Negative news about Muslims fuels public policy support against them

ANN ARBOR-News stories depicting Muslims as terrorists have fueled racism and anger among many non-Muslim Americans, who support civil restrictions and military action in Muslim countries, according to a new University of Michigan study. Other research has shown that minorities are often negatively portrayed in news media. Since September 2001, this increasingly has been the case for Muslims, Arabs and people from the Middle East. The negative media exposure about Muslims results in more American support for public policies that harm Muslims domestically and internationally, in part, because this group is perceived as aggressive, said Muniba Saleem, the study's lead author. "These perceptions, in turn, can create hostile expectations and anger by some non-Muslims, who may exhibit aggressive behaviors," said Saleem, assistant professor in the U-M Department of Communication Studies. Some studies have revealed the significant role of media in creating negative attitudes toward Muslims, but few have examined if negative media representations of Muslims can influence support for race-related public policies that are specifically intended to harm members of this group. For the current findings, researchers used three studies to test the long-term and short-term effects of news portraying Muslims as terrorists on support for international and domestic policies that harm Muslims.