Representation of Muslim Women and Print Media: A CDA of American Newspaper’s Discourses

Abstract

Print media representation of Islam and Muslims is far from being neutral especially post 9/11 and 7/7. A war of words has become a prominent feature in media discourses about Islam and Muslims. Highly politicized language is used for positive self and negative other representation. Negative othering of Muslim women along with Muslim men is new emerging trend observed in print media discourses of American newspapers. Similarly, the present research critically decodes the discourse of articles of an American newspaper ‘The Washington Post’ to find out representation of Muslim women at Discoursal level. The time span for data collection for the present research ranges from June 2019 to December 31, 2019. The articles related to the coverage of Islam, Muslims were selected, and afterward the screening of the data was done to further delimit the study. The articles related to representation of Muslim women were singled out for analysis. The data has been analysed by employing Fairclough’s (2003) model of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The analytical categories used in the mentioned research model include representation, metaphor, lexicalization, number game, inclusion, exclusion and otherisation. The analysis of the data reveals that 100% negative representation of Muslim women has been observed. The study contends that like Muslim men Muslim women have also been represented involved in terrorist activities against America. Though they are prisoned for their violent activities, yet even in prison they train other Muslim women to inflect injuries to the American and western people. The adjectives used for Muslim women include oppressed, vailed, mysterious and terror mothers. Moreover, the research illustrates that print media discourses are one of the influential sites to invest ideology about Others and US accordingly.