Attacks by Muslims in US receives 357pc more coverage

Attacks by non-Muslims received 15 headlines while attacks by Muslims received 105 headlines

Terror attacks in the United States were predominantly carried out by white right-wing individuals between 2008 and 2016 yet coverage by news outlets is lopsided and tends to focus heavily on attacks by non-white individuals.

According to a new study from the University of Alabama, terrorist attacks committed by Muslims receive 357 per cent more coverage in the press than those committed by non-Muslims. The research was based on terrorist attacks in the US between 2006 and 2015 according to the Global Terrorism Database. The report took into account factors including the type of target, number of casualties and arrest of the perpetrator.



The study found terrorist attacks committed by non-Muslims, or where the individuals’ religion was undetermined, received 15 headlines on average. Attacks committed by Muslims received 105 headlines.



“We broke it down by the two different types of sources and we found that the over-coverage is much bigger among national news sources than local papers,” said Erin Kearns, a lead researcher. The study is forthcoming in Justice Quarterly. A previous paper which looked only at the period 2011 to 2015 is available here.

This article originally appeared in The Guardian.