Islamophobia and Media Portrayals of Muslim Women: A Computational Text Analysis of US News Coverage

This article examines portrayals of Muslim women in US news media. I test two hypotheses derived from theories of gendered orientalism. First, US news coverage of women abroad is driven by confirmation bias. Journalists are more likely to report on women living in Muslim and Middle Eastern countries if their rights are violated but report on women in other societies when their rights are respected. Second, stories about Muslim women emphasize the theme of women's rights violations and gender inequality, even for countries with relatively good records of women's rights. Stories about non-Muslim women, on the other hand, emphasize other topics. I test these hypotheses on data from thirty-five years of New York Times and Washington Post reporting using a structural topic model along with statistical analysis. The results suggest that US news media propagate the perception that Muslims are distinctly sexist. This, in turn, may shape public attitudes toward Muslims, as well as influence policies that involve Muslims at home and abroad.本研究探讨美国新闻媒体对穆斯林女性的形象呈现。本研究基于性别化东方主义（gendered orientalism）理论推导提出两项假设并开展检验：其一，美国新闻媒体对海外女性的报道受证实性偏差驱动——当穆斯林及中东国家女性的权利遭受侵害时，记者更倾向于对此进行报道；而当其他社会女性的权利得到保障时，媒体才会予以关注。其二，有关穆斯林女性的报道往往聚焦女性权利受侵害与性别不平等议题，即便相关国家的女性权利保障记录相对优异亦是如此；而针对非穆斯林女性的报道则会侧重其他话题。本研究依托《纽约时报》（New York Times）与《华盛顿邮报》（Washington Post）35年的报道数据，结合结构主题模型（structural topic model）与统计分析方法对上述假设进行验证。研究结果显示，美国新闻媒体不断强化“穆斯林群体普遍存在性别歧视”的刻板印象。这一认知或会影响公众对穆斯林群体的态度，同时也会对涉及国内外穆斯林群体的相关政策产生影响。