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Make America hate again? Before and after Trump, there were differences in how Muslims and Islam were portrayed in American media.

Authors :
Latif, Muhammad Asad
Source :
Social Identities. Jul2024, p1-19. 19p. 2 Illustrations.
Publication Year :
2024

Abstract

Islamophobia has historically been used to refer to racism, prejudice, and securitization, indicating that these are structural, cognitive, or cultural aspects of the issue. The term now refers to an Islamophobic social structure in the West, where people tend to act in a way that is hostile against Islam and everything that it represents, according to the current study. The prefix neo has thus been introduced by the researchers to this phrase to account for the psychological aspect of Islamophobia, which shows itself in behaviors and discourses. In order to comprehend the nature of Islamophobia in the UK and the USA, this research aims to investigate Islamophobic discourses in the media of these two Western cultures. Using the DHA analytical methodology, it examines 446 top stories from <italic>The Washington Post</italic> (The Post editorial board has supported Democratic candidates for federal, state, and municipal offices in the great majority of U.S. elections. Decisions on endorsements and the editorial board of the newspaper are made independently of journalistic activities. It wasn't until 1976 that the Post consistently endorsed candidates for president. The Post has never backed a Republican for president in the general election since it endorsed Jimmy Carter in 1976. Instead, it has consistently supported Democrats in presidential contests. Despite this, the Post declined to either Republican nominee Vice President George H. W. Bush or Democratic candidate Governor Michael Dukakis in the 1988 presidential contest. Obama in 2008 and 2012, Clinton in 2016, and Biden in 2020 were all backed by the Post editorial board (The Washington Post, 2020).) and <italic>The Independent</italic> (The Independent is typically characterized as liberal, liberal-left, and center to center. The paper's founders believed that readers from The Times and The Daily Telegraph would be its primary audience when it was first founded in 1986 and aimed for its political stance to match the middle of the British political spectrum. It is more of a rival to The Guardian because of perceptions that it leans left on the political spectrum. On economic matters, The Independent, however, leans liberal and pro-market. The Independent described itself as a proudly liberal publication on Sunday (Luce, 2019).) between November 2016 and December 2017. This study finds that although Neo-Islamophobia is more prevalent in the US, where it is considered as a challenge to the socio-political order, classic Islamophobia is more prevalent in the UK, where Islam is seen as a threat to Europe's symbolic identity. It suggests a cycle of neo-Islamophobia that starts with problematizing Islam and moves on to ultimately securitizing Muslims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
13504630
Database :
Academic Search Index
Journal :
Social Identities
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
178552171
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1080/13504630.2024.2382126