Cultural values in press reporting on Islam: the UK and Flanders compared

摘要

This article presents a quantitative content analysis of the portrayal of Islam and Muslims in the British and Flemish press. Two progressive and two conservative broadsheet newspapers (the progressive The Guardian and De Morgen and the conservative The Times and De Standaard) were compared. The period of analysis included three months of newspaper coverage (February, April and June 2012; 913 articles; 4676 actors), collating every article with a reference to Islam and/or Muslims. One-month intervals were used to reduce the influence of specific events on the findings. Four comparative dimensions were identified: 1) focus on violence referred to in the news story; 2) attention paid to Islam in the Western world ("national" Islam) versus Islam in non-Western societies ("foreign" Islam); 3) contribution of institutional and individual actors; and 4) representation of male and female actors (both Muslims and non-Muslims). Our choice of newspapers let us compare the approaches of left-wing and right-wing outlets. Finally, the data were evaluated from a specific cultural values perspective. According to Hofstede's cultural values survey data (1980), the United Kingdom has a lower uncertainty avoiding profile than Flanders. This may translate as more openness towards foreign cultures in news reporting, less coverage of violence and a greater representation of both Muslim women and individual actors as opposed to organisations.