Exploring the solidarity discourse on Islam and Muslims in the Australian press

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to explore whether and to what extent the Australian newspapers; The Age and The Australian, produced the “solidarity discourse” regarding Islam and Muslims during the time period January 01, 2016 to March 31, 2017. Edward Said’s Orientalism and many other research findings suggest that there is clear evidence of positive in-group (Us/the West/the Occident) and negative out-group (Them/the Islam and Muslims/the East/the Orient) discourse in the representation of Islam and Muslims by global media. However, Jeffery C. Alexander asserts that the media being “communicative institution” of a society plays an important role of “civil repair” by producing a “solidarity discourse”. His civil sphere theory proposes that the media as a “vital centre” highlight and generates common understanding of the solidarity which can resist “non-civil” polarization and radical actions in civil societies. The researcher has employed “Lexicalization” and “Ideological Square” approaches from Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) paradigm proposed by van Dijk. The findings of this study show that The Age produced the “solidarity discourse” overwhelmingly by emphasizing on “understanding”, “cohesion”, and “we-ness”. On the contrary, the “solidarity discourse” is entirely absent in the editorials of The Australian.

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“…However, apart from this negative role, the media do play a constructive role of bridging the gap between the conflicting poles in a society by producing the 'solidarity discourse' (Alexander, 2016;2006;Forde, 2015;Friedland, 2007;Ghauri, Haq & Alam, 2022;Luengo, & Ihlebaek, 2019).…”

“…Rather, the editorial contents of the newspaper portrayed Islam and Muslims as 'other' in the Australian society. So, the researcher came up with an interesting conclusion that the performative act of journalism is dependent on the ideological lines of the newspapers (Ghauri, Haq & Alam, 2022).…”