A Stereotypical Approach towards Muslim and Islam in Australian Press: Framing Analysis of Daily Telegraph and Daily Courier Mail

Pakistan Abstract Framing of the Muslims and Islam has been a debatable/is a contentious area of interest for researchers. This study is designed to analyze the approach of the Australian press towards the Muslims and Islam when it covers the terrorist incidents in Australia and in other part of the world, especially in the western countries. The news related to terrorist incidents and activities published during a six-month timeframe, that is, from October 2016 to March 2017, in two popular newspapers namely The Daily Telegraph (leaning towards the Liberal Party) and The Courier Mail (right-centered newspaper in its nature) was thoroughly analyzed. The major objective was to know how these newspapers frame the Muslims and Islam in their news contents when the issue of terrorism is under discussion. Despite the different political leanings of the selected newspapers, their approach towards the Muslims and Islam was found to be similar as both the dailies framed the terrorism related stories in a way to associate the Muslims and Islam with This study also found that the selected newspapers, which have different natures as daily Telegraph is leaning towards Liberal Party and daily The Mail is right-centered newspaper in its nature, adopted the same about and in their news coverage of the issues relating and other violent incidents. This shows media biasness on one hand and fear in the Australian society on the


Introduction
Though it is argued that media in developed countries is more professional than those of developing countries' media; however, the western media, seemingly, biased towards Muslims and Islam. The Muslims were, in many cases, labeled negatively while framing them demographically as Muslim Arab or associated them with their religion-Islam. 1 This biasness not only questioned the journalistic obligations of western media but also led them DEPARTMENT  [the western media] to, predominantly, frame Muslim stereotypically. 2 This trend has, reportedly, been common in western media after some of the terrorist attacks/ incidents, especially it has been observed in media of developed countries since the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. 3 This paper examines that how Islam and Muslims are labeling with terrorism in Australian press, as some the research studies show that Muslims and Islam, usually, were linked with terrorism in developed countries including Australia. 4 It is crystal clear that western countries' media frame the terrorist incident as an act of militants, extremists or Muslim extremists. 5 The media representation of Muslims and Islam has been an area of interest for many scholars who, mostly, criticized the media on ground that it portrayed Muslims and Islam stereotypically. This, seemingly biased approach, of course, exposed the western media to criticism, and hence many research studies have been conducted to evaluate the media bias towards Muslims and Islam, especially after the 9/11 attacks in USA. 6 The frequent coverage of Islam and Muslims in western media including Australia, which is shaped soon after any terrorist incident [s], is promoting the anti-Muslims tendencies, alternatively known as Islamophobic tendencies. The term Islamophobia explains the media coverage of Muslim minority in different western countries as their approach towards Muslims and Islam reflects racial intolerance. 7

Islamophobia and Western Media
Islam and Muslims have been suffering of stereotypical representation in western media; of course, the media biasness towards Muslim minority in different western countries has a long history that shows that the long-lived criticism on Muslims 8 ; however, the stereotypical representation of Muslims in western media became, more, visible after JOURNAL OF ISLAMIC THOUGHT AND CIVILIZATION Volume 11 Issue 2, Fall 2021 the 9/11 attacks in United States. The media coverage of Muslims and Islam during conflict or terrorism related events in the world, especially in western world, provoked negative perception. 9 A research study that focuses on individual level data in five developed countries including the USA, UK, France, Germany and Spain finds out that majority of people in the selected countries view Muslims as violent individuals, and some the westerners believe that Muslims support al-Qaeda. 10 The Islamophobic trend in western media has brought Muslims to a stage, where they are facing racism in their residing western countries. For instance, the British media represents Muslims as an "alien other", this misrepresentation of Muslims and Islam is associated with the development of "racism," which is, nowadays, commonly known as Islamophobia. 11 The western media approach towards Muslims and Islam has been questioning the identity of Muslims in developed world, especially in the USA and other European countries, where Muslims are being dishonored as religious minority. Kunst et al found that national identity of Muslims has been affected by religious stigma in the public and private sphere in western societies. 12

