Race, racism, Islamophobia in the media: Journalists’ perceptions and Muslim responses

It is suggested that the representation of Muslims echoes previous research on how minority groups are portrayed in the Western media. In many respects, the media representation of minority groups is a ‘double-edged sword’. First, it marginalises minority voices, thus, they are virtually ignored or invisible (Saeed 2007). Simultaneously actual representation of minority groups is often construed in negative discourses such as problems like terrorism (Ewart et al. 2017). The problematic nature of news media reportage of Islam and Muslims has been a significant focus of research especially in what can be termed Western media. Internationally, there is a growing and miscellaneous mass of research about the news frames, discourses used to report on Islam and Muslims by various Western news media (Ahmed and Matthes 2016; Anderson 2015; Bleich et al. 2015; Moore et al. 2008; Poole and Richardson 2006; Poorebrahim and Reza Zarei 2012; Rane et al. 2014; Richardson 2001).