Assistant Professor of Economics at Georgetown University Qatar Alexis Antoniades during his presentation yesterday. Shaival Dalal
Doha: The popular notion that Muslims may perceive neutral media coverage on sensitive or controversial issues to be biased against them was rejected in a research that was conducted in Doha.
The research about mass media perceptions here examined whether Muslims perceive neutral information sensitive to them, to be biased against them, a hypothesis that is based on the hostile media effect.
A research titled “Ideologies, Branding, and the Hostile Media Effect: Muslims’ Response to Al Jazeera and CNN Coverage” was conducted by Dr Alexis Antoniades, Assistant Professor of Economics at Georgetown University Qatar (GU-Q).
Established in the early 1990s, the hostile media effect theory holds that partisan groups, people with strong biases toward an issue, tend to perceive ostensibly neutral information to be biased against them.
However, the Georgetown research resulted in very different outcomes from the previous studies.
“We examined, and rejected, the notion that Muslims may perceive balanced media coverage on sensitive or controversial issues to be biased against them, a phenomenon known as the “hostile media effect,” said Dr Antoniades.
These, and other surprising conclusions, were drawn following a survey of 581 Muslims living in Qatar representing a broad demographic mix.
Participants assessed CNN and Al Jazeera news reports covering the subject of the controversial Dutch cartoons of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), with one twist: unbeknownst to a group of participants, the researchers swapped the CNN and Al Jazeera logos, to determine if opinions differed when the source changed.
“The results, which seem to contradict earlier work, found that Muslims do not determine if media coverage is biased against them based on the media brand, but on the actual content of the information, suggesting that rising scepticism on US foreign policy in the Middle East stems from the evaluation of the policies and not the media coverage of it,” said Dr Antoniades.
The presentation of the media research comes on the heels of the recent announcement of a brand new focus of study in Media and Politics offered jointly by GU-Q, which will award a Certificate upon completion of the programme, and Northwestern University in Qatar, which offers it as a minor degree.
The programme aims to enable students to better understand how politicians, diplomats, and policy makers influence, and are themselves influenced by, the media in various forms and formats, and introduces students to the real-world implications of the representations generated by mass media. The Peninsula
