Intro to prejudice in the news media
As Edward Said discusses in Covering Islam, the media plays a large role in the types of knowledge exposed to the public and spread around the world. The Western Media is launching an immense covering of Islam, but it is doing so with much prejudice. The result is that the reality of Islam is being "covered" as well, and not accurately and factually exposed. Thus, there is a lack of objectivity in the US news media when covering Islam because of pre-set misconceptions and stereotypes.
islamophobia in the media a multi-Million dollar industry
The Center For American Progress has conducted a study on who are the culprits behind the anti-Islamic news agenda. This documentary, presented by Fear Incorporated, identifies and discusses who is pushing the anti-Islamic agenda in the news media, using sound bytes, racial profiling, and other unreliable and prejudicial reporting techniques. The "Islamophobia Network" is identified as those who deliver the Islamophobic news propaganda on the networks, and the people who are paying for it. Approximately $42 million is spent on Islamophobic airtime in the US news media. (1) The people who are delivering the news such as media reporters and the people who are interviewed on various news networks, are not scholars, historians, or experts of any kind, despite their attempt to pass off as reliable sources on Islam. Thus, it is misinformation that is being spread. The Center For American Progress study identifies 5 people: David Yerushalmi Daniel Pipes, Robert Spencer, Steven Emerson, and Frank Gaffney, as people who appear on media channels claiming to be experts. However, it is downright lazy journalism. The largest networks covering Islamophobic topics and interviewing these so called experts are right wing news media. Much of money from the millions of dollars required to pay for airtime comes from 7 different charitable foundations, the largest being the Donors Capital Fund. This multi-million dollar industry allows experts to produce reports, promotion, buzz, hysteria, and an echo chamber of Islamophobia, which is then picked up by politicians using the news reports as evidence.
Fear Incorporated investigation on us news media, 2011
Fox news (2) |
Islamophobic Internet BlogRun by Robert Spencer, this Islamophobic internet blog has become notorious for its hatred projection of Islam.
http://www.jihadwatch.org/ |
radio News Programming 3
HOW CAN WE CHANGE THIS . . ?
Media reporters should consistently ask about the credentials of the "experts" they are interviewing. The audience of these networks should demand to see the evidence and credentials that "experts" claim to have. In addition, audience members should be proactive viewers by finding out where the funding is coming from certain news networks. If you follow the money, it will lead to true motivations of different news media. Finally, the general public should get their information from a variety of news sources. Nonpartisan sources can have less bias than right wing of left wing sources. Although the rights of freedom of speech allow news media to continue airing whatever material they wish, that does not mean that one needs to view or listen to propaganda and we still have the freedom to ask questions, check the facts, and search for our own answers.