Islamophobia in Australian Press
`In Australia, which consists of 22 million populaces, the anti-Muslim feelings have been, obviously, produced by media since 2001. Muslim population in Australia is estimated 2.2 percent of its overall population and it is argued that Islam in rising religion in the country. According to national census of 2011 out the total Muslim population about 40% were Australian born Muslim. The rest comprising heterogeneous religious community, came from 183 countries of the world. 13 Islam and Muslims are framed as threat to local community in Australian Press because of the tremendous increase of Muslim migrants from Africa and other parts of the world to Australia that spread fear in journalists' circle along with other fields of life. Hence, the Australian media has been portraying Islam and Muslims in a way to present them as uncivilized nation or labeled them as threat to the rest of world. 14 There was trend in Australian Press during the decade of 1950s that it (Australian Press) treated Muslims as uncivilized while they (Muslims) were allegedly associated with terrorists in the media coverage in 1970s decades, the Australian media approach towards Muslims and Islam changed in 1980s as it started framing Muslims as fundamentalists while in 1990s decade the Australian Press came up with another discourse as it started to portray Muslims as source of fears for the local Australian. 15 The issue of Muslim immigrants has been one of the top debatable issues in Australian politics and its economic development, and hence this trend influences the coverage of the Muslims related issues in the Australian Press. Though the Muslims immigrants were not an issue in the 1996 election campaign in Australia but the conservatives and their party leader Howard's racist tactics also played in vital role in his party's victory. 16 Political environment in Australia has a lot of influence over media coverage of Muslims related issues since the right-wing populist Pauline Hasson started rallies against immigrations special treatment given to Aborigines and Asian, particularly to Muslim immigrants in Australia. Hence there is not only the media, which showed concerns about the increasing population and societal role of the Muslims but political forces, especially Pauline and her party, also came up with opposition of the Muslims immigrants. This trend of antagonism towards Muslims increased terrifically after Pauline Hanson's racist party, One Nation, got popularity in the 1990s among the right-wing circle in the country, which promoted anti-Muslim sentiments in Australian society. 17

Rational of Newspapers' Selection
The major goal of this study is to evaluate the Australian Press approach towards Islam and Muslims, especially when it covers the terrorism related issue that either occurs in Australia or other part of the world. The researchers selected The Daily Telegraph and The Courier-Mail to collect the required data.
These two daily newspapers are selected with a basic reason that they have different political affiliations as one of them i.e. The Daily Telegraph, publishing in Sydney against the Australian Labor Party. On other hand, The Courier Mail, based in Brisbane, is a right of center newspaper and contrast to the Daily Telegraph it mostly extends its supports to the Labor Party. It is worth to study that differences and/or similarities in approaches towards Muslim and Islam in these two newspapers, which, in the context of Australian politics, are supporting different political approaches.

Literature Review
Media shapes the society's overall image through its contents. In most of cases media guide the audiences on different issues being faced by society and its people but sometimes media work in the line with its audiences' preferences to retain their attention. In both the situations media (particularly mainstream print and electronic media) plays a vital role in society, where it not only informs the audiences but also construct general perception about an issue through framing a particular aspect of it.
The portrayal of Muslims and Islam in the Western media has been a debatable issue since the twin-tower attack in USA on September 11, 2001as the world experienced the prejudiced approached of media about Muslims when it started to frame Muslims as terrorists, fundamentalists or 'Islamists.' 18 In a study, Kevin Dunn suggested that the Australian Press attitude towards Muslim and Islam is based, mostly, on the notion of fear from Muslims community and Islam. The stereotypical approach of the Australian Press can be witnessed from its coverage of the issues relating to Islam and Muslims, where the native press reports fears of Islam as it frames Muslims as prejudiced, radical, extremist and women-hater. 19 In another study the researchers, Ellie Vasta and Stephen Castles, found racism in Australian media as there is discrimination against Muslims. This racism, which is a frequently debated topic, could be questioning the human rights on the basis of discriminatory policies of the country. 20 Prejudiced to Islam and Muslim is another factor, which dominates the Australian press when covering terrorist related incidents as Howard Brasted found in a study, titled "Images of Islam and the Australian Press" that media is prejudiced to frame Islam as 'present a world of existing disorder' that shows the predominated attitude regarding Muslims and Islam. 21 Likewise, the women and Islam is another favorable topic in the Australian media; whereas a study conducted in this regard concluded that the Australian journalists/ writers who do not possess enough knowledge about Islam, are usually This study evaluates the news coverage of the selected newspapers, which keep different political thoughts in Australian political circle. This study is an attempt to know either both the daily newspapers adopted similar approach about Muslims and Islam or there is difference in their approaches when they covered the issue of terrorism in a given timeframe of the study.

