Islamophobia is an insidious form of discrimination that can emerge in many contexts, negatively shaping the reality of being a Muslim in contemporary society (Bailey et al., 2018). Consequently, this has created social exclusion and harmful stereotypes for Muslims, which are widely reproduced and disseminated in Western news media (Gottschalk and Greenberg, 2008). There is a plethora of research exploring the media’s role in Islamophobia and the particular narratives that are subsequently derived and upheld (Allen, 2013). However, a vast majority of such research has unquestionably used Orientalism as the standard and sole research paradigm in conjunction with deductive research methodology. Therefore, this dissertation aims to address the research gap in exploring if, and how the British news media perpetuates Islamophobia by using the qualitative methodological framework of inductive thematic analysis. This will be used to interpret and analyse newspaper articles that discuss Islam and Muslims. The literature suggests that contemporary portrayals of Islam and Muslims are largely negative; yet it is important to clarify that variations in representations are varied according to multiple factors. These range from subject matter to the typology and the respective political orientation of the news source. This was depicted within the findings displayed within the news articles analysed. Additionally, literature suggests there is mixed evidence to support an Orientalist discourse in contemporary portrayals of Muslims and Islam within the British press. However, contrary to the literature, the findings of news articles analysed suggest there is reasonably strong support for Orientalism being evidenced within contemporary portrayals of Islam and Muslims within the British press. Thus, a final recommendation is for further media and policy research to elaborate on findings established within this dissertation on a larger scale.
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