Media discourse is a term that describes “the parameters within which a particular issue is publicly discussed or framed by the media” (Phelan, 2016) Discourse is therefore a narrative or way of viewing a certain situation or issue, depending on the social, cultural, and historical contexts present. 

According to Foucault, discourse is a way of organising knowledge that structures the constitution of social relations through the collective understanding of the discursive logic and the acceptance of the discourse as social fact. (Adams, 2017). Therefore discourse is not necessarily scientific facts, but rather socially accepted “truths”. 

Text itself cannot be defined as discourse, however, is evidence of discourse. Discourse is a deeper concept of truth constructed through social order and power, however, “text is the fabric through which discourse is conveyed”. 

Islamaphobia is a powerful but unfortunately persistent discourse present in Western Media outlets. According to research carried out by Eric Bleich, and A. Maurits van der Veen for their book addressing how Western media outlets covered the religion of Islam in their reporting, they found that the United States releases the most negative press regarding the religion of Islam, compared with all other religions domestically:

According to the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, a staggering 62% of Americans say they have never met an individual who identifies as a Muslim. Despite this, however, according to a media content analysis, “more than 80% of television media coverage of Islam and Muslims in the United States is negative”

This pattern of the American public showing negative sentiments towards Muslims saw an uptick following the September 11^th terrorist attacks on the world trade center in New York City. Muslim- Americans describe the negative sentiments they began to face in the aftermath of 9/11:

This negative public opinion was largely shaped because of the media discourse, in which media outlets started associating Muslims with “terrorists” and using other words such as “oriental” and “primitive” to describe their culture and religion.

The Western media discourse portrays Muslims in a negative light, using stereotypes and prejudices in their reporting. It was actually the Western media itself that popularised the word “Jihad” into its own societies using headlines such as “same sex Jihad”, and “Refugee to Jihad”.

Many media outlets also put the blame of the 9/11 attacks on the religion of Islam, and pushed warmongering tactics stating that “this means war”, Ultimately leading to the American public supporting the coalition invasion of Iraq in 2003:

This Islamophobic discourse is still very much evident in the western media, with regards to the Isreal-Hamas war. Western media has been equating the October 7th attack as “Isreal’s 9/11”, in which they have used emotive language to portray the people of Gaza as barbaric and less than that of the Israelis. In some instances of oppositional reading, media outlets have even been called out for reporting on Palestinian “deaths” and Israeli “murders”:

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Reference list

Adams, R. (2017). Michel Foucault: Discourse. [online] Critical Legal Thinking. Available at: https://criticallegalthinking.com/2017/11/17/michel-foucault-discourse/ [Accessed 2 Dec. 2023].

Institute for Social Policy and Understanding. (2019). Covering American Muslims Objectively and Creatively: A Guide for Media Professionals | ISPU. [online] Available at: https://www.ispu.org/journalists/ [Accessed 2 Dec. 2023].

Kundnani, A. (2023). Islamophobia in the US is rooted in total support for Israel. [online] https://www.newarab.com/. Available at: https://www.newarab.com/opinion/islamophobia-us-rooted-total-support-israel [Accessed 2 Dec. 2023].

OnePath Network (2018). How 5 newspapers portrayed Islam in 2017. [online] OnePath Network. Available at: https://onepathnetwork.com/islam-in-the-media-2017/ [Accessed 2 Dec. 2023].

Phelan, M. (2016). What is Media Discourse? [online] Michelle Phelan. Available at: https://michellephelandkit.wordpress.com/2016/02/17/what-is-media-discourse/ [Accessed 2 Dec. 2023].