9/11 Reflection

am a fourteen year old Muslim girl, born and raised in America. As a teenager, I watch a lot television. Whether I’m watching cartoons with my siblings, scary movies with my friends, or the news with my mom, I love watching television. One thing I have noticed on television is that the media’s coverage on Islam has changed significantly in various ways this past decade. The way the news portrays Muslims has shifted and the image of Islam has become distorted. The amount of coverage on Islam has increased as well, especially since the events of September 11th 2001. Those events played a role in why the coverage of Islam changed dramatically in the media. I also believe that the media is biased against Muslims, therefore many stereotypes and misinterpretations about Islam were created and spread. Some of these misinterpretations include Islam as a violent religion and oppression of Muslim women. I think that the media degrades and dehumanizes Muslims. Whether it is intentional or unintentional, I do not believe that the media portrays Islam accurately.

One religion that contains bias from the media is the Amish. “Amish settlements have become a cliché for refusing technology. Tens of thousands of people wear identical, plain, homemade clothing, cultivate their rich fields with horse-drawn machinery, and live in houses lacking that basic modern spirt called electricity” (Rheingold 221). The media takes a very sophisticated belief into an assumption that suggests that Amish do not use technology at all. Another religion that contains bias from the media is Islam. According to the media, Islam is a religion associated with terrorism. This media assumption is based on the, “emergence of the self-proclaimed Islamic State group (ISIS) which allegedly shows videos of the beheadings of their prisoners who are most often journalists” (Espiritu). This has caused people to use the terms Muslim and Terrorist interchangeably. Not all Muslims who associate with Islam are terrorists. For example, Malala Yousafzai, a Muslim, is the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner and an education activist. Media also makes assumptions on the religion for Jews, Judaism. Jews are often interpreted as incredibly prosperous, cheap, and unkind. “In truth, Jewish people can be wealthy or poor, intelligent or less intelligent, kind or otherwise” (Media Portrayals of Religion:

Since September 11th, the media is serving as a huge influencer on the Western civilization about how they view Muslims and Islam. The media has played a pivotal role in how the West has gained their impressions. In the article, “The Utility of Islamic Imagery in the West,” J.A. Progler discusses how the West utilizes images of Islam and Muslims to benefit themselves. The media have represented Muslims as “terrorists.” Progler says,” drawing upon the historical and cultural catalogue of assumptions and perceptions about Islam, these experts and spokespeople pick and choose the appropriate images to serve their purposes.” (Progler, 2) For example, images of Islam have created the negative perception that they oppress their women and encourage terrorism, just to name a few. With the recent attack in Paris and the San Bernardino shooting, presidential candidates have used these opportunities to show that all Muslims are a threat to

Xenophobia has long been an important and damaging social issue; presently, we see more displays of Islamophobia within television. Muslims are experiencing increased levels of Islamophobia as a result of mainstream news’ portrayal of Islam and terrorism. Americans who do not further educate themselves view these false representations of Islamic culture as factual. Zafar Iqbal, an academic in Muslim studies, enlarges upon the media’s influence, “…Media create stereotypes and shape perceptions and understanding of social groups… the distance or proximity between different social groups is what the media portray. This seems to be true in the case of Islamophobia” (96). Americans are heavily influenced by social messages provided by the media. False beliefs and prejudice are fueled by mainstream news perpetuating false representations and stereotypes of Islamic culture. Media sensationalism is cause for unnecessary separation and panic within America. Americans are being fed a limited view of Islam— a view that sells, but what are the consequences? Pnina Webner explains the overwhelming social implications, “…Media images…demonize Muslims and their religion… a displaced figure of collective anxieties and fears… an arbitrary scapegoat embodying racist paranoid convictions that only cultural, ethnic and racial purity can stem the breakdown of social order and the collapse of

The media paints an identity, which is a vital role that impacts the perception of Americans about Muslims and Islam. Media depictions influence the public opinions of Americans that negatively modify Muslim people. The attacks of 11 September 2001 (9/11) ignited hate and anger against Arab and Muslim Americans that posed serious life consequences, mainly due to biased media coverage (Eid 610). The most common explanation for this rationale is incited by the attacks of 9/11 and the subsequent War on Terror. The representations of Muslims are often aggressive, violent, and drawn to terrorism in a range of media such as radio, newspaper, and television. The exposure of media coverage stereotypes towards Muslims as violent can increase and contribute

American mass media is a huge contributor to the demonization of Muslims. A grisly beheading results in days of media coverage. Muslim leaders holding a press conference denouncing terrorism, which they have done extensively in response to ISIS, will result in two to three minutes of media coverage on cable news. This is terrifyingly inaccurate considering less than 10% of terrorist threats and actions are from Islamic terrorists. America Instead of reacting to any of these attacks as they had Right-wing Timothy McVeigh's attack in April 19, 1995. America would start the mislabeled “War on terror” proceeding to pigeonhole Islamic extremism and brush aside the motivations of groups likes McVeigh and other group’s violent actions. Compounding this issue is that there are few positive images of Muslims or Muslim Americans in American entertainment media. In fact, even many Muslims are shockingly ignorant of their own religion. With no official leadership or governance like in many Christian religious, Islam falls more

Trevino, Kanso, & Nelson (2010) examined three major newspapers, the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Washington Post, for content analysis to establish if Muslims were portrayed negatively in print media post 9/11. They found that newspaper portrayals of Muslims prior to September 11, 2001, in fact, did differ from the portrayals post September 11, 2001. Most references to Muslims, in both cases, were largely unfavorable, but there was an increase in neutral references and a decrease in favorable references. Journalists in this given opportunity did not show any particular bias while reporting, but it was found that all three newspapers had a high percentage of unfavorable terms when it came to reports involving Muslims. Some of the most recycled terms were: terror/terrorist/terrorism, extremist/extremism, fundamentalist/fundamentalism,

