57% of New York Times headlines portray Islam, Muslims negatively: Report

People walk by the entrance to US newspaper 'The New York Times' in New York, March, 2011 (AFP Photo)

New York, (IINA) - A recent report released by a Toronto-based consulting firm has revealed that the Western mainstream media portrays a negative and biased perception of Islam and Muslims in their headlines, Daily Sabah Turkish newspaper reported.
The report, titled 'Are Muslims Collectively Responsible? A Sentiment Analysis of the New York Times', has used The New York Times as a case study, making comparisons between the usage of the words Islam/Muslims and other words, such as cancer, Yankees, Christianity, and Republican.
The report was prepared by using data from the New York Times from 1990 to 2014. It compared the headlines to "Identify the specific terms associated with Islam and Muslim, while simultaneously categorizing them as positive, negative or neutral". The report was prepared by making a comparative analysis with other key words, including Christianity, Cancer, Democrat, Republican and the New York Yankees.
According to the findings of the report, 57 percent of the headlines using the words Islam/Muslim had negative meanings attached to them, while only 8 percent of the headlines were positive.
Compared to other keywords used to make the comparison, the words Islam/Muslim scored the highest when it comes to implying negative connotations.
The report indicated also that the words 'rebels' and 'militants' were the most frequently associated terms with the reference words Islam/Muslims.
"The words used to discuss Islam continue to propagate a distorted view of the religion and its followers. Without recognition of this, and a correction of this tendency, understanding one of the most important forces shaping modern history will continue to elude popular understanding. Governments in democratic societies are ultimately responsible to their electorates. If these electorates are consistently provided with a biased and opaque view of matters pertaining to critical issues, poor policy outcomes are inevitable," the report has said.
The report suggests that the usage of specific words with negative connotations can shape the public opinion based on the usage of the word.
SM/IINA

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