[The Representation of Muslim Women In The British And American Newspaper]

by

Abstract

This study examines U.S and UK's newspaper representation of Muslim-Arab women post 9/11 with an aim of improved understanding how Muslim women are portrayed in relative to religion, culture, politics and the economy. Through a discourse analysis, this research will examine different local articles and editorials from across the nation, in addition to international articles, which examine a variety of aspects of Muslim-Arab women's lives between 9/11/2001 and 9/11/2005. With the ever rising focus on the Muslim world in common, and Muslim women in exacting, it is essential to determine how women are depicted. Muslim-Arab women have gradually been on the face covers of magazines and front pages of newspapers since 9/11 and all the proceedings that followed; among the chief topics enclosed were the war in Afghanistan, the U.S.-led Iraqi invasion, as well as the elections in both countries. This research's aim is to provide a inclusive examination of the varied stereotypes used by Western reporters to explain Muslim-Arab women, their facade, status, roles, compulsion, responsibilities and ambitions. The analysis also examines the modern journalistic practices which contribute to deformation and typecasting.

Table of Contents

ABSTRACTI

TABLE OF CONTENTSII

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION1

Background of the Study1

Scope of the Study1

Importance of the Study2

Research Objectives3

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW4

DISCOURSE ANALYSIS4

Background5

Two Major Approaches6

Sociopolitical Discourse Analysis Frameworks6

Foucauldian Discourse Analysis6

Critical Discourse Analysis9

Defining Critical Discourse Analysis11

Background and In-depth Analysis12

Corpus Linguistics20

Historical Background21

Some Problems of Corpus Linguistics24

The Problem of Size24

The Representativeness Problem25

The Historical Problem26

Some Applications of Language Corpora27

Lexicography27

Linguistic Research27

Applications in Computational Linguistics28

Tagging and Parsing28

Machine Translation29

Corpora Present and Future30

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY32

CHAPTER FOUR: ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION36

Applying Framing Analysis to Print Stories39

CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS43

The Many Faces of the Muslim-Arab Woman44

Implications for Work on Muslim Feminism46

The Journalistic Conventions that Produce Stereotyping49

Primary Socialization: Culture50

Parachute Journalism50

Implications for Future Research & Journalism Practice52

WORKS CITED57

Chapter One: Introduction

Background of the Study

Egypt's September 2005 presidential elections were not dissimilar to the others; images of women in a variety of colored headscarves were extensive. The general argument in all of these examples is the U.S. media's perseverance on using images of the cover or headscarf in its depiction of all Arab and Muslim women. In most of the cases, the story associated with these images does never even address women. Many of these images portray Arab and Muslim women for the American audience as an Other: different, sometimes exotically mysterious, sometimes backward and oppressed compared to American women. This thesis aims to examine such images and reports by U.S. newspapers in an effort to better comprehend how the U.S. media represents Muslim women. This thesis is important, given the increased awareness the Middle East region is getting from the western media, the government and American audiences, following the events of 9/11 (Gembrowski, 1).

Scope of the Study

Furthermore, Arab Americans are one of the main groups in the U.S. community, yet they do not receive adequate attention in terms of academic studies or media representation. According to the U.S. census bureau, as of 2000, almost 1.2 million Arabs were counted in the ...