Exploring the Political Parallelism discourse on Representation of Islam and Muslims in the
Australian Press
Muhammad Junaid Ghauri
International Islamic University Islamabad
Dr. Zafar Iqbal
International Islamic University Islamabad
Abstract
Recent research has revealed a prominent ‘political parallelism’ discourse in the coverage of Islam and Muslims by international media. The studies have evidenced that the coverage of Islam and Muslims is widely influenced by the ideological leanings of the newspapers. This paper is set to explore whether the ideological differences of the Australian newspapers are reflected in the coverage of Islam and Muslims during January 1, 2016, to March 31, 2017. Employing Van Dijk’s (1998) ideological square and lexicalization approaches within the CDA paradigm this study examined editorials from two leading Australian newspapers. The findings have validated the existence of the ‘political parallelism’ discourse in the editorial contents of the selected newspapers representing Islam and Muslims.
Keywords: Political Parallelism, Representation, Islam, Muslims, ideological square, lexicalization
