Images of Muslims and Islam in Swedish Christian and secular news discourse

Abstract

This is a descriptive comparative quantitative content analysis of the con--struction of Islam and Muslims in 2006--2007 in four Swedish publicationsthe liberal newspaper Dagens Nyheter representing mainstream media, the Evangelical newspaper Dagen, the fundamentalist newspaper Världen idag representing the Christian right, and the journal SD--Kuriren, the official organ of the Sweden Democrats, a neo--nationalist party. The aim is to see where a chasm between those media which accept the presence of Muslims and Islam in Sweden, and those which do not, occurs. The results put the liberal Dagens Nyheter and the Evangelical Dagen on one side of the divide and the funda--mentalist Världen idag and the neo--nationalist SD--Kuriren on the other. Världen idag and SD--Kuriren tend to describe Muslims and Islam as threaten--ing, and 'our' elite as retreating. In these two media Muslims are consistently described as aggressive and the cause of social and political problems. Lastly, in both media, Muslims are related to negative behavior; good Muslim behavior is constantly disregarded, while bad behavior is assumed to reflect their true character. Världen idag also claims that Islam is incompatible with democracy. Liberal Dagens Nyheter and Evangelical Dagen avoid describing Muslims and Islam as a threat and more often seek constructive solutions to different problems. Dagens Nyheter moreover describes conflicts between Muslim and Christian actors in political, not religious, terms. Dagen also sees Muslims and Christians alike as victims of the forces of secularization.

From Acceptance to “Othering”: An Analysis of Swedish Changing Identity towards the Refugees and Muslim Minority Groups

“…At worst, it might divide Swedish societies into many groups with different perceptions towards Muslim. As Steiner (2015) argued, different kind of rifts happened in Sweden, which involve Christian, liberal, neonationalist, and fundamentalist. Their position towards Islam and religious freedom will be interesting future research.…”

Differences in journalism culture or is there more to it? Comparing news on the European refugee issue in Western Europe and China

“…Journalistic epistemologies also play a role in Chinese newspapers' more frequent listing of Islam concerning the refugees than their European counterparts. As China is far away from the scene of the refugee issue and Chinese journalists lack first-hand material on the refugees, the negative representation of Muslim refugees in western media sources could disproportionally affect Chinese journalists' perceptions and reporting on Islam (Jakku, 2018;Steiner, 2015;Zemni, 2011). It is also found that Muslims are portrayed as less welcome than non-Muslims in both political responses and civil responses in Chinese and European media.…”

“…Zemni (2011) discussed how Islam has been cast as a political problem in Belgium and how Muslims have, particularly in Flanders, become framed by politicians and commentators in the media as a threat. A content analysis of the Muslim image in Swedish mainstream media in 2006-2007 indicates that Muslims are consistently described as aggressive and the cause of social and political problems (Steiner, 2015). Muslim women were also depicted in accordance with the Islamophobic stereotyping by Swedish media (Jakku, 2018).…”

“…Moreover, media content is not only the production of journalists' professional practices but also a product with the public in mind. Layers of influences are at play in shaping the news content, such as the political and economic forces, social and cultural values, and perceptions of religion (Altschull, 1984;Gans, 1979;Steiner, 2015). Therefore, we seek to explore these influences, despite journalism culture, that lead to the variation of news coverage on the European refugee issue.…”

The discursive portrayals of Indonesian Muslims and Islam in the American press: A corpus-assisted discourse analysis

“…Newspaper coverage of Muslims in western newspapers, especially British and American, has increased dramatically after the 9/11 attacks (Chuang & Roemer, 2013;Kumar, 2012). Numerous studies across disciplines on how western media portray Muslims also have been conducted in different geo-political and cultural contexts, such as in Oceanian countries (Kabir & Bourk, 2012), Europe (Steiner, 2015), Britain (Saeed, 2007) and America (Nacos & Torres-Reyna, 2007), with various analytical tools including content analysis (Trevino, Kanso, A. M., & Nelson, 2010), visual framing analysis (Fahmy & Kim, 2008), and critical This study aims to investigate the construction of Indonesian Muslims and Islam in American press. Islam in American mainstream media is viewed as a homogeneous entity (Said, 2008) and stereotyped as the antithesis of America (Chuang & Roemer, 2013).…”