Honors Thesis Presentation: How The American News Media Reports Stories Related to Islam and Its Impacts on Muslims Living in the United States by Maral Cavner

1. Senior Honors Thesis
Defense Presentation
By Maral Cavner
Thursday, April 11th, 2013

2. Shura: How the American
News Media Reports on Islam
and Its Impacts
on Muslim Americans’ in
the United States

3. Research Questions
1. How do Muslim individuals living in the United States feel
about their portrayal in the American news media
as a whole?
2. Do Muslims living in the U.S. feel their portrayal in the
news (be it positive or negative) impacts the way
non-Muslim Americans regard them? If so, how?
3. What would Muslims living in the U.S. like their
counterparts in the U.S. to see, read or hear about on
the news in relation to Islam in order to help combat
misconceptions about their faith?
4. Do Muslims living in the U.S. feel that liberal versus
conservative American news media sources portray
their stories related to Islam differently?

4. Research Design
• Three Sample Groups Interviewed:
o 1) Emory University Muslim
undergraduates: four males and four
females.
o 2) Media Informants: one Muslim female.
o 3) Religious authority figures: two male
imams.

5. Recruitment of Sample
Group Members
• A variety of different methods were used
for recruitment including:
o Social media (Facebook and LearnLink
groups),
o Attending Muslim Student Association
events at Emory University,
o Calling and emailing mosques with a
official proposal, and
o The network connections of Dr. Cherribi.

6. Procedures of Interviews
• Setting: a location of the interviewee’s choosing.
• Informed Consent: was given in writing and verbally.
• Recording and Transcription: Each interview was
recorded by a digital recorder in order to assure the
accuracy of given answers. After the conclusion of
the interview, the recording was transcribed and
then erased.
• Risks to Participation: none.
• Benefits to Participation: no direct benefits to the
interviewees.
• Confidentiality: no names are reported and
codes/pseudonyms are used to identify
interviewees.

7. Hypothesis
• “That Muslim-Americans’ lives are
negatively impacted by their
characterization within the American
news media, specifically in terms of the
ways that non-Muslim individuals in the
United States regard them.”
• Status of Hypothesis Today: supported
through interviewee data.

8. Summary of Findings From Interviews,
Part 1: The Obtainment of News
• A unanimous movement towards “fast” sources of
news and away from print media.
• The emergence of social media as a means of
accessing news for all females interviewed.
• With one exception, all individuals interviewed cited
at least one non-American news media source
which they “relied on primarily for their news.”
o Pew found that 92% of Americans rely on multiple national news media
sources. Why do Muslims in the U.S. feel the need to rely on at least one
international news media source?

9. Summary of Findings From Interviews,
Part 2: Islam in The American News Media
• “I think that what is most striking, is that I do not feel
like the representation represents me at all. I feel
there is a huge disconnect between Muslims in the
American news media and Muslims that I am
around on a day-to-day basis and also the person
that I am.” -Male undergraduate at Emory #2.
• All individuals interviewed expressed remarkably
similar sentiment: they value, want, and need a
more holistic presentation of news in the U.S. to help
people understand their faith and all of its 1.6 billion
followers, not just a few.

10. Summary of Findings From Interviews,
Part 3: The Desire for Contextualization
• The prevailing desire was for more contextualization.
• “(American news media sources) Portray anything
Islamic, Islamic voices, as very one dimensional. Those
are just terrorists and those are just radicals…They also
do not contextualize. They just might show a story and
there is no background to it. So there might be bombing
and they might just show that, (but) maybe what was
the situation there? For example, what were the policies
of the embassy that was bombed?...(They) will only show
one aspect and then you lose everything. Then they
can distill everything down to Muslims are extremists.”
-Female undergraduate at Emory #1.

11. Summary of Findings From Interviews,
Part 4: Conservative Leaning
American News Media
• Not a single individual interviewed expressed that
they watched any conservative American news
media sources.
• Fox News is “frankly terrible.” Female undergraduate #2.
• Why? Two primary reasons cited by interviewees:
o 1) They are the worst in passing judgment.
o 2) They fail to provide enough (or any) contextualization for
the viewer, reader or listener.

12. Summary of Findings From Interviews,
Part 5: Impacts of American News Media
on Muslim-Americans
• Two Primary Misconceptions Develop:
• 1) That Muslims are represented in a singular
category, as a singular type of people.
o “I think that the largest misconception about Muslims is that we are all the
same kind of people.” Media Informant #1.
• 2) The widespread association of Islam and
violence, particularly against women.
o “I think there is a large misconception about Muslim women especially
that they are inferior and that Islam promotes lack of equality between
men and women and that they do not have the same freedoms, but I do
not think that that is true or, there are going to be conservatives found
within any religion that uphold certain ideals.” Female undergraduate #2.

13. How Can the News Dispel
Misconceptions about Islam?
• “Me speaking from the experience of being a
journalist…and how flakey, frankly we are about stories; we
are not going to stay on something forever, we are not
going to give something the depth and the context that a
lot of people might expect from us because we have to
move on and we do not have enough time or minutes in
the show…We obviously cannot have someone go on and
explain a point in twenty minutes when we only have two
minutes for the segment (on television).” -Media Informant #1
• In this sound bite culture, how can time constraints
reconcile themselves with contextualization?

14. Interviewees’ Solutions to American
News Media’s Portrayal of Islam
• A basic and straightforward desire from the media:
• “I think just simple stories about Muslim people
doing normal things, like going to PTA meetings,
taking their kids to soccer games, being good
doctors, whatever it may be...I think that the radical
needs to be counterbalanced to the normal and I
think that the radical gets too much American news
coverage and (if) people see the news stories
about ‘this Muslim man who helped out at a school,
he was a fireman’ (or) whatever it may be, I think
that that would be the best and most productive
way to counteract the images about Islam in the
American news media, mostly (in) conservative
outlets, but not exclusively so.” Male undergraduate #1.

15. Life as a Muslim Inside of
Emory University and Outside of It
• “I do not think my treatment
has been altered because I
am Muslim.” Female
undergraduate #2.
• However, male
undergraduate #3 spoke of
a key distinction between
being a Muslim at Emory
University and outside of it:
o “…I think that Emory has a
very accepting culture,
but it has kind of blinded
me to the realities that are
external to Emory
University.”

16. Conclusions
• Can twelve words really sum up 20-25% of the world’s
population?
o Living in at least fifty-seven countries, who speak
different languages, follow different customs, and
believe in different interpretations of their faith.
• Responsibilities of the media and media consumers.
o To present stories in context as professional journalists.
o Those who receive information have the responsibility
to to understand that contextualization is central to
understanding any story.
• Thank you!