Media Representation of Muslim Women in ‘Time’ & ‘Newsweek’: A Comparative Analysis Within Feministic Perspective

Abstract

Western print media with all its dominancy affects the way entire population of the world, particularly the western people, views contemporary society. It is commonly believed that treatment of Muslim women by western media is highly controversial in terms of its stereotypical approach towards Muslims. Therefore, this research study examines the media representation of Muslim Women within Feministic perspective by analyzing its content published in ‘Time’ and ‘Newsweek’ during the selected time period of 2011 – 2013 to testify whether this belief really works or not. One of the main objectives of this study is to dig out the prevailing differences within overall coverage of both news magazines regarding the Muslim women. These differences are further studied in four different dimensions i.e. categories, slants, tones and themes. Basically, this is a census study (as the collected data was limited) where content analysis has been used as research methodology. Whereas, Z-score statistical test is applied for the analysis of the findings. In results, study reveals that there are slight differences between the way both magazines present the Muslim women. Both news magazines mainly highlight ‘Progressive women’ favorably; discuss Islam negatively; and Social Status of the Muslim women has mainly been highlighted throughout the designated time interval.

Key Words: 

Progressive Women, Media Representation, Western print media, Oppressed Women, Victimization, and Status of Women in Islam.