Who says “Muslims are not terrorists”? News differentiation, Muslim versus non-Muslim sources, and attitudes toward Muslims
- Author(s)
- Ruta Kaskeleviciute, Helena Knupfer, Jörg Matthes
- Abstract
Media coverage on terrorism can lead to negative attitudes toward Muslims. We theorize that undifferentiated news—i.e., not explicitly distinguishing Muslims from terrorists—can accelerate these negative effects. In a quota-based 2 (news differentiation: differentiated and undifferentiated) × 2 (expert interviewee source: Muslim and non-Muslim) between-subjects experiment (N = 291), participants read news about Islamist terrorism. A control group received news unrelated to terror. Building on the concept of news differentiation and extending this line of research, we analyzed effects on explicit and implicit attitudes toward Muslims. Drawing on social identity, self-categorization and mediated intergroup contact theories, findings revealed that undifferentiated news increased hostile attitudes toward Muslims and attitudinal undifferentiation. However, undifferentiated news did not activate implicit attitudes. We also found that undifferentiated news had the strongest negative effects when coming from sources that are perceived as similar (i.e., non-Muslim).
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Communication
- Journal
- Mass Communication and Society
- Volume
- 27
- Pages
- 101-124
- No. of pages
- 24
- ISSN
- 1520-5436
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2023.2268097
- Publication date
- 08-2023
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 508007 Communication science
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Communication
- Sustainable Development Goals
- SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
- Portal url
- https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/who-says-muslims-are-not-terrorists-news-differentiation-muslim-versus-nonmuslim-sources-and-attitudes-toward-muslims(849938e4-f493-43bf-94ff-fb20bd3c34df).html