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The Framing of Islam and Muslims inthe Tenth Anniversary Coverage of9/11: Implications for Reconciliationand Moving OnHalim Rane & Jacqui EwartPublished online: 12 Oct 2012.

To cite this article: Halim Rane & Jacqui Ewart (2012) The Framing of Islam and Muslims in theTenth Anniversary Coverage of 9/11: Implications for Reconciliation and Moving On, Journal ofMuslim Minority Affairs, 32:3, 310-322, DOI: 10.1080/13602004.2012.727292

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The Framing of Islam and Muslims in the TenthAnniversary Coverage of 9/11: Implications forReconciliation and Moving On

HALIM RANE and JACQUI EWART

Abstract

This article analyses Australian television news programmes' framing of the tenthanniversary of the events of 9/11. Our findings build on and reaffirm the earlierwork we did in this area—showing that television news programmes in Australiahave moved away from conflating terrorism with Muslims and Islam. We foundthat the tenth anniversary coverage was presented with the frames of “reconcilia-tion” and “moving on” from 9/11. The dominant frame used by Australian televi-sion news was based on the US–Australia relations, including a shared worldview,common experiences of lives lost in the attacks and a unified response in the context ofthe “war on terror”. Notably absent from the coverage was the attribution of refer-ences to bridge-building with Muslim minority communities.

Introduction

The events of and subsequent response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the USA had a pro-found impact on the Western world's perception of Islam and relations with Muslimscommunities living in Western countries. The tenth anniversary of 9/11 provided aunique opportunity to determine how the coverage was framed by some news mediaand whether the frames used have changed during the intervening decade. The anniver-sary also provided an almost unparalleled occasion to analyse public commemorationsand media coverage of the worldwide remembrances of this significant anniversary.

In this article, we use framing theory to examine how Islam and Muslims were coveredby the Australian television news media on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of 9/11.We do so to identify whether or not the news media's representation of Islam andMuslims has changed in the past decade. This article begins with an explanation ofmedia framing followed by an overview of key studies in the scholarly literature on themedia coverage of 9/11 and terrorism. It then examines research about the framing ofMuslims in the Australian news media. The article then presents our methodology forthis research followed by our findings and their implications for the study of Muslimminorities in the Western media.

Over the past decade, numerous studies have been published that specifically examinethe representation of Islam and Muslims in the mass media. This body of work tends tofocus on Muslims in Western societies, including Australia, Canada, the USA, the UKand Europe and how media representations impact on the place of Muslims in theWest.1 Media coverage of Muslims has been found to have increased in terms of bothvolume and negativity since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, as analysed, for example, inthe works of Anne Aly,2 Abdulkader Tayob,3 and Patrick Martin and Dean Phelan.4

Our focus, in this paper, is not primarily on howMuslims were portrayed in the television

Journal of Muslim Minority AffairsVol. 32, No. 3, September 2012, 310–322

ISSN 1360-2004 print/ISSN 1469-9591 online/12/030310-13 © 2012 Institute of Muslim Minority Affairshttp://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13602004.2012.727292

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coverage of the tenth anniversary of 9/11. Rather, we want to identify the frames withinwhich Islam and Muslims were featured and whether or not the media continues toconflate terrorism and Muslims.

News Media Framing

In order to identify the representation of Islam and Muslims in the coverage of the tenthanniversary of 9/11 we used news framing theory. News framing is an important elementin the construction of news narratives and also in the construction of audience under-standings of issues and events. Framing theory recognises the important role of newsframes in alerting audiences to certain explanations and courses of actions at theexpense of others. In this sense, frames can be seen as having a considerable influenceon the way in which audiences respond to issues and events.One of the earliest examples of framing research and a much-cited definition of frames

is based on the study of the relations between the news media and the Student New LeftMovement. It defined frames as “persistent selection, emphasis, and exclusion” andsuggested that frames enable journalists to process and package large amounts of infor-mation quickly.5 The notion of framing emphasises the ability of any entity—media, indi-viduals, governments, organisations or social movements—“to delineate other people'sreality, highlighting one interpretation while de-emphasizing a less favoured one”.6 Inthis sense, it enables the identification of grand narratives that are “preferenced” by anews story. In the context of communication research, Robert Entman provides one ofthe most cited definitions of framing:

To frame is to select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them moresalient in a communicating text, in such a way as to promote a particularproblem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatmentrecommendation for the item described.7

Reese further developed Entman's definition of framing by suggesting that “frames areorganizing principles that are socially shared and persistent over time, that work sym-bolically to meaningfully structure the social world”.8 These definitions neatly encap-sulate some of the key features of frames and the foci of frame analysis, each of whichis influenced by a range of potential factors. Miller and Riechart's identification ofthe four phases of the “framing cycle”: emergence; definition/conflict; resonance;and resolution are useful in our approach to the analysis.9 During the emergencephase reporting focuses primarily on the event that triggered the news report. Thisphase can be identified in Li's research on the first 24 h of coverage of 9/11. Oncean issue is on the public agenda, stakeholders seek to establish their point of viewas the appropriate frame for the issue by highlighting certain aspects of it and down-playing others—this is the definition/conflict stage of the cycle. During the resonancephase, one frame becomes ascendant because it resonates with the values and experi-ences of the public. The resolution phase is when one frame comes to dominate anddecision-makers set policy to conform to it.10 Of this phase, Miller and Riechertsuggest:

