Understanding media coverage on terrorism and its relations with islamophobia / Putri Nur Adriana Alya Ahmad ...[et al.]

Terrorism has been a daily issue, or if not, one of the main issues reported in the media be it in the local
or foreign media. News coverage on terrorism has escalated since the tragedy of 9/11. There have been
many cases where the media particularly, the Western media coverage on terror acts are biased towards
Muslims and Islam which created a long-lasting images and stereotypes of this group. Exposure to
violent media stereotypes of Muslims has been shown to boost Westerners' encouragement for antiMuslim policies such as military action abroad and civil limitations at home. Muslims are usually
depicted as violent, aggressive, and drawn to terrorism in a variety of media covering newspapers, cable
news, television, movies and video games. The media is a predominant component of popular culture,
with the potential to set the agenda. As a result, when an agenda is aligned across media outlets, the
media has the ability to create association for people, race, culture and religion. This study aimed to
explore the roles of media reporting of terrorism in propagating Islamophobia that shapes our news
reporting and the adoption of the war journalism theory. In doing so, a qualitative approach with
thematic analysis was undertaken by employing conceptual research to study the findings of previous
research on the related subject of media, terrorism, and the phenomena of Islamophobia. The finding
showed that the media succeeded in instilling fear into the public towards Islam and Muslims through
the news reporting on terrorism phenomena.