On Islam

Scholars have been examining how the media represent Islam and Muslims for decades. They have shown that news reports too often depict Islam as frightening and foreign. Even when ‘good’ Muslims appear in the media they do so alongside the ever-present ‘bad’ Muslim (see Evelyn Alsultany). Rosemary Pennington and Hilary E. Kahn focus less on the research behind these representations in On Islam: Muslims and the Media. Their concern is to overcome such shortfalls by creating conversation between journalists, academics, and Muslim media practitioners. The volume arises from the ‘Voices and Visions’ programme that Indiana University’s Center for the Study of Global Change launched in 2008 ‘to reframe the public understanding of Islam and Muslim life’ (p. ix). On Islam: Muslims and the Media reflects this programme’s work as well as this overarching goal. As well as its eleven essays, the book presents transcripts from the ‘Muslim Voices’ podcast, also a product of the ‘Voices and Visions’ programme. It concludes with a number of short introductory pieces on Islam—what the volume identifies as a ‘Crash Course’. I summarize each of the eleven essays briefly here and then return to the volume as a whole

Cognitive reframing · Conversation · Islam · Media studies · Political science · Sociology · Theology · Vision · Anthropology · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Psychology · Philosophy · Religious Studies