Islam and the West: Annual Report on the State of Dialogue

<strong>Islam</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>West</strong>: <strong>Annual</strong> <strong>Report</strong> on <strong>the</strong> State of Dialogue
106
Media Coverage
28% of religious protagonists. Judaism
accounted for approximately 4% of protagonists
surveyed. No o<strong>the</strong>r religion achieved more
than 1% visibility.
Whereas journalists most commonly portrayed
Christian, Jewish <strong>and</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r religious actors
engaged in religious activities (in 75% of
statements, on average), Muslim protagonists
were only associated with religious activities in
13% of statements. (Figure 8.4) More often,
actors identified with <strong>Islam</strong> were engaged in
militant or political activities (in 68% of
statements). Muslims were also associated
with fundamentalist <strong>and</strong> extremist activities
more than six times as often as o<strong>the</strong>r religious
protagonists were.
Figure 8.4
General,
Religious
Judaism
<strong>Islam</strong>
Christianity
O<strong>the</strong>r religions
Perspective of religious actors
Political,
Militant
Social,
Historical
0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
Percent of statements
Education <strong>and</strong> intercultural
underst<strong>and</strong>ing covered most neutrally
Efforts to build knowledge <strong>and</strong> promote
underst<strong>and</strong>ing of different cultures <strong>and</strong> religions
were <strong>the</strong> second most frequently addressed
area of Muslim-<strong>West</strong> coverage after International
Politics. They accounting for 8.1% of all <strong>the</strong>
stories related to Muslim-<strong>West</strong> issues in <strong>the</strong>
media outlets analysed. Education <strong>and</strong>
Fundamentalist
Intercultural Underst<strong>and</strong>ing was also <strong>the</strong> most
neutrally reported of <strong>the</strong> five issues areas.
Most reporting on this issue area originated with
media from non-Muslim majority countries (67.7%
of statements). These countries focused primarily
on <strong>the</strong> practices <strong>and</strong> teachings of Christians
(57.7%), particularly Roman Catholics (38.7%).
Media from Muslim-majority countries likewise
focused on <strong>the</strong> cultural practices <strong>and</strong> teachings
of Muslims (29.3% of statements) <strong>and</strong> people
living in Muslim majority countries (56.7%).
Media from outside <strong>the</strong> Muslim world only
focused 6.7% of <strong>the</strong>ir coverage to exploring
<strong>the</strong> traditions <strong>and</strong> practices of Muslims. Media
inside <strong>the</strong> Muslim world focused on Christian
<strong>and</strong> Jewish traditions in 4.0% of <strong>the</strong>ir coverage.
Approximately 40.0% of <strong>the</strong> statements
included in this issue area were descriptions
of religious practice, <strong>the</strong> majority of which
focused on Christians <strong>and</strong> were reported with
aneutraltone(84.6%)(Figure8.5).Ingeneral,
coverage of education <strong>and</strong>intercultural
underst<strong>and</strong>ing was marked by a high degree
of neutrality (82.3% neutral statements) as
opposed to an average 56.1% neutral
statements across <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r four issue areas.
Religious teachings were <strong>the</strong> next most visible
topic included in this category (14.3% of
statements) <strong>and</strong> were reported with nearly
90% neutral statements.
Analysis : actors in <strong>the</strong> news
Across all reporting on Muslim-<strong>West</strong> issues
(290,452 statements), protagonists – <strong>the</strong> main
actors in a statement in <strong>the</strong> news – were more
often identified with a country than with a
religion. In more than 44.4 % of statements,
protagonists were identified with a country in
<strong>the</strong> Muslim world – more than 40% from
Palestine <strong>and</strong> ano<strong>the</strong>r 40% from Iraq,
Pakistan, Afghanistan, Lebanon or Iran. Nearly
84% of <strong>the</strong>se protagonists were engaged in
political or militant activities.