Who is the Muslim? Discursive Representations of the Muslims and Islam in Indian Prime Time News (original) (raw)
Related papers
Mass Media and Muslims in India: Representation or Subversion
In contemporary times no discussion on the “public sphere” is complete unless it takes into account the role of media in representing concerns of the citizens. TheMedia has become an extremely important institution, with almost unlimited power in today's society. It initiates debates, facilitates dialogue, and shapes public consciousness. It is within this spectrum that this paper attempts to examine the role of metropolitan dailies in highlighting the concerns of a minority community—Muslims in this case—and in assimilating them in the mainstream society. The paper presents a content analysis of the coverage given to the rape case of a Muslim woman in the mainstream print media. The objective of this paper is to look at questions like:What was the priority and “news-space” accorded to the particular incident in national dailies? Whether the incident deserved such coverage or was it blown out of proportion deliberately? Whether the coverage was objective or was it just another practice of news feeding exercise? What were newspapers' intentions? Does the Indian media represent the interests of the Muslim community or just to portray a subverted image of the community? These and related questions are examined in the light of the case study of Imrana that made the national headlines.
Portrayal Of Muslims As Threat To Society By The Media-An Overview In Indian Context
The mass media has transformed the manner in which information is collected and disseminated. It has been the singular most powerful tool of influence, mobilization and shaping of political, religious, economic, cultural etc. agendas and discourse. The media has the unique and often grueling responsibility of reporting fair and unbiased news stories. However, the global media are now overlooking the ethical issues especially when it comes to the question of Muslims, which has been highlighted in the paper. The central theme of the research work is to through light on the Systemic discrimination against Muslims and the recurrent negative portrayal of Muslims in India by the media. Exaggerated misrepresentation of Muslims by the media has pushed Muslims of India to the very margin of society – a dangerous trend that threatens to alienate them. The risk of creating social outcasts is seen as a great challenge to the long–term cohesion of society. Media has launched a concerted campaign against Muslims in the name of a campaign against terror and has torn down the image of Muslims and has limited it to terrorists only. Media in India has double standards while reporting about Muslims and is politicized which has been highlighted in this research paper. Keywords: Islam, Media. Muslims, Terrorists
Coverage of Indian newspapers on Muslim issues: Content analysis of The Times of India and The Hindu
India is a home to multi-cultural communities, where different religions, multi-lingual and ethnic groups exist. The issue of Muslims and media is fiercely debated issue across India as well as the world. The Islamo-phobia gained lot of popularity among mass media. Love jihad, Terrorism, and suicide bombing are the frequent topics discussed in mainstream Indian media. The main objective of the research is to find out the visibility and the frequentpitch of the news coverage on second largest minority in the mainstream newspapers that play a vital role in representation of Muslims. Comparative study was conducted and content analysis method was used to find out the tone of the newspapers. For the purpose of the study, two national newspapers TheTimes of India and TheHinduwere analyzed for the period of two months excluding the supplements.
MUSLIM MINORITY IN BIASED MEDIA REPORTING
Indian Streams Research Journal , 2014
India is a land of rich diversities in terms of religion, language, customs, traditions etc.Hindus are in majority and followed by Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Parsis, who are in minorities ? According to 2001 Census of India, Muslim population comprised about13.4% of the total population of India. Prima facie, India is a secular country and its constitution guarantees equal rights to all its citizens without any discrimination on the lines of caste, religion, language and race. But the same is not happening with the print media. In the age of information technology, print and social media is playing negative role at least in the context of the minorities,as viewed by the minority’s commentators. The fact is that media without any kind of evidenceand investigation soon after whatever terrorist activities being taken place, portrayed Muslims asterrorists. However, it cannot be denied that there may be actual cases that spoiling and downgradingthe name of community . Generally, it has been seen that whenever legal or illegal arrest of any Muslim is there, lot of coverage is given in the media but whenever after investigation s (he) is released, no coverage used to take place. This kind of discrimination on the part of media raises a serious question on the credibility of print media. The main focus of this paper is to findout how Muslim minorities is portrayed in the media