Framing Theory
Framing theory, which is a concept that the media focuses attention on certain issues at hand and set their meaning in the context of coverage being given by media to certain issue, employs in this study. In framing, journalists select some aspects of reality. 25 Different issues will get space in media after passing through a window of frames, where the focus gives on a specific piece of reality. 26 As a result, a selected aspect of the reality becomes more prominent than others. This study is designed to evaluate different frames about Islam and Muslims in the Australian Press when it covers the issue of terrorism, aiming to know the Australian media approach towards Muslims and Islam.

Research Methodology
This research study employs content analysis to collect and analyze the data. The "content analysis is used to study and analyze published contents for the purpose of measuring variable. The content analysis, which mostly consists of systematically objective analysis, reflects the evident of communication. 28 This is a method of inquiring/ evaluating the written contents as in the shape of news reports, hence it is an observational research method, when adopted the researchers have to use it for evaluating the symbolic contents of all forms of recorded communication. In the view of another researcher, it [content analysis] provides multipurpose technique, which enable the researchers to study the textual, visual, and audio data. 29 Applying the contently analysis technique, this study is conducted to examine the selected newspapers' coverage of issues relating to Muslims and Islam. For determining the nature of media coverage, the relevant frames were identified, which refer "to dominantly shaped idea, providing meaning to clarify the strip of events." 30 The researchers, after thoroughly coded the selected frames, the total 116 news stories, published on terrorism related incidents in daily Courier Mail and daily Telegraph are statistically analyzed.

Findings of the Study
This research article examined a total of 116 news stories published from October 2016 to March 2017 in two selected newspapers of Australia including the daily Telegraph, which has liberal tendency, and daily the Courier Mail that is right centered in its nature. The news stories were collected through and evaluated on basis of total 521frames including terrorism/terrorists, Muslims, Islam, attacks, Islamophobia and Hijāb [313 frames were reported in daily Courier Mail and 208 in daily Telegraph]. Mail's coverage of terrorism related issues being published during the timeframe of this study. This frame constitutes the highest percentage of the whole frames of the news stories i.e. 30 percent terrorism, which was followed by another frame, Islam. This frame was used 73 times in news stories, which comprises 23 percent of the whole frames of this study, reflects that Australian press has deliberated been framing these issues in the way to associate Islam with terrorism.

Q1: What frame[s] is dominated in the coverage of terrorism related issues in Australian press?
Another frame i.e. Muslims, has been reported at third, which was used 68 times in all 55 news stories published in daily the Courier Mail during the timeframe of the study, comprising 22 percent of the whole frames. The findings illustrate that this right-centered newspaper of Australia has been framing the terrorist related issues in a way to label Muslims with the issues of terrorism and other unlawful acts. Similarly, the Courier Mail used the word 'attacks' 36 times in its published stories about terrorism related issues. This frame comprises 11 percent of the whole frames and it indicates the daily has more concern with frames like terrorism, Islam and Muslims than merely using the word 'attacks' in its stories about terrorism and other unlawful events, especially occurring in Australia.
The daily Courier Mail used the word 'Extremism' 24 times during the timeframe of this study, which comprises 8 percent of the entire framing words. Similarly, the newspapers used the framing words Islamophobia and Hijāb less in number i.e. 12 (4%) and 6 (2%) respectively but these frames were critically labeled with Muslims, aiming at connecting the Muslims with terrorism. Statistically, there is significant difference in distribution of seven categories of frame i.e. X 2 (6, N=313) =153.09, p<0.01, which indicate that the Muslim are framed, more in the context of terrorism.