    For decades, the media portrayal of the Arab culture and Islam has contributed to a skewed public opinion in America. Looking closely at the news coverage concerning the Middle East and the United States, there is an inherent media bias against Arabs and Muslims as foreign threats to domestic security. Stephen Franklin argues that "Islamic nations are often portrayed in news reports as uniformly intolerant and anti-democratic" (Franklin 17). Unfortunately, such coverage has contributed to the public and government misconceptions of all Arabs and Muslims as terrorists. According to Fawaz Gerges, "terrorism has emerged as one of the most important political issues in the United

Islam and Muslims have been represented in the media for the past 40 years in a negative light, however, escalated since the 9/11 attacks and consecutive attacks throughout Europe such as London and Berlin. Muslims are usually highlighted within the media as ‘evil’ and ‘terrorists’, which ultimately categorises the entire religion in one group. Within the past 10 years there has not been a significant news story in Britain without mentioning Islam and War on Terror (Poole & Richardson, 2006). Elizabeth Poole and John E. Richardson discuss the nature of journalism and how it has shaped around Muslims and Islam, due to the climate of threat, fear and misunderstanding surrounding Islam within their book Muslims and the News Media. Additionally, this book aimed to examine the links between social and political contexts, who are the institutional and professional production parties and the content of media outputs, perceptions and responses of audiences in relation to the reporting of Islam and Muslims (Poole

The current portrayal in 21st century mass media of the the Muslims in both america and the Islamic world appears to negatively impact the religion. While conflicts and terrorist actions involving Islamic extremist are important the way that they are reported upon often leads to misconceptions among the general public of what the Islamic values are and how they affect society. The mass media uses frames when discussing the Islamic community which often portray Muslims as either oppressive or violent, and further the idea of a false threat. The language that is used to describe such events often creates a connection to Islam without making the difference between extremist and traditional Muslims clear. While the 21st century should cover acts of terrorism the way that actions are displayed should be changed in a way that is less general and is a more accurate and fair representation of the Islamic community.

Muslims do not seem to have achieved social acceptance in the society as compared to other ethnic or racial minority groups. Although deviant behavior by Muslims or Muslim organizations can in no way be considered acceptable let alone be tolerable, denouncing an entire community of people of the same religion, color or ethnicity etc. as terrorists or evil or with any other form of bigotry cannot be acceptable either. However, the mainstream media today tries to foster hate and intolerance among people towards minority groups. The shift in journalism from providing public with information to providing personal opinions and views is one of the major flaws in the media today and is a vital aspect of media bias. The fact that journalists, media celebrities and activists try to convince the viewers into believing their own opinions and views and are told what to think instead of just providing them with information is what is wrong with the media today. According to an American broadcast journalist, news corporations are on a quest to increase profits and television rating point which has led to partisanship. Moreover he claims that in achieving this it has “supported the rise of hyper-opinionated news personalities, and encouraged the embrace of their biased approach to news gathering” (“Introduction” 4). It is common to come across activists and other media personalities making bold statements and declaration against the Muslim community. An astonishing example of the media

Some people say don’t trust the media it’s a bunch of malarkey blown into proportion. I agree with that somewhat, and do understand that the media sometimes is malarkey but there is some truth in the media. In general the media is more negative than positive. Coming from a Muslim family life was good as a child with our community, our neighborhood and had no hatred toward the Muslim people. Then after a fate full day of 9-11-2001, tragic, and heartbreaking day many life changed. The media began to make the Muslim people a scapegoat. The media began to generalize and categorize the Muslim people with a terrorist organizations. The media in general has many other negative impacts on society but the generalization that was blowing up to proportion

As one who witnessed the tumultuous 1960s and 1970s, there was a palpable paradigm shift in both print and broadcast news, as the ability for live coverage increased and the news outlets viciously competed for ratings. Halbrooks (2016) cited the television coverage of Kennedy’s assassination, Cronkite shifting public opinion on the Vietnam War, and in 1974, Woodward & Bernstein taking down the presidency of Nixon as evidence of media shaping public

What was astonishing was not the rapidity of the news- that is, after all, the beauty of modern broadcasting technology- but the effect that the news had on the public. In the following weeks and months, story after story demonstrated the

Mass media has the power to manipulate millions of minds of masses. Over 82% of Americans receive their news from TV sources and about 62% of them use cable networks, such as Fox News, CNN etc., as the source to gain knowledge about current events occurring across the nation or the world. Since the majority of Americans get news from the cable TV sources, it is important for them to give an accurate report without any bias. Since last two years, racial issues in United States have revived. Many accuse media, especially Fox news and CNN, of fueling these issues with their bias approach to the problem. (American Press Institute). Fox news is the cable TV channel targeted towards conservative, right-wing, Americans and CNN proclaims itself to be neither liberal nor conservative. Because these news channels have the ability and power to control the minds of millions of Americans, I am disappointed by their bias in reporting similar incidents involving different races. Fox news showed their bias approach towards racial issues by showing the difference in their report describing the white and black violent protestors. Fox news called Baltimore rioters thugs and criminals but described the pumpkin festival rioters as an unruly crowd. CNN described a group of ranchers taking over a federal building and threaten violence if removed, as a peaceful armed protest. At last, both stations showed minimal to no coverage of million-man march, which was one of the largest peaceful