(Mis)Representing Islam

(Mis)Representing Islam explores and illustrates how élite broadsheet newspapers are implicated in the production and reproduction of anti-Muslim racism. The book approaches journalistic discourse as the inseparable combination of ‘social practices’, ‘discursive practices’ and the ‘texts’ themselves from a perspective which fuses Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) with Edward Said’s critique of Orientalism. This framework enables Richardson to (re)contextualise élite journalism within its professional, political, economic, social and historic settings and present a critical and precise examination of not only the prevalence but also the form and potential effects of anti-Muslim racism. The book analyses the centrality of van Dijk’s ideological square and the significance and utility of stereotypical topoi in representing Islam and Muslims, focusing in particular on the reporting of Turkey, Pakistan, Iran, Israel/Palestine, Algeria, Iraq and Britain.
This timely book should interest researchers and students of racism, Islam, Journalism and Communication studies, Rhetoric, and (Critical) Discourse Analysis.

Bob Franklin, Professor of Media Communications, Department of Journalism Studies, University of Sheffield:
John Richardson’s excellent new book offers a detailed, academic and insightful study of the reporting of Islam and the Muslim world in Britain’s ‘quality’ broadsheet newspapers. His scholarly analysis of the language of press reports reveals the underlying and sometimes Islamophobic assumptions which inform newspapers’ coverage of Muslims in the UK, in Iraq and other parts of the world. Accessibly written and illustrated with examples drawn from the pages of the broadsheet press, (Mis)Representing Islam is essential, even compelling, reading for students of journalism, media and communication studies, while for the general reader it unravels the ways in which newspapers interpret as well as report significant issues. This is a timely book, which will encourage readers to look more closely, and think more skeptically, about what they read about Islam in Britain’s broadsheet press.