The media plays an important role in today’s society. It has the ability to transfer information on everyday issues, to the masses and also influence the viewer’s perception about what should and should not be a reality. The media portrays certain religions in a particular ways based on the information provided. It can sometimes be used to encourage stereotypes and discrimination against a religious group. The discrimination and marginalization of Muslims has been prevalent throughout the west even before the event of September 11, 2001 where Islam and the Arab world have been continuously misrepresented by the media mostly linking them to terror and violence on screen. One example linking Islam to terror and violence would be the Oklahoma City Bombing that took place on an American government building, April 19 1995, which killed, many innocent people including children. This is then, followed by how stereotypical and how fast assumptions are made towards the Muslim community as discussed by Patel (1999) stating that a British newspaper front cover of, Today, emerged the following day with a picture of a fireman carrying a dead baby with the headline, “In the name of Islam.” Later it was then established that Christian militants had in fact carried out the bombing. From this issue, it clearly shows a trend on how Islam is misrepresented and assumed as being evil, just by a short headline and a picture of a fireman carrying a dead baby. It is a form of language, a sign or message in which they are trying to imply to the masses that Islam is killing innocent people in the name of God …show more content…
Therefore, media promotes both diversity and conformity in the portrayal of Islam however, diversity cannot outgrow