Religion and Media Interest Group
Negotiating Normality: Using Digital Media to Combat the Stigma and Perceptions of Islam in the West • Ahmet Aksoy, Texas Tech University; Nihar Sreepada, Texas Tech University • In the aftermath of a terrorist attack on an Islamic community in New Zealand, how has the stigma and perceptions of the West about Islam impacted the reaction of audiences? Drawing on Tweets and the statements of Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, this paper explores how individuals construct their messages to establish a discourse that aspires to blend Islam into the ‘norm’ of Western ideas and values. Applying the Goffman framework, I observe how the two compose their messages to resist the West’s stigma and perceptions of Islam and plea to being ‘normal.’ Specifically, attention is placed on how normality is constructed through the presentation of Muslim’s place of worship, mosques, and their communities. Through a qualitative textual analysis, it revealed different interpretations of how these places of worship and their communities identify ‘normalness’ in an attempt to de-stigmatize the negative construction of Islam in the West. Therefore, I consider how these interpretations produce normality amongst a perceived stigma of Islam in the West in the aftermath of a terrorist attack.
News media perceptions and evaluations among Jews in Germany • Philip Baugut • How individuals perceive and evaluate media coverage has important implications for understanding journalism’s influence on a micro-level. The present study is the first to systematically explore news media perceptions and evaluations among Jews living in Germany. We conducted 29 semi-structured interviews with German Jews and found that they perceived German media coverage of issues related to Jews to be strongly biased and to foster antisemitism. Participants primarily criticized the media for its emotional coverage of antisemitism, its consistent focus on the Holocaust, its equation of Jews and Israel, and its stereotypical portrayals of everyday Jewish life. Such media coverage led participants to believe that German non-Jews perceived Jews as strangers in German society. These findings suggest the importance of responsible reporting on religious minorities and raise questions about established routines in news production, such as the focusing on negativity and stereotypes.
North American Muslim Satire on YouTube: Combatting or reinforcing stereotypes? • Omar Hammad, Media Studies program at the department of School of Communication and Information at Rutgers University • Based on interviews with 10 college students and textual analysis of the YouTube series, Guess Who’s Muslim, using Kumar’s five discursive frames of how Islam is articulated in mainstream media (2010), this paper illustrates how satire is being used by young North American Muslims in efforts to challenge Islamophobia. While there is a long history of satire being used to combat negative stereotypes, this study illustrates that it can also unintentionally introduce them.
* Extended Abstract * News, pews and polls: How religiosity moderates news and voting during a midterm election • Timothy Macafee; Sarah Holtan • Although scholarship has documented the relationship between news and voting robustly, individuals’ religiosity added to this dynamic may provide additional information. In addition, research about news and religion’s role in electoral politics often focuses on presidential elections. The current study addresses these gaps. Results from a two-wave panel survey of voters in a “toss-up” state during the 2018 U.S. midterm election demonstrate religiosity may moderate the role of news on voting.
“They are Amongst us”. News About Terror, Perceptions of Sleeper Terrorists, and Negative Stereotypes Toward Muslims • Joerg Matthes, U of Vienna; Ruta Kaskeleviciute, U of Vienna • When reporting about Islamist terrorism, news media often include descriptions of so-called sleeper terrorists, who live inconspicuously amongst us. To test how perceptions of sleeper terrorists influence negative stereotypes toward Muslims, we conducted a quota-based two-wave panel survey (NT2=524). Results showed that exposure to terror news did not affect negative stereotypes toward Muslims, but increased perceptions of sleeper terrorists over time. Perceptions of sleeper terrorists had a positive influence on negative stereotypes toward Muslims.
Flat-Smacked! Converting to Flat Eartherism • Alex Olshansky, Texas Tech University; Robert Peaslee; Asheley Landrum, College of Media & Communication – Texas Tech University • The “Flat Earth” movement has emerged out of a combination of Biblical literalism (e.g., young Earth creationism, geocentricism) and previous conspiracy theories (e.g., NASA faked moon landings). Interviews with participants of the first International Flat Earth Conference in 2017 revealed that the majority of Flat Earthers have come to endorse Flat Earth ideas only within the last few years after watching videos on YouTube. However, the novelty of the movement means that there is a lack of literature on this group, on what exactly convinced these new Flat Earthers, and how that conversion took place. Here, we provide evidence for a gradual process of conversion after multiple exposures to the Flat Earth videos, an initial skepticism to the content in the videos, and then a failure to debunk Flat Earth arguments. Furthermore, evidence is presented here regarding the crucial role YouTube played in their conversion process, suggesting the platform is potentially a strong avenue for changing beliefs. The narratives provided here also support much of research on conversion, describing a gradual process of deep personal change, via the relatively new mechanism of social media, where one finds a new center of concern, interest, and behavior, and a different view of reality.
* Extended Abstract * Political Consumerism, Religious Factors and Social Media • Jan Wicks, University of Arkansas School of Journalism and Strategic Media; Shauna Morimoto, University of Arkansas Sociology and Criminology Department; Robert Wicks, University of Arkansas Communication Department • A national email survey with over 2,000 respondents was administered to examine whether religious affiliation is associated with political consumerism and participating in political consumerism activities on social media. Evangelical Protestants participate in political consumerism and related activities on social media more frequently than other religious affiliations. Other major variables from previous political consumerism research are also examined, suggesting that religious and social media factors help to explain participation in boycotting and boycotting.
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