Tearing Us Apart? Muslims’ Attitudes Toward the Majority Population in Response to Differentiated Versus Undifferentiated News About Terror

Authors

  • Desirée Schmuck KU Leuven
  • Jörg Matthes University of Vienna
  • Christian von Sikorski University of Koblenz-Landau
  • Mona Rahmanian U of Vienna
  • Beril Bulat UC Davis

Keywords:

Terrorism news, differentiation, proximity, discrimination, Muslims, Islam

Abstract

The intensive news coverage about terrorist attacks committed by the so-called Islamic State (IS) has raised concerns about unwanted effects on intergroup relations between Muslims and non-Muslims in Western societies. News coverage, which makes an explicit distinction between Muslims and IS terrorists (i.e., differentiated news), may reduce negative media perceptions, perceived discrimination, and hostile intergroup attitudes among Muslims. Within two experimental studies, we explored Muslim news consumers’ responses to terror news coverage depending on news differentiation and the terrorist attack’s proximity. Results indicated that Muslims evaluated the perceived news quality of differentiated compared with undifferentiated news reports higher irrespective of the terrorist attack’s proximity, which was negatively related to perceived discrimination and negative attitudes toward the non-Muslim majority population. These findings suggest that news differentiation can contribute to improved intergroup relations between Muslim minority members and the non-Muslim majority population in Western societies.

Author Biographies

Desirée Schmuck, KU Leuven

Desirée Schmuck (PhD, University of Vienna) is a tenure-track assistant professor at the School for Mass Communication Research at KU Leuven, Belgium.

Jörg Matthes, University of Vienna

Jörg Matthes (PhD, University of Zurich) is a professor of communication science at the Department of Communication, University of Vienna, Austria. He is also the director of the Department of Communication at the University of ViennaT: +43-1-4277-493 07eFax: +43-1-4277-8493 07eMail: joerg.matthes@univie.ac.at

Christian von Sikorski, University of Koblenz-Landau

Christian von Sikorski (PhD, German Sport University) is a tenure-track professor at the Department of Political Psychology, University of Koblenz-Landau (at Landau), Germany.

Mona Rahmanian, U of Vienna

Mona Rahmanian is a former Master student at the Department of Communication, University of Vienna, Austria.

Beril Bulat, UC Davis

Beril Bulat is a PhD student at the Department of Communication, University of California Davis, USA.

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Published

2022-02-27

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Section

Articles