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Volume 11 Issue 2, Fall 2021   2 show that two frames i.e. terrorism and Islam have equally used in the overall coverage of daily Telegraph, where both the frames were reported 52 times each by the paper during the timeframe of this study-October 2016 to March 2017. With the highest 25 percent of the whole frames of the study this treatment of the daily Telegraph indicates that the paper is more inclined to report in a way to justify the involvement of Muslims and Islam in the terrorism related issues.
The Telegraph framed the word 'Muslims' 50 times in its coverage on the law and order situation that comprises 24 percent of the total frames of this study while another keyword 'Attacks' was framed 22 times having 11perenct of the entire framing words. This shows that the paper has a clear line to portray Muslims and Islam as sources of terrorism and other unlawful incidents. Though the rest of keywords Extremism, Islamophobia and Hijāb were used less in number than the earlier explained frames, but these also comprise 7 percent, one percent and 7 percent respectively of the entire keywords that had been framed by the daily Telegraph during the period of six months. The paper framed, particularly the word 'Hijāb', as a source of terror in Australian society 31 figure 3 illustrate that Courier Mail, which is right-centered newspaper of Australia, is tended to portrayed Muslim and Islam more negatively when it covers terrorism related issues as the paper gave 47 % negative coverage to Islam and Muslim in news stories relating to terrorism and other unlawful events. The Courier Mail, however, gave 18 percent reports in support of the Muslim immigrants of Australia.
The paper's neutral coverage was 35 percent of the total during the timeframe of the study, which reflects that the right-centered newspaper of Australia refrained from framing Muslims as sources of terrors in certain issues. The Statistical finings i.e. X 2 (2, N=55) =07.02, p<0.01 suggests that there is significant difference in distribution of three slant categories, where the Courier Mail, mainly, reported the Muslim and Islam negatively.      figure 4 finds out that there were not visible differences in approaches of both the dailies as daily Telegraph also inclined towards negativity when it covers terrorism relating incidents. The findings show that paper gave comparatively portrayed Islam and Muslim negatively. It published 35 stories out of the total 61, which comprises of 57 %, in which the paper framed Muslim and Islam negatively and its wordings were meant to associate Muslims with terrorism.
Daily Telegraph positive treatment of Muslims and Islam consist of 10 % of the whole coverage of the issues relating to terrorism and other unlawful incidents. Supportive coverage was framed in a particular situation when there was no doubt to associate Muslims with terrorism or when people other than Muslims were found guilty in a terrorism related issue. The daily Telegraph, however, published 20 stories that comprises of 33 % of the whole coverage and where the paper found natural in its approach towards Muslims and Islam. Likewise, the Courier Mail, daily Telegraph also reported Muslim and Islam, comparatively more negatively, which is statistically shown in table above i.e. X 2 (2, N=61) =23.64, p=0.000.  The table 5 shows the relationship between the types of newspapers and the nature of coverage, whereas the Pearson Correlation is 0.996 and the p-value illustrate a strong relationship of the nature of coverage with the types of daily newspapers. This shows that despite of the fact that one newspaper is right-centered and the other one is leaning to liberal party, both have treated the issues relating terrorism in similarly way. Both have adopted a stereotypical approach towards Muslims and Islam to associate them with terrorism.

Discussion and Results
Many of developed countries' media has an issue of subjectivity when it covers the Muslims and Islam related issues, particularly there has always been a dominant picture of biasness when the media outlets in developed countries have to cover the terrorism related issues/ incidents that are taken place in their own country. The case of Australian media is not different from other developed countries as the media is, usually, tended to portray Muslims and Islam stereotypically, which is designed to label Muslims with terrorism.

Q1: What frame(s) is dominated in the coverage of terrorism related issues in Australian Press?
The results find out that out of the selected keywords three words i.e. terrorism, Muslims and Islam have been framed as dominated keywords that reflects a clear framing strategy of the selected newspapers to label Islam and Muslims with terrorism related issues in Australia. The terrorism frame was dominated in both the dailies, whereas daily the Courier Mail used the word 'terrorism/terrorist' for 94 times, which constitutes the highest percentage of the whole frames of the news stories i.e. 30 percent.
Daily Telegraph used the word 'terrorism/terrorist' 52 times during the timeframe of this study, which comprises 25% of the entire news coverage of the issues relating to terrorism in the paper. Similarly, the Telegraph also used the keyword 'Islam' 52 times having 25% of the total keywords being used in this study that reflects that the paper is intended to establish association between terrorism and Islam.

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Volume 11 Issue 2, Fall 2021 The Courier Mail used the keyword 'Islam' 73 times in news stories, which comprises 23 percent of the whole frames of this study, reflects that like Telegraph the Courier Mail is also intended to establish association between Islam and terrorism.
The keyword, Muslims, framed at third in order of priority by both the newspapers as the daily Courier Mail used the word 'Muslims' 68 times, which comprises 22 percent of the whole frames and daily Telegraph used the keyword of 'Muslims'50 times in its overall coverage that comprises 24 percent of the total frames of this study. This illustrates that both the newspapers i.e., the right-centered -Courier Mail and Leaning towards Liberal Party-Telegraph, of Australia have been framing the terrorist related issues in a way to label Muslims and Islam with these issues.

