US terror attacks by Muslims get 4.5 times more coverage: Study

CAIRO – 6 July 2017: A study at Georgia State University titled “Why Do Some Terrorist Attacks Receive More Media Attention than Others?” issued in March, discussed if the social identity of violence perpetrators affects the amount of media coverage the story receives.

The study monitored news coverage from LexisNexis Academic and CNN.com for all terrorist attacks in the United States between 2011 and 2015.

The study found that attacks by Muslim perpetrators received on average, 449 percent more coverage than other attacks; and while some attacks get more attention, others are not reported at all.

Study researchers told Washington post that each article they counted had focused primarily on the act of terrorism, its perpetrators or the victims, and it had to appear in a U.S.-based media source between the attack date and the end of 2016. They found 2,413 news articles that met their criteria.

Of the 89 attacks, 24 did not receive any media coverage from the sources they examined, while the 12 percent of the attacks occurred by Muslims, received 44 percent of the news coverage.

"When the perpetrator is Muslim, you can expect that attack to receive about four and a half times more media coverage than if the perpetrator was not Muslim," said Erin Kearns, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Global Studies Institute at Georgia State University.

The Study also clarified that in real numbers, the average attack with a Muslim perpetrator is covered in 90.8 articles, attacks with a Muslim, foreign-born perpetrator are covered in 192.8 articles on average; Compared to other attacks, which received an average of 18.1 articles.

“Since the news media focus so disproportionately on attacks by Muslims, particularly foreign-born Muslims, it’s no wonder that so many Americans think that these groups make our country less secure.” Washington post reported .

Study researchers are Erin M. Kearns, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Global Studies Institute at Georgia State University.

Allison Betus, a PhD student at Georgia State University and Anthony Lemieux is the director of the Global Studies Institute and a professor of Global Studies and communication at Georgia State University.