ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the responses of young British Muslims to their representation in the British press. It examines media representations of British Muslims both quantitatively and qualitatively. The chapter also examines the variety of socio-cultural factors important in the decoding of mediated information about Muslims, paying particular attention to the variable of cultural proximity in interpreting and understanding the texts, that is knowledge, experiences and familiarity with Muslims and Islam. It analyses the Muslim responses, to examine what meanings are produced in the interaction of text and audience and what frameworks are used to decode these constructions of Islam. Social distance is enhanced as the groups take oppositional sides based on those identities mobilised. Muslims' commitment to their religious identities is reinforced and expressed through social practices and markers of difference which confirm, through experience, the media images to the non-Muslims.
