News Frames as Islamophobic Narratives: Radicalized Concepts

Abstract

Media meets individuals' information/news needs, entertains them, and influences their political preferences through the content it produces. In addition to these fundamental functions, media, which also has many functions that can shape everyday life, plays an important role in constructing/determining meaning in an individual's mental world. The increase in Islamophobia, which has become a global problem, has also been influenced by the problematic nature/editorial policies of international and national media outlets. The media, which produces content with a form that dictates how individuals should think about Islam and Muslims, and what meanings should form in their minds, shapes the mental world of individuals with the meaning frames it creates. This study aims to understand in what frames news about elements known as Islamic clothing/appearance, such as headscarves, hijab, veiling, turban, thobe, taqiyah, and beard are presented in the Turkish media. Therefore, news articles on the websites of media organizations named Sözcü, Cumhuriyet, and Halk TV, which were selected through purposive sampling, were analyzed using the framing technique. The research findings indicate that concepts related to Islam and Muslims are presented in a radicalized manner, framed with negative narratives and that Islamophobic thinking patterns are conveyed to individuals.