“Muslims are not terrorists”: Islamic state coverage, journalistic differentiation between terrorism and Islam, fear reactions, and attitudes toward Muslims

Autor(en)
Christian von Sikorski, Desiree Schmuck, Jörg Matthes, Alice Binder
Abstrakt

Previous research shows that news about Islamist terrorism can seriously affect citizens' fear reactions and influence non-Muslims' out-group perceptions of Muslims. We argue that news coverage that explicitly links Islam to terrorism or terrorists of the Islamic State (IS) may trigger fears in non-Muslim individuals. In contrast, news differentiation (i.e., explicitly distinguishing between Muslims and Muslim terrorists) may dampen particular fear reactions in citizens. To test the specific effects of news differentiation, a controlled laboratory experiment was conducted. Results showed that undifferentiated news about IS terrorism increased participants' fear of terrorism and resulted in hostile perceptions toward Muslims in general. However, fear of terrorism only enhanced hostile attitudes toward Muslims for individuals with negative and moderately positive prior experiences with Muslims. For those with very positive experiences, no such relationship was found. Implications of these findings for journalism practice and intergroup relations in multicultural societies are discussed.

Organisation(en)
Institut für Publizistik- und Kommunikationswissenschaft
Journal
Mass Communication and Society
Band
20
Seiten
825-848
Anzahl der Seiten
24
ISSN
1520-5436
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2017.1342131
Publikationsdatum
2017
Peer-reviewed
Ja
ÖFOS 2012
508007 Kommunikationswissenschaft, 508014 Publizistik
Schlagwörter
Sustainable Development Goals
SDG 16 – Frieden, Gerechtigkeit und starke Institutionen
Link zum Portal
https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/de/publications/muslims-are-not-terrorists-islamic-state-coverage-journalistic-differentiation-between-terrorism-and-islam-fear-reactions-and-attitudes-toward-muslims(c4e50163-a65e-4089-9ab0-95f1c9d743e3).html