The winning frame can so dominate that others are delegitimized and given nocredence in the media and public discourse. When this occurs the dominantframe could be said to be acting hegemonically, rendering “natural” theprevailing definition of the situation.11

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Additionally, Hertog and McLeod have offered a useful discussion of how to studyframes. They suggest the first step is to identify the central concepts that make upvaried frames, which is often suggested by the choice of actors sourced in news texts.The next step is to identify a master narrative, which is a powerful organising devicefor disparate ideas and information. Analysis should also focus on the use of certain voca-bulary as it can often be employed to induce frames in a text, although caution must betaken in reading frames off from the use of certain words because it is often the case thatthey will be used in multiple frames. Hertog andMcLeod suggest it is important to matchframes to sponsor groups, be sensitive to the way in which frames can be presentedsymbolically, identify changes in frames over time and make hypotheses about therelationships between frames, issues, ideology and narrative structures.12

Post-9/11 Media Framing of Islam and Muslims

A number of studies have demonstrated that post-9/11 the media frames used in the cov-erage of Islam and Muslims have been based on orientalist depictions of a religion andpeople as a different, strange, inferior and a threating “other”.13 Since 9/11, media andpolitical discourse has tended to associate Islam with violence and values inimical tothose of Western societies.14 These studies have consistently found that terrorism, vio-lence and the threat of Islam tend to be the dominant media frames used in the coverageof Muslims. Since the events of 9/11, numerous studies have identified that Westernnews media conflate Islam and terrorism through portrayals of Muslims as terroristsand Islam as a religion that condones terrorist acts.15 It has also been suggested that9/11 profoundly changed the nature of journalism.16

Much of the research concerning the representation of Muslims in relation to coverageof terrorism has focused on the language used in the “war on terrorism”. In an analysis ofeditorials about the “war on terror” in the 10 largest newspapers in the USA, Ryan foundthat terms such as “patriotic”, “heroic”, “tolerant” and “generous” were frequently usedto describe Americans and their allies (and later “good” Arabs), whereas “cowardly”,“vicious”, “jealous” and “extremist” were terms used to describe everyone else. Thisstudy also noted a heavy reliance by editorial writers on official government sources asthey constructed their frames.17

The representation of terrorism and terrorists has also been a focus of this area ofresearch. Numerous studies of the media's representation or portrayal of Islam andMuslims invoke Edward Said's notion of Orientalism as an explanatory framework.The term “Islamophobia” has been used to describe the contemporary manifestationof Orientalist discourse. Like Orientalism, this discourse “does not allow for diversity;contradictions and semiotic tensions are ignored as the homogenising ethnocentric tem-plate of otherness assumes that there is only one interpretation of Islam”.18 Amir Saeedargues that this discourse manifests in direct links being made between Muslims andsupport for terrorism and fundamentalism and with British Muslims being imploredby voices in the media and politicians to make a more concerted effort to integrate intoBritish society.

In his study of coverage of Muslims in the American media, Karim identifies some ofthe visual signifiers that have developed in the transnational media's imaginaries of“Islamic fundamentalism”, including the hijab, the cloak and turban worn by Muslimulama, the Arab headdress and cloak, the face of Ayatollah Khomeini, people performingthe pilgrimage at Mecca and domes of mosques, among others.19 He says these imagesare deployed in the media and communicate a vast amount of information without the

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need for words. He also notes that the frames used to portray Muslims are deeplyentrenched and draw from cultural assumptions about Islam that have developed overmany generations. He suggests that the persistent representation of the violent Muslimserves a propaganda function as well as being highly profitable. In discussing coverageof the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Karim suggests:

Even though the events were extraordinary, their reporting—following theinitial period of disorientation—was eventually put in frames that had been inplace to cover such issues as violence, terrorism and Muslims. The dominantdiscourses about these issues shape the cognitive scripts for reporting the actsof terrorism carried out by people claiming to act in the name of Islam.20

Media coverage, Karim said, focused on the incidents themselves, rather than thebroader issues, and alternative voices, when heard, were brushed aside as interviewerssought confirmation for their pre-existing stereotypes of Islam.

Associative Framing

Within the cognitive framing paradigm, some scholars have advocated the idea of associ-ative framing, which focuses on the co-occurrence of news frames and their potential toinfluence strong mental associations of issues in the audience's mind.21While not withoutits weaknesses, researchers within this paradigm have produced some tentative findings inregard to media coverage of immigrants, Islam and terrorism. In the Dutch press between2000 and 2005, van Atteveldt, Ruigrok and Kleinnijenhuis found that after the 9/11attacks strong associations were made between Islam, migrants and terror relative to cov-erage prior to the attacks.22 However, as these authors acknowledge, the existence of anassociation between concepts or issues tells us little about the direction of the associationor the types of associations and the extent to which they are translated from the media tothe audience. Caution must therefore be exercised when interpreting findings such asthese. What the above-mentioned studies do confirm, however, is that post-9/11 thereporting of Islam and Muslims has been routinely presented with the frame of terrorismand hostility towards the Western world.

