Mass Media and the Muslim Mind: Georgetown Qatar’s New Research Findings

Georgetown University Qatar (GU-Q) will be presenting the results of a research study about mass media and Muslims titled “Ideologies, Branding, and the Hostile Media Effect: Muslims’ Response to Al Jazeera and CNN Coverage”, on their Education City campus at noon today.

The research, which was funded by the Qatar National Research Fund, was conducted by Dr. Alexis Antoniades, Assistant Professor of Economics at GU-Q. It examines whether Muslims perceive neutral information sensitive to them, to be biased against them, a hypothesis that is based on the hostile media effect. Established in the early 1990s, the hostile media effect theory holds that partisan groups, people with strong biases toward an issue, tend to perceive ostensibly neutral information to be biased against them.

However, the Georgetown research resulted in very different outcomes from the previous studies. “We examined, and rejected, the notion that Muslims may perceive balanced media coverage on sensitive or controversial issues to be biased against them, a phenomenon known as the “hostile media effect,” said Dr. Antoniades.

These, and other surprising conclusions, were drawn following a carefully conducted survey of 581 Muslim individuals living in Qatar representing a broad demographic mix. Participants assessed CNN and Al Jazeera news reports covering the subject of the controversial Dutch cartoons of Islam’s Prophet Mohammad, with one twist:unbeknownst to a group of participants, the researchers swapped the CNN and Al Jazeera logos, to determine if opinions differed when the source changed.

“The results, which seem to contradict earlier work, found that Muslims do not determine if media coverage is biased against them based on the media brand, but on the actual content of the information, suggesting that rising skepticism on US foreign policy in the Middle East stems from the evaluation of the policies and not the media coverage of it.” concluded Dr. Antoniades.

The timely presentation of the media research comes on the heels of the recent announcement of a brand new focus of study in Media and Politics offered jointly by GU-Q, which will award a Certificate upon completion of the program, and Northwestern University in Qatar, which offers it as a minor degree.

The Certificate capitalizes on the strengths of both universities to provide students with an enhanced understanding of the role of mass communication in political, diplomatic, and policy-making processes, as well as the role of politics in the shaping of mass media products and policies.

The program also enables students to better understand how politicians, diplomats, and policy makers influence, and are themselves influenced by, the media in various forms and formats, and introduces students to the real-world implications of the representations generated by mass media.

Students enrolled in the Media and Politics program from both universities will be attending the presentation, along with other students, faculty, and interested members of the public. The research findings are available on GU-Q’s website.