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Last update:
9 February 2010

© John Benjamins
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(Mis)Representing Islam

The racism and rhetoric of British broadsheet newspapers

John E. Richardson
University of Sheffield

2004. xxiii, 262 pp.
Publishing status: Available

HardboundIn stock
978 90 272 2699 0 / EUR 89.00
978 1 58811 473 0 / USD 134.00
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PaperbackIn stock
978 90 272 0621 3 / EUR 36.00 / USD 54.00

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e-BookAvailable from e-book platforms
978 90 272 9580 4 / EUR 89.00 / USD 134.00
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(Mis)Representing Islam explores and illustrates how élite broadsheet newspapers are implicated in the production and reproduction of anti-Muslim racism. The book approaches journalistic discourse as the inseparable combination of ‘social practices’, ‘discursive practices’ and the ‘texts’ themselves from a perspective which fuses Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) with Edward Said’s critique of Orientalism. This framework enables Richardson to (re)contextualise élite journalism within its professional, political, economic, social and historic settings and present a critical and precise examination of not only the prevalence but also the form and potential effects of anti-Muslim racism. The book analyses the centrality of van Dijk’s ideological square and the significance and utility of stereotypical topoi in representing Islam and Muslims, focusing in particular on the reporting of Turkey, Pakistan, Iran, Israel/Palestine, Algeria, Iraq and Britain.
This timely book should interest researchers and students of racism, Islam, Journalism and Communication studies, Rhetoric, and (Critical) Discourse Analysis.


Table of contents

List of figures, graphs and tables
ix
Acknowledgements
xi
Introduction
xiii
1. Islam, Orientalism and (racist) social exclusion
1–32
2. The discursive representation of Islam and Muslims
33–67
3. The ideological square I: ‘Muslim negativity’
69–93
4. The ideological square II: ‘The West’ as civiliser
95–111
5. British Muslims: Difference, discord and threat in domestic reporting
113–153
6. The Iraq Debacle: The reporting of Iraq during the UNSCOM stand-off
155–189
7. Conviction, truth, blame and a shifting agenda: The reporting of Algeria
191–225
8. Conclusion
227–233
Notes
235–243
Bibliography
245–256
Index of names
257–258
Index of subjects
259–262


John Richardson’s excellent new book offers a detailed, academic and insightful study of the reporting of Islam and the Muslim world in Britain’s ‘quality’ broadsheet newspapers. His scholarly analysis of the language of press reports reveals the underlying and sometimes Islamophobic assumptions which inform newspapers’ coverage of Muslims in the UK, in Iraq and other parts of the world. Accessibly written and illustrated with examples drawn from the pages of the broadsheet press, (Mis)Representing Islam is essential, even compelling, reading for students of journalism, media and communication studies, while for the general reader it unravels the ways in which newspapers interpret as well as report significant issues. This is a timely book, which will encourage readers to look more closely, and think more skeptically, about what they read about Islam in Britain’s broadsheet press.
Bob Franklin, Professor of Media Communications, Department of Journalism Studies, University of Sheffield

This work is remarkable for its depth of analysis and the extensive research conducted provides the basis for scrutiny not only of what is reported and how it is reported, but also what is consistently left out. [...] Richardson makes a strong case for the interaction between language and social power.
Linnea Micciulla, Boston University, on Linguist List Vol. 15-1973