Australian News Media and the Framing of Islam and Muslims

In the Australian context, Anne Aly contends that the dominant representation ofMuslims within the media frame of terrorism marginalises Australia's Muslim populationand positions them as an unwanted “other”.23 According to Aly, the discourse on terror-ism and Islam in the Australian media has subsumed a range of discourses prompted bynational and international events, with the underlying message being that Islam is at oddswith the principles of Liberal democracy. She also notes an enduring correlation of Islamwith violence and the threat of terrorism since the 9/11 attack and refers to raids by theAustralian Federal Police on suspected terrorists and the media's portrayal of them asthe “enemy”. She references one newspaper story, headlined “The Enemy Within”,which she said collapsed the terms Muslim, illegal immigrant, terrorist and enemy, infer-ring that all Muslims in Australia were potential terrorists.In another study, Manning examines coverage of “Arabs” and “Muslims” in Sydney's

two major daily newspapers 12 months prior to and 12 months after the 9/11 terroristattacks, during which time a number of key events took place.24 In media coverage ofthe Israel−Palestine conflict he identified some significant differences in the language

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used. For example, “terrorism” is accepted as the defining term for Palestinian resistance,whereas “military campaign” is used to describe the actions of Israel. He also says thereligion of the terrorists—Islam—is often noted. Manning argues that this conflictconstitutes much of the imagery of what it means to be Arab or Muslim in the twonewspapers. He also cites revealing examples of articles in which the entire “Muslimcommunity” is framed as being responsible for gang rapes committed by men reportedto be “Lebanese Australians” and “Muslims”.25

In their analysis of the representation of Muslims and Islam in The Age and the HeraldSun newspapers in the period between 11 September 2001 and 31 December 2004,Akbarzadeh and Smith focused on the language used and changes in language use inresponse to major events; the frequency of coverage; the extent to which journalistsreferred to the diversity of Islam and Muslim cultures; and the typologies used to classifygroups and practices of Islam. Among their quantitative findings was that coverage inboth newspapers was dominated by news on terrorism, West-Islam relations, race andasylum seeker issues. While the majority of stories were identified as neutral, theauthors note that the context in which they were reported—“the war on terror”—wasnegative. The terms used in both newspapers to describe Islam and Muslims in associ-ation with terrorism included: fanatic, fundamentalist, purist, terrorist, radical, hard-line, extremist and militant, as seen in referential strategies such as “radical Islamicgroup” and “fundamentalist Islamic terrorists”, for example. The authors also notethat the use of Islam and Muslim as adjectives (i.e. “Islamic fundamentalism”,“Muslim extremists”) implies that Islam sanctions terrorism.26

Media coverage of Muslims not only shapes the views non-Muslims hold about Islambut it is also blamed by Muslims for what they perceive as their social exclusion27 and thepublic's negative attitudes towards Islam.28 Muslims in Australia express a lack of trust inthe mass media. In a study which used a sample of 428 Muslims in the city of Brisbane,Australia, Rane et al. found that of all social and public institutions, respondentsexpressed the lowest level of trust for the mass media with 29% stating they had “notrust” and another 36% with “very little trust” in the media. The same study alsofound that 57% “strongly agreed” and another 26% “agreed” that “the mass media isthe main source of negative attitudes towards Muslims”.29 Given the prominent role ofthe mass media since 9/11 in informing Western publics about Islam and Muslims,and in generating a perception among Muslims of responsibility for negativity towardsIslam andMuslims, an examination of the tenth anniversary coverage of 9/11 is necessaryto assess the continued validity of these assumptions.

Methodology

While there was significant discussion of the tenth anniversary of 9/11 by most formsof Australian media during the weeks preceding it, our focus is on the television newsitems broadcast on free-to-air television stations30 in Australia on 11 September 2011and 12 September 2011. Our sample includes these 2 days because of the time differ-ence between Australia and America and we note that the bulk of coverage on Austra-lian television news broadcasts was on 11 September 2011 with follow-up stories aboutthe commemorations across the USA broadcast on Australian television news pro-grammes on 12 September 2011. We examined the coverage of the tenth anniversaryof 9/11 by Australia's five free-to-air television stations. We identified stories broadcaston their main evening news bulletins to determine the answer to the following researchquestions:

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(1) How did Australia's five main television stations frame the tenth anniversaryof 9/11?

(2) Using the existing literature about the framing of 9/11 and subsequentanniversaries, what trends can be observed in respect to the news frames?

(3) How was Islam and Muslims covered within the context of the tenth anni-versary and how are references to the religion and its adherents positionedwithin the dominant news frames?

