got the media’s attention while the 85 percent representing the non-violent press releases involving Muslims or Arabs went unnoticed by journalists. The majority of the attention went to the least represented messages and got the most attention (Bail). No wonder eight out of ten Americans feel the media influences our perception on world issues (Debate.org). Studies have also found that exposure to news portraying “Middle Eastern” or Muslims in a negative way causes viewers to support polices that are not in the best interests of