From Tragedy to Policy: Representations of Muslims and Islam in U.S. Mainstream Media

As the wodd becomes more globalized, the lines dividing countries and cultures are increasingly blurred. Thc inter-connectedness of the globe brings people thousands of miles away together in a matter of seconds. However, as globalization has increased, other theories of dividing the world have arisen. One of the most prominent theories of dividing up the wodd was published in 1993 in Foreign Affairs by Samuel Fluntington. Huntington attempted to provide readers with a new term that described a long-standing, tnternalzed political myth: The idea of a Clash between Civthzattons is a sort of electric spark that sets people\u27s imagination alight, because it finds fertile soil in which to proliferate (Bottici & Challand, 2010, p. 2). The populariry of this theory can partly be attributed to its timing. The Soviet Union had collapsed just two years before, and the public, as well as policy makers, were having a difficult time making sense of the new unipolar / multipolar world. Huntington provided a frame to help make sense of this world. His book had a large influence on those in political power and the general public, providing a very particular lens for Western society to look through. I argue, similarly to Philip Seib, that, in varying degrees, the U.S. media collectively adopted a framework of the Clash of Civilizatlons in its representation of Muslims and Islam, which in turn supported the aggressive military endeavors in Afghanistan and Iraq