This study is based on analysis of 32 news stories concerning the anniversary of 9/11broadcast by Australia's five major television news stations on prime time evening newson 11 and 12 September 2011. These news stories were identified using the TVNEWSdatabase. There are five main free-to-air television channels in Australia: the AustralianBroadcasting Corporation (ABC), Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), Seven Network,Nine Network and Network Ten. ABC and SBS are both public broadcasting services,while Seven, Nine and Ten are commercial entities. All provide an evening newsservice. While ABC and SBS provide a national evening news service, Seven, Nineand Ten offer a state-based news service that is broadcast out of Australia's maincapital cities.Seven evening news is Australia's highest-rating news service, followed by Nine's

evening news, Ten's evening news, ABC's evening news and SBS's World NewsAustralia. In terms of audience share for 2010, Seven News gained 30%; Nine News,28%; Ten News, 26%; ABC News, 19%; and SBS's World News Australia, 4%(figures provided by OzTAM, February 2011. OzTAM is Australia's official source oftelevision audience measurement).Our first step in the analysis was to produce a full script for each of the news items,

along with details about the footage and images that accompanied each item. Eachstory was viewed several times to identify the “key concepts, dominant narratives andvocabulary” associated with each and the order in which they were presented.31 Wealso looked closely at the images used in each story in response to an emphasis in thescholarly literature that journalism creates a national community and reinforces thenation's values and identity through “symbolism and storytelling, devices that allowthem to place the facts of even shocking events into recognizable frameworks”.32 Kitchalso reminds us that news stories act as symbolic structures, which work to createmeaning. Each news story was also examined to identify the key news frames andmore specifically the language used and the imputations of that language. Sourcesused in each story were identified and it was noted whether they spoke directly orindirectly in the broadcast, or if they were only mentioned in the news story.33 Thiswas important because of the research that shows minorities are frequently not used assources in news stories that are about them or that directly affect them.

Data and Discussion

Across the five free-to-air television channels included in this study, a total of 32 storiesconcerning the tenth anniversary of 9/11 were broadcast. Of these, 18 were broadcast on11 September 2011 and 14 on 12 September 2011. The latter were included to corre-spond with marking of the occasion in the USA (east coast), which is 15 h behind Aus-tralia's east coast. The 32 stories amounted to over 97 min of coverage, almost 1 h on 11September and over 38 min on 12 September. However, it should be noted that on 12September SBS' stories on the anniversary amounted to almost 23 min alone, accounting

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for over half the broadcast time of all channels on that date. SBS is distinct from the othertelevision channels with respect to its focus on international news, which explains theamount of time it dedicated to the 9/11 anniversary events vis-à-vis the other channels.The tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks occupied a significant place on theAustralian news media agenda, particularly on 11 September 2011.

11 September 2011

The tenth anniversary of the attacks broadcast on 11 September 2011 was the lead storyof all five free-to-air channels. The dominant frame across all channels on 11 Septemberwas remembrance of the victims. The central theme of the coverage revolved aroundthe memorials that had been constructed in New York, Pennsylvania and at the Pentagonin the USA and the ceremonies at these three sites in honour of the victims of the attacks.All channels ran stories that specifically focused on both the memorials and theceremonies. News values of proximity and local relevance also shaped the constructionof the stories across the various channels. All five channels included features onAustralians who lost a family member in the attacks as well as memorial services takingplace in Australia.

Some specific differences in the coverage of the various channels were notable,however. ABC ran four stories totalling 12:23 min; both were framed in terms of theAustralia–US alliance. The main story of the broadcast not only featured highlightsfrom the memorials and ceremonies in New York, Pennsylvania and the Pentagon,including Australians attending the events, but also constructed strong links betweenAustralia and the USA through coverage of the war in Afghanistan and a retrospectiveaccount of jihadist terrorism in Indonesia which culminated in the Bali bombings anda wave of terrorists attacks in Jakarta. The other shorter stories featured the PrimeMinister speaking at a memorial service in Canberra at which the close relations sharedby Australia and the USA were reiterated; a memorial service in Sydney; and also SouthAustralian fire fighters commemorating the sacrifices of their US counterparts.

Channel Seven framed its coverage of the anniversary in terms of moving forwardbeyond the negative relations that characterised Islam and the West over the pastdecade. Its coverage consisted of three stories totalling almost 7 min. The first featuredthe memorials and ceremonies in New York, Pennsylvania and the Pentagon. Thesecond story began with a feature on Australians who lost family members in theattacks but focused on Simon Kennedy's (an Australian whose mother, YvonneKennedy, was killed in the attack on the Pentagon) condemnation of revenge attacksagainst Muslim people. The story then featured an interview with a Muslim personwho lost an eye in a revenge attack followed by an interview with Zaid Shakir, aleading African-American Islamic scholar. The nature of this interview was the needfor “a way forward” in terms of relations with America's Muslim communities.Channel Seven's third story covered memorial services in Victoria for two local victimsof the attacks. The US Consul General was interviewed as part of this story and he wasfeatured expressing the need to move beyond the grief and towards reconciliation.

