Islam, Security and Television News

Focusing on British, French and Russian television news coverage of Islam as a security threat, this book provides the first comparative account of how television broadcasting in different geo- and socio-political environments integrates discourses on Islam into nationally oriented, representational systems.

Christopher Flood is Emeritus Professor in the School of Politics at the University of Surrey. He has published extensively on political ideology and mythology, aspects of nationalism, and the politics of intellectuals in Britain and France. Stephen Hutchings is Professor of Russian Studies at the University of Manchester. He has published widely on Russian film and media, and has held four large research grants in this field, most recently on television coverage of inter-ethnic cohesion issues in Russia. Galina Miazhevich is Gorbachev Media Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. She has published on media representations of terrorism, extremism and inter-ethnic cohesion, and is currently working on new media and democracy in post-communist Europe. Henri C. Nickels is Programme Manager for Research (Social Science) at the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights in Vienna. He analyses racism and xenophobia, combining research and policy work. He has published on media coverage of ethnic minorities in European societies.

"This invaluable volume is a path-breaking advance in comparing how national media systems participate in European security/freedom debates."- Nancy Condee, University of Pittsburgh "This is a first class study of Islam-related news on national television in three major European states in the early years of the twenty-first century. The authors skilfully mix political and cultural analysis to support their central arguments regarding broadcast coverage of Islam at a time of heightened public concern about the overlapping threats posed by global terrorism. Highly topical, clearly written, cogently argued and subtly weaving together national, transnational and international factors, this book is essential reading for all those who want to move beyond the stereotypical language and imagery that permeate so much of the coverage of this issue in the mediated public sphere."- Raymond Kuhn, Queen Mary, University of London, UK "Islam, Security, and Television News represents an extensive, transnational, comparative study of television news coverage of Islam and its position within a global security discourse. The authors provide a sophisticated, measured and reflexive analysis of patterns of coverage in the UK, France and Russia using a systematic, multidisciplinary approach and incorporating wide ranging case studies. Revealing the tensions in production and representational practices that occur as a result of transnational processes interacting with the local, this book rejects polarised positions in debates on the representation of Islam and in doing so makes a significant contribution to the field of study."- Elizabeth Poole, Staffordshire University, UK