Portrayal of Islam and Muslims in the Talk Shows of CNN and BBC

© Media Watch 7 (3) 267-273, 2016
ISSN 0976-0911 e-ISSN 2249-8818
DOI: 10.15655/mw/2016/v7i3/48544
 

Portrayal of Islam and Muslims in the Talk Shows of CNN and BBC

NOOR HAYAT1 & JULIANA ABDUL WAHAB2
1University of Lahore, Pakistan
2Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia
 
Abstract
This study explores the portrayal of Islam and Muslims in the western media talk shows, CNN and BBC from January 2012 to December 2012 and draws the required data from their online editions. It is a content analysis of 50 programs focusing on Islam and Muslims from Piers Morgan Live, Fareed Zakaria GPS, HARDtalk and Newsnight. The findings show that rather than economics, religion and war on terror both news channels were more focused in discussing the political shifts and regional transformations of the Muslim world. Mostly the geopolitical issues of Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region were given immense coverage in the discussions and Muslims were framed as politically fanatics. The findings also established that western media differs from the previous rhetoric by not framing Muslims as terrorists, violent and threat to western democracy.
 
Keywords: Islam, Muslims, talk shows, CNN, BBC, portrayal, media framing
 
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Dr. Noor Hayat is an assistant professor at School of Creative Arts, University of Lahore, Pakistan. His research interests are qualitative research, international communication, political communication and media framing.
Dr. Juliana Abdul Wahab is a senior lecturer at School of Communication, Universiti Sains Malaysia. Her research interests are political communication, qualitative research, film and television studies.