Channel Nine ran four stories totalling almost 7 min, which like the ABC were framedin terms of Australia's close connection with the USA. The first story focused on thememorial sites and ceremonies in New York, Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon. Thesecond story featured an Australian who lost a relative in the attacks, while the thirdand fourth stories focused on memorial services in Melbourne and Canberra. The USConsul General was featured acknowledging the strong connections between the USA

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and Australia, while at the service in Canberra the Prime Minister spoke of Australia'sstrong bond with the USA.Channel Ten ran one lengthy story on the anniversary that went for almost 15 min,

more than double the time allocated by Channels Seven and Nine and also significantlylonger than the stories run by the ABC and SBS. This was followed by a number ofshorter stories, which ran for a further 6 min and focused on tributes and commemora-tions around Australia for the victims and heroes of the attacks. Channel Ten's coveragewas framed in terms of a comprehensive retrospective which featured the memorial sitesand ceremonies in both, the USA and Australia, as well as the Australians whose familymembers were victims of the attacks. Unlike the other channels, however, Channel Tenalso featured its own coverage of the original events and included interviews with its pre-senters and reporters who covered them.SBS framed its coverage in terms of Australia feeling the USA's pain on the occasion. It

ran two stories totalling over 12 min. The first story detailed the memorial sites and ser-vices in New York, Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon, while the second focused on mem-orial services conducted in Australia. With both stories, an overriding theme was how theanniversary was bringing people together.All five channels framed their coverage within the parameters of the official version of

the events of 11 September 2001. There is no questioning of the official version or anyreference to dissenting voices in spite of the plethora of opinions that challenge variousdetails of the events. Overall, the coverage was framed in terms of honouring thevictims. In this respect, the 10 Australians who were killed were central to the framingof the anniversary in terms of Australia's shared experiences with and connection tothe USA. Within this context, the ABC and Channel Ten also included Australia's invol-vement in Afghanistan.In spite of a focus during the earlier years of the post-9/11 decade on the threat of Isla-

mist terrorism, the tenth anniversary coverage makes very few references to Islam orMuslims. We will expand on this point later. For now, it is important to observe thatthe infrequency of reference to Islam and Muslims might be best explained in terms ofthe news frames employed. Coverage of the Islamist threat does not fit within framesbased on honouring victims and moving beyond the pain of the original event. Referencesto Islam and Muslims are telling in this regard. Only one story broadcast by the ABCmade reference to Islam-inspired violence, which was presented in the context of pre-9/11 violence between Muslim and Christian communities in Indonesia. This formedthe “background” of the story's feature on Islamist terrorism carried out in Bali andJakarta post-9/11. By contrast, Channel Seven and SBS both positioned their referencesto Islam and Muslims within the dominant frame of shared loss and moving on from 9/11. The former focused on hate crimes against Muslims post-9/11 and the initiatives ofAmerican Muslim leaders to build bridges of understanding with the wider society,while the latter focused on a memorial service that addressed the importance of interfaithdialogue post-9/11.

The Day After

Overall, 12 September 2011 offered less coverage of the tenth anniversary than the pre-vious day. Channels Seven and Nine as well as the ABC broadcast only one story on theevent, each for durations of 2:45, 1:50 and 2:42 min, respectively. Channel 10 presentedfour stories for a total of 8:31 min. SBS broadcast five stories, which amounted to22:56 min. These stories presented a comprehensive recap of the original attacks, the

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memorial sites and services in the USA, the responses of people attending the cer-emonies, memorials taking place in Europe and a retrospective of the war on terror.

It is noteworthy that the coverage on 12 September was not at the top of the newsagenda as was the case the previous day. With the exception of SBS, on which thetenth anniversary coverage was the lead story, on all the other channels the event occu-pied third and even fourth place behind such stories as a car chase, an Australiantennis player's (Sam Stosur) victory at the US Open, the escapades of an Australian foot-ball player (Brendan Fevola) and investigations into the death of a convicted Australiancriminal (Carl Williams).

Across all five channels, the coverage focused entirely on the memorial services held inNew York, Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon as well as featuring the Australianrelatives of the victims killed in the attacks. The dominant frame across all channelswas the remembrance of the victims, that they shall not be forgotten. Like the coverageof the previous day, the frame of honouring the victims did not involve blame or animos-ity towards people of the Islamic faith. Amidst the tributes to the victims, sentimentsof moving on from 9/11 were repeated, which was also a feature of the 9th anniversarycoverage.34

Islam and Muslims in the Tenth Anniversary Coverage

It is remarkable that the tenth anniversary coverage of 9/11 by the Australian televisionnews media made only limited reference to Islam or Muslims. The two groups mostclosely associated with the 9/11 attacks, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, were mentioned bya number of channels. Channel Ten, for instance, reported on the ongoing threat fromthe Taliban to disrupt the memorial services with a terrorist attack. This report,however, made no reference to Islam as an inspiration of ideological driver of eithergroup. The ABC also mentioned Al-Qaeda and the Taliban but in reference to the warin Afghanistan. The focus of this story was the cost of the war in terms of human livesand dollars as well as the plight of the Afghan people who will be “left to fight theTaliban” once coalition forces withdraw. The ABC also reported on Al-Qaeda “continu-ing the fight” with the West and continuing to “spread its message around the globe”.The impression these reports convey is that Al-Qaeda and the Taliban are groups thatreside outside of the mainstream of Muslims and that they are isolated and rejected.SBS, for instance, reported on a press conference held by the NATO Secretary-General who stated that Al-Qaeda have been sidelined by the Arab uprisings as thepeople demand freedom.