Q2: What nature of the coverage is dominated in the issues related to Islam and Muslims in daily Courier Mail and daily Telegraph?
Here in this study the nature of coverage means the negative, neutral and positive coverage that is given to the issues relating to terrorism by the selected newspapers. The results show that daily The Courier Mail is found leaning towards negative portrayal of Muslim and Islam when it covered terrorism related issues during the timeframe of this study. The paper gave 47 % negative coverage to Islam and Muslim in news stories relating to terrorism and other violent events. The Courier Mail overall coverage of the terrorism related incidents indicates that there was 18 percent supportive coverage of the Muslim immigrants of Australia. The paper's neutral coverage was 35 percent of the overall coverage.
Similar approach in reporting of the terrorism related issues is also found in the Telegraph's coverage. The results show that liberal leaning newspaper -Telegraph also keeps negative tendencies towards Muslims and Islam when it covers terrorism relating incidents. The paper gave 57 % negative coverage to Islam and Muslim as the paper framed Muslim and Islam in a way to associate them with terrorism.
Daily Telegraph positive treatment of Muslims and Islam consist of 10 % of the whole coverage of the issues relating to terrorism and other unlawful incidents. Supportive coverage was framed in a particular situation when there was no doubt to associate Muslims with terrorism or when people other than Muslims were found guilty in a terrorism related issue. The daily Telegraph, however, published 20 stories that comprises of 33 % of the whole coverage and where the paper found natural in its approach towards Muslims and Islam. To sum up, the results indicate that despite of the fact that one newspaper i.e. Telegraph is leaning towards Liberal Party and the other one, the Courier Mail, is rightcentered newspaper in its approach their approaches towards Muslim and Islam were found similar in this study as both the dailies gave more negative coverage to Muslims and Islam in all those terrorism related issues or incidents that occurred during the timeframe of this study.
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Q3: To what extent the relationship exists between the nature of coverage and types of newspapers?
The Pearson Correlation is 0.996 shows a strong relationship between the nature of coverage and the types of daily newspapers (see table 2.3). This finding shows that both the daily newspapers, Telegraph and Courier Mail, have covered the issues relating to terrorism in almost in a similarly way.
Though Courier Mail is right-centered and the Telegraph is leaning to liberal party but both are taking a same stereotypical line when they cover issue of terrorism. The media approach is influenced by the dominated thinking (looking at the Muslims as terrorists) about Muslims and Islam in Australian society, which also forces the media to frame the Muslims as terrorists or supporters of terrorism.

Conclusion
The study found the stereotypical representation of Muslims and Islam in the Australian Press, especially when it covers terrorism related issues. Though it has been claiming that media in developed countries is free and objective in its reporting but this study found biasness in Australian Press as it frames Muslims and Islam in a way to associate them with terrorism.
This trend in the Australian Press is not only questioning its objectivity but it is also questioning the overall approach of Australian society and its government. This trend of racism, which is a frequently debated topic, could be questioning the human rights and the anti-discrimination policies of the country. 32 The biasness has been a dominant feature in media of the developed countries since the 9/11 incident. The world experienced the prejudiced approached of media about Muslims when it started to frame Muslims as terrorists, fundamentalists or 'Islamists '. 33 The findings of this study show that the coverage on issues related to Islam and Muslims is mostly circled around the keyword's 'terrorism' 'extremism' and 'Islamic terrorist attacks'. The results show that daily The Courier Mail is found leaning towards negative portrayal of Muslim and Islam as it gave 47 % negative coverage to Islam and Muslim in news stories relating to terrorism during the timeframe of this study. The other newspaper i.e. the Telegraph is also labeled Muslims and Islam with terrorism as the results show that Telegraph gave 57 % negative coverage to Islam and Muslim as the paper framed Muslim and Islam in a way to associate them with terrorism. This study also found that the selected newspapers, which have different natures as daily Telegraph is leaning towards Liberal Party and daily The Courier Mail is rightcentered newspaper in its nature, adopted the same approach about Muslims and Islam in their news coverage of the issues relating to terrorism and other violent incidents. This shows media biasness on one hand and fear in the Australian society on the other.