Hegemony of misrepresentation: American media coverage of islam and islamic revivalism (1980-2001)*

Abstract

Using Gramsci's notion of hegemony this paper analyses the nature, functions and wide-ranging implications of the U.S. media's coverage of Islam as represented by U.S. daily newspapers the New York Times and the Washington Times. Over the past two decades, the media coverage of Islam in these two newspapers has been unduly focused on negative portrayals of Islam and Islamic Revivalism and has produced a decontextualised picture of fringe extremist movements that have arisen in some Islamic nations. There is an operation of hegemonic ideas regarding Islam in which hegemony works to limit the frames of reference, and subsequently, the space for discourse regarding Islam within the public sphere. The ideas that the uninformed public are being socialized into regarding Islam are those that benefit the governmental elites in maintaining support for U.S. foreign policy on Islamic nations.