Where Muslims were mentioned in the coverage, the focus was on mainstreamMuslims. Channel Seven featured a Muslim man who was assaulted in a 9/11 revengeattack “because of [his] Islamic faith”. The Muslim man stated, “my Islamic faithtaught me not to take his life”. The story then featured an American Imam, ZaidShakir, who stated that “It's easy to hate, it's easy to demonise, but we have hard workbefore us to build bridges”. Similarly, SBS also positioned its references to Islam andMuslims with the frame of reconciliation and working together. SBS featured a 9/11memorial services held at Saint Mary's Church in Sydney which was attended byJewish, Christian and Muslims leaders. The theme of the service was the importanceof interfaith dialogue and the Muslim leader was shown addressing the audience. SBSalso focused on the difficulties faced by Muslim communities in the USA as a conse-quence of 9/11. The correspondent in New York, Brian Thomson, started the segmentwith the words:

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Well the tenth anniversary of the attacks marks a particularly difficult time forMuslims here in the United States. Attacks on the community continue and arecent report has revealed that thousands have been subjected to extensive sur-veillance by the New York Police Department. Even moderate Muslim leadersare questioning the direction in which the country is moving.

The story went on to present the perspective of a number of Muslim leaders including theImam of the New York mosque, about whom the correspondent stated “Imam ShamsiAli, originally from Indonesia, is a renowned moderate. His message is one of tolerance,understanding and engagement. It is not just directed at his own community. He says hehas viewed with dismay, the recent political discourse here—in particular the US Presi-dential debates”. Following comments from the Imam, the correspondent then added:

Many Muslims see the situation as now worse than it was in the immediateaftermath of the attacks. They say the hostility to the election of PresidentObama, and the divisive debate last year over the so called ground zeromosque—which is in fact some distance from where the twin towers oncestood—has made a bad situation worse.

The story was likely to elicit some degree of identification as well as sympathy and under-standing from audiences. In this regard, Teaneck, New Jersey Mayor MohammedHameeduddin (a Muslim) was featured stating:

We're Muslim Americans, we're neighbours, we're politicians, we're doctors,we're lawyers. You know we're teachers. We're part of the American fabric.And to single us out and to put out these bills that are unconstitutionalsaying you can't practice your religion and anti-sharia bills and thingslike that. These pavlovian triggers that the Islamophobes are very good atputting out there… That's something that our community really, I'd say, weare hurt by.

Such references to Islam and Muslims were not made as part of a narrative about anIslamic threat or Islam versus the West. Rather, they were presented by the Australiantelevision news media as part of a reconciliation process that has been identified inprevious research.35

This finding is highly significant given the plethora of scholarly research over the pastdecade that has identified a close association between Islam and terrorism in news report-ing since 11 September 2001.36 Our study suggests that the mass media in Australia havenot remained static in their representation of Islam and Muslims and that there has beenan evolution in journalistic practice with respect to the reporting of issues concerningMuslims and Islam, at least with respect to 9/11. Absent from the coverage of thetenth anniversary were the types of stereotypical images of Islam and Muslims thatnumerous other studies have identified as being commonly used in the media. The domi-nant frames used in the coverage of the tenth anniversary were not associated with terror-ism, a threat or enmity or even blame. Rather, they were based on remembrance of thevictims and reconciliation. Within these frames, the Taliban and Al-Qaeda were men-tioned but presented as being outside of the Islamic mainstream. The focus was onMuslims engaged in initiatives to promote mutual understanding, bridge-building andreconciliation.The findings of this study also have important implications for Muslim minorities in

the West. As previously cited, studies have found that media reporting of Islam and

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Muslims has been identified byMuslims in the West as a key factor in their perceptions ofsocial exclusion. Moreover, Muslims in the West tend to blame the mass media for thenegativity they perceive towards Islam and their communities.37 Over the past two anni-versaries of 9/11 we have observed more responsible reporting of Islam and Muslims bythe Australian television news media. While several years of pejorative reporting may wellhave contributed to negative attitudes towards Muslims in the West, the 9/11 anniversarycoverage may indicate a turning of the tide as far as news reporting is concerned. We donot suggest that negative attitudes towards Muslims will change immediately as a conse-quence; however, we would expect that Muslims will feel a stronger sense of contentmentin the absence of media reports that they find offensive. We suggest that further researchneeds to be conducted in order to test this hypothesis.

