Terrorism & the mediaAttacks by Muslim terrorists receive far greater press attention than attacks by non-Muslims
Terrorist attacks committed by Muslim extremists receive 357 percent more U.S. press coverage than those committed by non-Muslims. The findings, based on all terrorist attacks in the United States between 2006 and 2015, show that terrorist attacks committed by non-Muslims (or where the religion was unknown) received an average of 15 headlines, while those committed by Muslim extremists received 105 headlines. The disparity in coverage is out of sync with reality, given that between 2008 and 2016 white and rightwing terrorists carried out nearly twice as many terrorist attacks as Muslim extremists.
Terrorist attacks committed by Muslim extremists receive 357 percent more U.S. press coverage than those committed by non-Muslims, according to new research.
The researchers, before reaching their final statistic, controlled for factors such as target type, number of fatalities, and whether or not the perpetrators were arrested.
Terrorist attacks committed by non-Muslims (or where the religion was unknown) received an average of 15 headlines, while those committed by Muslim extremists received 105 headlines.
The findings were based on all terrorist attacks in the United States between 2006 and 2015 according to the Global Terrorism Database. Erin Kearns of the University of Alabama says that the disparity in media coverage is particularly out of sync with reality, given that between 2008 and 2016 white and rightwing terrorists carried out nearly twice as many terrorist attacks as Muslim extremists.
Not all headlines have the same audience, though. Kearns told the Guardian: “We broke it down by the two different types of sources and we found that the over-coverage is much bigger among national news sources than local papers.”
A new Guardian documentary, White Fright, follows one case of an attack plotted by a non-Muslim. In 2015, Robert Doggart was convicted for planning an attack on Islamberg, a small community in New York. Doggart’s plan was described as “terroristic” by a U.S. attorney.
— Read more in Erin Kearns et al., “Why Do Some Terrorist Attacks Receive More Media Attention Than Others?” Justice Quarterly (17 April 2018) (doi: org/10.2139/ssrn.2928138)