In post-9/11 India, scores of individuals (including minors under the age of 18) were arrested, tortured, imprisoned and killed in “encounters” as “terrorists”. Though some have been released from prisons, most continue languishing in jail. A running thread behind all these cases of arrest, torture, killing –beyond the divide of region, language, profession, age and gender –seems to be the intertwining theme of “treason” and “terrorism” which media, security agencies, institutions of law, and police collaboratively manufacture, rather than report, in such a way that terrorism and Islam or Muslims become synonymous. It is because of this invisible logic that media comfortably blame “Muslim terrorists” even for the deadly explosions in a mosque or graveyard. I argue that Indian media discourse on terrorism is linked to West’s discourse on War on Terror so intimately that one might substitute the other; both painstakingly produce and distinguish “good Muslims” from “bad Muslims” and thereby vilify Islam. Based on the thick description of the dynamic amongst, terrorism, nation and media, I demonstrate how the post-9/11 political-legal landscape of India is perfectly Kafkaesque. I present qualitative data from media reports on terrorism and testimonials about and by terrorists, to illustrate my contention about the Kafkaesque landscape of media discourses on terrorism in India. As a case study, I analyze an important NDTV talk-show (of 2001) on Muslims and terrorism. Next I focus on Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and Indian Mujahideen (IM) – two most-discussed terrorist outfits – to show inconsistency, inaccuracy, even contradiction, in media reports on them. I also discuss what remains invisible in media – the repression of evidence, secret torture chambers and illegal means deployed against “terrorists”. Critical to my analysis is also how media reporting on Muslim terrorists bears important markers of their cultural identity as well as how the mediatized discourses on terrorism may impact the judicial processes.
The Portrayal of Islam In The Indian Mass Media
The Indian sub-continent being one of the oldest cradles of civilization boasts of amazing ethnic, cultural, and communal diversity. The mosaic of religions in this region is so complicated that often the interpretations of a particular faith get antithetical representations. The interesting contrast of monotheism and polytheism in the two leading religions of the region, Islam and Hinduism, the two major contrasting theological dogmas further accentuate the disparate perceptions and images of these religions in the media. Post-Hindutava upsurge, the Indian Hindu revivalism has distorted the minority religion's public image and has led to a devious propaganda which perhaps was non-existent in a country with a secular tradition for nearly 40 years in post-independence India. The iconoclastic attempts to "reinvent Islam" as a fundamentally polarized ideology and inherently opposed to Hinduism and other allied religions has created an interesting perspective within the cross-section of the media. On one hand, the images are those of a secular and all-encompassing fabric of unity which allows several centuries of melting influences between two faiths. And on the other hand, there is a schism which reinforces the inherently distinct identity of the two religions and juxtaposes Islam as the "outsider's faith". In the wake of the Babri Masjid episode, the entire nation was seized with communally sensitive portrayal of Islam as the invader's religion. Subsequently, the mass psyche was assaulted with an array of anti-Islam projections which stirred up the hysteria against and even for Islam.
How the Indian Magazines Framing the Image of Muslims
International Journal of Multidisciplinary Educational Research, 2016
Magazines seek to educate as well as entertain and to portray real people close to the readers. Although these weekly supplements are an integral part of the newspapers. It is reflecting society. Magazine writing lies between a work of fiction and hard news reporting. At the same time, the magazine journalists present interesting, topical information-hard facts gained from research and interviews. In India, Islam is the second most dominant religion with a 14.2 % Muslim population. The representation of Muslims in Magazine journalism is purposefully neglected by Indian Magazines not only quantitatively but also qualitatively. Media play a significant role in a pluralistic society like India in constructing the image of Muslims. This paper is an attempt to find out the Muslim representation in magazine journalism in India.
Global Political Review, 2024
Muskan Khan, a hijab-wearing Muslim student, was chased and intimidated by the majority of Hindu students of her college, but she refused to be cowed down raising the slogan Allah o Akbar. The incident gained international fame and she was given the title of hijab girl. Indian TV channels, The Republic World, Time Now, NDTV, and India Today, covered the incident. In this qualitative research, the researchers analyzed hijab coverage in current events and TV shows on the said TV channels. The findings revealed that the Indian Muslim minority was demonized in the media, and TV news programs in the country aired antihijab programming, equating the head covering with terrorism. The Indian news channel anchors and guests exaggerated, fabricated, and twisted the on-air content to create hatred against the hijab and Islam. They subtly showed their anti-Muslim political leanings in the content they produced and blamed Islam for the adversity.