Standing
Undergraduate
Type of Proposal
Poster Presentation
Challenges Theme
Open Challenge
Your Location
1619 Sagebrush Court
Faculty
Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Faculty Sponsor
Dr. Susan Bryant
Proposal
ABSTRACT
This paper seeks to examine the topic of Islamophobia; how are Muslims/Islam portrayed in North American news outlets? How do depictions/portrayals of Muslims/Islam compare between American news and Canadian news? The literature review covers the following: sources of influence on the Western media and its connection to media’s portrayal of Islam; Western geopolitical and economic interests in the Middle East; ideological violence by Muslim versus non-Muslim perpetrators; and Western media portrayals of Muslim women. Islamophobia is defined as the fear, hatred of, or prejudice against the Islamic religion or Muslims, especially when seen as a geopolitical force or the source of terrorism. The meaning of the term continues to be debated, and some view it as problematic. Anti-Muslim sentiment can be found in almost any mainstream media outlet post-September 11. For the purpose of this paper, examples are drawn from two Canadian and two American print media within the framework of a new Orientalism that targets and demonizes Muslims and Islam. The case study includes the analysis of 20 articles, 10 from Canadian print media and 10 from American print media. The articles revolve around the Quebec mosque shooting which took place on January 29, 2017. Critical Discourse Analysis and Content Analysis are the methods used in the analysis. The findings support the idea that through the Western media there has been a new revival of Orientalism, defined as historical depictions of the ‘other’, and in this case of Islam and Muslims, in order to re-create the binary between ‘us’ and ‘them’.
Key words: Islamophobia, Orientalism, Quebec Mosque Shooting, Western Media, Critical Discourse Analysis.
Islamophobia: American and Canadian Media News Coverage of Muslims, Arabs, and Middle-Easterners
ABSTRACT
This paper seeks to examine the topic of Islamophobia; how are Muslims/Islam portrayed in North American news outlets? How do depictions/portrayals of Muslims/Islam compare between American news and Canadian news? The literature review covers the following: sources of influence on the Western media and its connection to media’s portrayal of Islam; Western geopolitical and economic interests in the Middle East; ideological violence by Muslim versus non-Muslim perpetrators; and Western media portrayals of Muslim women. Islamophobia is defined as the fear, hatred of, or prejudice against the Islamic religion or Muslims, especially when seen as a geopolitical force or the source of terrorism. The meaning of the term continues to be debated, and some view it as problematic. Anti-Muslim sentiment can be found in almost any mainstream media outlet post-September 11. For the purpose of this paper, examples are drawn from two Canadian and two American print media within the framework of a new Orientalism that targets and demonizes Muslims and Islam. The case study includes the analysis of 20 articles, 10 from Canadian print media and 10 from American print media. The articles revolve around the Quebec mosque shooting which took place on January 29, 2017. Critical Discourse Analysis and Content Analysis are the methods used in the analysis. The findings support the idea that through the Western media there has been a new revival of Orientalism, defined as historical depictions of the ‘other’, and in this case of Islam and Muslims, in order to re-create the binary between ‘us’ and ‘them’.
Key words: Islamophobia, Orientalism, Quebec Mosque Shooting, Western Media, Critical Discourse Analysis.