Conclusion

Our study and its findings have revealed that the narratives about Muslims and Islam inconnection with 9/11 have shifted in Australia, at least in one form of media. It was notsurprising that the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks received substantialcoverage from Australian television news media, given the scale of the events and invol-vement of Australians in them. The dominant frame across the five free-to-air Austra-lian television news broadcasts was commemoration through the memorials andceremonies taking place both in the USA and Australia for which the central focuswas the remembrance of the victims. Notably absent from the coverage was anyreference to Islam or Muslims in terms of responsibility for the 9/11 attacks. While anumber of the news stories make reference to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, Muslims ingeneral were not conflated with such groups nor is the ideology of such groupspresented as a mainstream interpretation of Islam. The coverage of the tenthanniversary did not make reference to an Islamic threat. Rather, the few references tothe religion and its adherents appeared in the context of bridge-building, moving onand reconciliation.

These findings mark a departure from previous research on media representations ofIslam and Muslims post-9/11 and indicate a trend away from the pejorative reportagethat has been apparent for much of the past decade. As such, our findings present a chal-lenge to prevailing thought on the news media's tendency to conflate Muslims and Islamwith terrorism, particularly during the coverage of significant events such as the tenthanniversary of 9/11. Part of the explanation for this shift in media representation ofIslam and Muslims could be a corresponding shift in political discourse that occurredin the USA with the election of President Barack Obama in 2008 and in Australia withthe election of the Labour Government in 2007 then led by Prime Minister KevinRudd. Both leaders were elected in part due to public frustration with the war onterror and their commitment to bringing troops home. More importantly, PresidentObama's policy of a “new beginning” with the Muslim world, which he initiated in hisinauguration address and followed up with his historic addresses in the parliament ofTurkey and at Cairo University, is likely to have encouraged a more inclusive and recon-ciliatory discourse towards Muslims. In Australia, the election of the Labour Govern-ment also marked a shift towards more inclusive political and media discourse withrespect to minority groups, including Muslims.38 Further research is needed to explorethe potential impacts that this trend will have on Muslim minorities in the West andrelations with their respective societies.

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NOTES

1. See, for instance, PeterMorey and Amina Yaqin, FramingMuslims: Stereotyping and Representation after9/11, Cambridge: HarvardUniversity Press, 2011; Anne Aly,AStudy of Audience Responses to theMediaDiscourse about the “Other”: The Fear of Terrorism Between Australian Muslims and the Broader Commu-nity, Lewiston: Edwin Melllen Press, 2010; Halim Rane, Jacqui Ewart and Mohamad Abdalla, eds.,Islam and the Australian NewsMedia, Carlton:Melbourne University Press, 2010; ReemAbou-El-FadlandKeremÖktem, eds.,MutualMisunderstandings?Muslims and Islam in the EuropeanMedia: Europe inthe Media of Muslim Majority Countries, Oxford: European Studies Centre, 2009; Elizabeth Poole andJohn Richardson, eds., Muslims and the News Media, London: I.B. Tauris, 2006.

2. Anne Aly, “Australian Muslim Response to the Discourse on Terrorism in the Australian PopularMedia”, Australian Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 42, No. 1, 2007, pp. 27–40.

3. Abdulkader Tayob, “Muslim Responses to Integration Demands in the Netherlands since 9/11”,Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge, Vol. 5, No. 1, 2006, pp. 73–90.

4. PatrickMartin andDean Phelan, “Representing Islam in theWake of September 11: A Comparison ofUS Television and CNN Online”, Prometheus, Vol. 20, No. 3, 2002, pp. 263–269.

5. Todd Gitlin, The Whole World Is Watching: Mass Media in the Making and Unmaking of the New Left,Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1980, p. 7.

6. Zizi Papacharissi andMaria de Fatima Oliveira, “News Frames Terrorism: A Comparative Analysis ofFrames Employed in TerrorismCoverage inU.S. andU.K.Newspapers”, Press/Politics, Vol. 13,No. 1,2008, pp. 52–74.

7. Robert Entman, “Framing: Toward Clarification of a Fractured Paradigm”, Journal of Communication,Vol. 43, No. 4, 1993, pp. 51–58.

8. Stephen Reese, “Prologue—Framing Public Life: A BridgingModel for Media Research”, in FramingPublic Life: Perspectives onMedia and Our Understanding of the Social World, ed. S. Reese, H. Gandy, andA. Augus, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2001, pp. 7–31.

9. Mark Miller and Bonnie Riechert, “The Spiral of Opportunity and Frame Resonance: Mapping theIssue Cycle in News and Public Discourse”, in Framing Public Life, ed. S.D. Reese, O.H. Gandy,and A.E. Grant, op. cit., pp. 107–121.

10. Xigen Li, “Stages of a Crisis and Media Frames and Functions: U.S. Television Coverage of the 9/11Incident during the First 24 Hours”, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Vol. 51, No. 4, 2007,pp. 670–687.

