Panel Discusses Portrayal of Muslims in Media

The American media now portrays Muslims with the same negativity that it does North Korea and Moammar Gadhafi, founder and CEO of Media Tenor International Roland Schatz told a crowded CGIS auditorium Thursday.

Schatz, whose company specializes in global media content analysis, was one of six panelists gathered to discuss a program titled “Perceptions of Muslims in the West: Discourses after the Boston Bombing and the Woolwich Murder.”

Panelists commented on topics that ranged from the reliability of American media outlets to the proliferation of Muslim organizations. Those organizations, panelists said, can dispel misconceptions about Islam.

Panelists also highlighted the use of social media during the Boston bombings and subsequent lockdown last April.

Maria Ebrahimji, a former executive editorial producer for CNN, tracked tweets during the bombings and lockdown. At the time, many Muslim account holders worried that the bombers would turn out to be Muslim, feeding the already negative portrayal of Islam by the American media, she said Thursday.

Indeed, reporting during the April lockdown included “a lot of misleading and a lot of misreporting,” Ebrahimji said. Premature stories aired that misidentified suspects and played into racial stereotypes.

Academia, she said, can help improve the portrayal of Muslims in the media.

“Terrorists are not born. They’re made,” said Diane Moore, a senior lecturer at the Harvard Divinity School. According to Moore, academics can help examine the cultural context in which some Muslims are radicalized.

Panel attendee Rachel Foran expressed optimism about the beneficial impact of academia, where she said she

sees an opportunity “to incorporate academic narratives about Islam” into conversations about public policy.

Panelist Suhaib Webb, an imam at the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center, disagreed. “Masses of Americans are not concerned with what is happening in academia,” Webb said. “The media, however—they definitely have a lot of power.”

Webb noted that a growing body of organizations that advocate for Muslims have begun to leverage the media to change public opinion about the Islamic community. For example, the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, a think tank whose research focuses on public policy in relation to the the U.S. and the Muslim community, has launched a campaign to address misperceptions about Islam utilizing op-eds and press conferences.

These campaigns, Webb said, can help destigmatize the Muslim community in media.

“It is our voices that will make the difference in this conversation,” he said.