Media representations of the hijab - Julie Posetti, University of Canberra

• Introduction
• Theoretical context – literature review
• Depictions of Muslim women
• Australian perspectives
• References
• Content analysis
• Timeline
• Definitions of key terms
   
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Theoretical context – literature review

The literature indicates that negative stereotyping and reactionary reporting have historically typified coverage of Islam and Muslims. Muslim women are almost invariably portrayed as oppressed and veiled, a terrorist threat or exotic, sexualised beings. This is in line with Said’s theory of Orientalism (Said, 1978), which contends that the Muslim world and its inhabitants are considered backward, barbaric and outsiders to Western society. This “othering” of Muslims is notable in the media in terms of the coverage of Muslim women. Most representations of Muslim women involve them wearing traditional Islamic clothing such as the hijab, and their role in the media is generally limited to commentary on issues such as the veil.

Three underlying themes run through the reporting of the hijab: media attitudes to reporting Islam; the social/religious/political context of stories about Muslims; and the social/religious/political context of the hijab.

Based on an analysis of 12,000 articles in The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) and the Daily Telegraph, Manning (2004) concluded that the coverage of Arab and Muslim affairs has been imbued with an increasingly negative and racist tone. He found that asylum seekers were portrayed in the leading print media as tricky, ungrateful and undeserving, concluding that “the Sydney Morning Herald and the Telegraph had a very damaging, demeaning view of Arabic and Muslim people” (The Age, October 10, 2005). He argues that the global impact of September 11 has resulted in the mis-identification and interpretation of criminal events (such as terrorist attacks) as essentially religious ones. He further argues that journalists are aiding the development of an antipodean version of “Orientalism”. More recently, Manning labelled the Australian media’s coverage of Muslims as being tainted with racism (Munro, 2006). He argues the media portray Muslims as “tricky, sleazy, sexual and untrustworthy”, as uniformly violent, as oppressors of women, and as members of a global conspiracy opposed to Australian values (ibid). He also criticises politicians for “stoking up the embers of racist hatred … As a nation I think we are awash with misunderstanding about Islam” (ibid).

Poynting has documented cycles of attacks on Australian Muslims and people of Middle Eastern backgrounds before and after September 11, 2001. He identifies “racist media panics which criminalise whole communities” as a form of attack along with “racial vilification for political advantage, physical assault and property damage, and police and security service raids which compromise civil links between racist attacks and stereotyped constructs of Middle Eastern ethnic groups” (Poynting, 2002). He argues that political opportunism and sensationalist headlines lead to, and give licence to, racist attacks in shops, streets and workplaces, and he identifies a dramatic upsurge in such attacks since September 11. Poynting has also documented the racist targeting and labeling of young people of Arab and/or Muslim background which can result in the mis-identification of complex problems generally associated with class and education as racial ones (Poynting, Noble & Tabar, 2001).

Drawing on the research of Poynting and Noble, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission examined a period covering the aftermath of the Bali bombings, the Sydney gang-rape trials and the asylum-seeker debate. The report concluded that: “The need for action is urgent. In the current environment of fear and suspicion fostered by terrorism and the ‘war on terror’, our multicultural values of social equity and respect for diversity are at risk of diminishing.” (HREOC, 2003, p. 1)

After analysing calls to a hotline set up by the Community Relations Commission for a Multicultural NSW, Dreher concluded that a climate of fear and insecurity continued to impact on experiences of citizenship and belonging among the communities targeted (Dreher, 2003).

In a report exploring the Victorian print media’s representation of Muslims and Islam in news stories between September 11, 2001, and December 31, 2004, Akbarzadeh and Smith reach the “unavoidable” conclusion that balanced and careful news coverage of sensitive issues about or impacting on Muslims is vital (Akbarzadeh & Smith, 2005).

Dunn has also criticised the Australian news media’s coverage of Muslims and Islam, arguing that Australian Muslims have surpassed Asians as one of the country's most marginalised religious and ethnic groups (Morris, 2003). Dunn blames “Islamaphobia” on media representations of Muslims and a heritage of Western antipathy to Islam.

Perhaps the most controversial research on the coverage of racism in the Australian media was sponsored by the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board. Launched in 2003, the report Race for headlines (McCausland, 2003) was pulped by the State Government shortly after its launch. Forthright and damning, it concludes that sections of the NSW media, in the period analysed, actively fuelled racial hostilities by their portrayal of stories that are inflammatory, rather than explanatory. In the context of the historic representation and understanding of race, the report analyses media debates over an 18-month period (including the 2001 federal election), highlighting how a “new racism” has come to permeate media narratives and how mainstream debates have become racialised – either deliberately or in more subtle, coded ways. This study directly links the media’s reporting of such issues to an increasing level of racial vilification against Muslims.

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