11. M. Miller and B. Riechert, “The Spiral of Opportunity and Frame Resonance”, op. cit., p. 114.12. James Hertog and Douglas McLeod, “A Multiperspectival Approach to Framing Analysis: A Field

Guide”, in Framing Public Life, ed. S. Reese, O. Gandy, and A. Grant, op. cit., pp. 139–161.13. See, for instance, Kimberly Powell, “Framing Islam: An Analysis of U.S. Media Coverage of

Terrorism Since 9/11”, Communication Studies, Vol. 62, No. 1, 2011, pp. 90–112; Deepa Kumar,“Framing Islam: The Resurgence of Orientalism During the Bush II Era”, Journal of CommunicationInquiry, Vol. 34, No. 3, 2010, pp. 254–277; Erin Steuter and Deborah Wills, “Discourses ofDehumanisation: Enemy Construction and Canadian Media Complicity in the Framing of the Waron Terror”, Global Media Journal, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2009, pp. 7–24; Peter Manning, Us and Them,Sydney: Random House, 2006; Elizabeth Poole, Reporting Islam: Media Representations and BritishMuslims, London: I.B. Tauris, 2002.

14. See, for instance, K. Powell, “Framing Islam”, op. cit., pp. 90–112; E. Steuter and D. Wills,“Discourses of Dehumanisation”, op. cit., pp. 7–24; P. Martin and D. Phelan, “Representing Islamin the Wake of September 11”, op. cit., pp. 263–269.

15. See, for instance, Pippa Norris, Montague Kern and Marion Just, eds., Framing Terrorism: The NewsMedia, The Government and the Public, New York: Routledge, 2003, pp. 3–23; Z. Papacharissi andM. de Fatima Oliveira, “News Frames Terrorism”, op. cit., pp. 52–74; and Michael Ryan,“Framing the War Against Terrorism: US Newspaper Editorials andMilitary Action in Afghanistan”,Gazette: The International Journal for Communication Studies, Vol. 66, No. 5, 2004, pp. 363–382.

16. Barbie Zelizer and Stuart Allen, Journalism After September 11, London: Routledge, 2002.17. M. Ryan, “Framing the War Against Terrorism”, op. cit., pp. 363–382.18. Amir Saeed, “Media Racism and Islamophobia: The Representation of Islam and Muslims in the

Media”, Sociology Compass, Vol. 1, No. 2, 2007, p. 457.19. See, Karim, “American Media's Coverage of Muslims: The Historical Roots of Contemporary

Portrayals”, in Muslims and the News Media, ed. E. Poole and J.E. Richardson, London: I.B. Tauris,2006, pp. 116–127.

20. Ibid., p. 125

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21. Wouter van Atteveldt, Nel Ruigrok, and Jan Kleinnijenhuis, “Associative Framing: A UnifiedMethodfor Measuring Media Frames and the Media Agenda”, Paper presented at the annual meeting of theInternational Communications Association, International Congress Centre, Dresden, Germany, 16June 2006, http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p92735_index.html (accessed September 27, 2010).

22. Ibid.23. A. Aly, “Australian Muslim Response to the Discourse on Terrorism”, op. cit., pp. 27–40.24. P. Manning, Us and Them, op. cit.25. Ibid.26. Shahram Akbarzadeh and Bianca Smith, The Representation of Islam andMuslims in the Media (The Age

and Herald Sun Newspapers), Clayton, Vic: School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University,eBook, 2005.

27. Samina Yasmeen, “Understanding Muslim Identities: From Perceived Relative Exclusion toInclusion”, 2008, http://www.cmss.uwa.edu.au/cmss_publications?f=266453 (accessed May 20,2011).

28. Halim Rane, Mahmood Nathie, Ben Isakhan, and Mohamad Abdalla, “Towards UnderstandingWhat Australia's Muslims Really Think”, Journal of Sociology, Vol. 47, No. 2, 2011, pp. 123–143.

29. Ibid.30. Free-to-air television is broadcast to the general public by licenced networks and does not require

subscription or charge any fee to view.31. Jacqui Ewart and Halim Rane, “Moving on from 9/11: How Australian Television Reported the Ninth

Anniversary”, Journal of Media and Religion, Vol. 10, No. 2, 2011, pp. 55–72; see also J. Hertog andD. McLeod, “A Multiperspectival Approach to Framing Analysis”, op. cit., pp. 139–161.

32. Carolyn Kitch, “Mourning in America: Ritual, Redemption and Recovery in News Narrative afterSeptember 11”, Journalism Studies, Vol. 4, No. 2, 2003, p. 215.

33. Ibid.34. J. Ewart and H. Rane, “Moving on from 9/11”, op. cit.35. Ibid.36. P. Morey and A. Yaqin, “Framing Muslims”, op. cit.; A. Aly, “A Study of Audience Responses to the

Media Discourse about the Other”, op. cit.; H. Rane, J. Ewart, and M. Abdalla, eds., “Islam and theAustralian News Media”, op. cit.; R. Abou-El-Fadl and K. Öktem, eds., “Mutual Misunderstand-ings?”, op. cit.; E. Poole and J. Richardson, eds., “Muslims and the News Media”, op. cit.

37. S. Yasmeen, “Understanding Muslim Identities”, op. cit.; H. Rane et al., “Towards UnderstandingWhat Australia's Muslims Really Think”, op. cit.

38. Halim Rane and Abdi Hersi, “Meanings of Integration in the Australian Press Coverage of Muslims:Implications for Social Inclusion and Exclusion”, Media International Australia, No. 142, February,2012, pp. 135–147.

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