ABSTRACT
‘In a world of complexity and ambiguity, media stereotypes may simplify and help us to make sense of the confusion of everyday reality, but they can also further misunderstanding and prejudice.’ This is how the British media expert Kevin Williams (2003: 131) describes the common use and functions of stereotypical portrayal in the media. Williams identifies three interrelated ways in which the mass media may foster distorted images of certain minority groups in society. First, the group can be represented in a faulty way — either generally underrepresented in the media coverage, overrepresented in the reporting on certain undesirable activities (e.g. crime), or misrepresented by associating it with a particular activity. Second, the media may reinforce stereotypes by conveying a ‘narrow and fixed representation’ of the whole group by focusing on certain negative behaviours of individual group members as if they were characteristic of the entire group. Third, media stereotyping can further the negative perception of a group by comparing it ‘with idealised images of how people ought to behave’ (Williams 2003: 131–32). Islam in the West has been the subject of media misrepresentation. The stereotyping of Muslims has had grave consequences for Muslim communities and society at large.
