Terrorism & media coverageTerror attacks in U.S. receive five times more media coverage if perpetrator is Muslim: Study

The U.S. media covers terror attacks in the United States carried out by Muslims more than five times as much as the coverage by the same media of terrorist attacks carried out by non-Muslims, a new study finds.

The researchers analyzed the coverage of all terrorist attacks in the United States between 2011 and 2015, and found there was a 449 percent increase in media coverage when the perpetrator was Muslim relative to acts of terrorism perpetrated by non-Muslims.

Muslims committed 12.4 percent of terrorist attacks in the United States between 2011 and 2015 — but received 41.4 percent of news coverage.

The authors said that their finding suggests that it is reasonable to posit that the U.S. media is making people disproportionately fearful of Muslim terrorists.

The Independent reports that the researchers studied U.S. newspaper coverage of every terrorist attack on American soil between 2011 and 2015, and counted up the total number of articles dedicated to each attack.

They found, for example, that the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, in which three people were killed and a score wounded by two Muslim attackers, received almost 20 percent of all coverage relating to U.S. terror attacks in the five-year period.

In contrast, the 2012 killing of six people at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin that left six people dead, an attacj carried out by white nationalist Wade Michael Page, constituted just 3.8 percent of coverage. 

The mass shooting by Dylann Roof at an African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina, killed nine people, but received only 7.4 percent of media coverage. The 2014 attack by neo-Nazi Frazier Glenn Miller on two Kansas Jewish community centers left three dead, but received just 3.3 percent of mediareports.

The researchers note that according to research carried out at Georgia State University, all the attacks by white extremists listed above meet the widely used definitions of terrorism.

The authors said their finding debunked Donald Trump’s suggestion, made in February, that the media is not reporting terrorist attacks carried out by Muslims.

“When President Trump asserted that the media does not cover some terrorist attacks enough, it turns out that he was correct,” they wrote. “However, his assertion that attacks by Muslim perpetrators received less coverage is unsubstantiated.

“Regardless of other factors, attacks perpetrated by Muslims receive a disproportionate amount of media coverage. In the present data, Muslims perpetrated 12.4 percent of the attacks yet received 41.4 percent of the news coverage.

“Whether the disproportionate coverage is a conscious decision on the part of journalists or not, this stereotyping reinforces cultural narratives about what and who should be feared. 

“By covering terrorist attacks by Muslims dramatically more than other incidents, media frame this type of event as more prevalent. Based on these findings, it is no wonder that Americans are so fearful of radical Islamic terrorism. Reality shows, however, that these fears are misplaced.”

— Read more in Erin M. Kearns et al., “Why Do Some Terrorist Attacks Receive More Media Attention Than Others?” SSRN (5 March 2017); and Erin M. Kearns et al., “Yes, the media do underreport some terrorist attacks. Just not the ones most people think of.” Washington Post (13 March 2017)