Islam+Through+Editorial+Lenses

The authors of this article categorized three ways of speaking about Muslims either, favorable, neutral, and unfavorable. They determined that after September 11th when writing about the Muslim world //The Washington Post// had 8.1% of their stories in a neutral lighting, 16.3% were favorable and 72.1% were unfavorable. //The New York Times// had 39.9% of their stories in a neutral lighting, 13% were favorable and 47.1% were unfavorable.
 * Islam Through Editorial Lenses By Melina Trevino, Ali Kanso and Richard Nelson**

Although there is a balance and the newspapers are not completely bias but they still tend to have a large amount of stories speaking unfavorably about Muslims. This of course is going to pass on ideals to the reader. Ideals that the reader has a very hard time accepting or rejecting because the information is in the form of news. We have been taught that the news gives us correct information, in actuality the news gives us a story on an event with a premade decision inside the story.

By using certain words continually the propagandist creates heuristic devices by use of words. Trevino, Kanso and Nelson state in their article that when an article speaks negatively of the Muslim world these adjectives are often used in the descriptions. “terror/terrorist/terrorism, extremist/extremism, bomb/bomber/bombing, kidnap/kidnapping, assassin/assassinate/assassination, murder/murderers/murderous, killers, beheading, militant, jihad and guerilla” (p. 13). When hearing these words they become our mental shortcut to the Muslim world, not only that but the reverse happens too. When thinking of the Muslim world, these terms will come to mind.

Trevino, Kanso and Nelson also used a poll done in 2004 by the Pew Research Center on attitudes towards Islam 37% of Americans 'say they have an unfavorable view of Islam' 46% of Americans 'believe Islam is more likely than other religions to encourage violence among its believers' [|video]