Framing Terrorism and its Effects on Attitudes toward Islam: An Experiment A thesis presented to the faculty of the Scripps College of Communication of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Science Valentina Michelle Michael August 2019 © 2019 Valentina Michelle Michael. All Rights Reserved. This thesis titled Framing Terrorism and its Effects on Attitudes toward Islam: An Experiment by VALENTINA MICHELLE MICHAEL has been approved for the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism and the Scripps College of Communication by Jatin Srivastava Associate Professor of Journalism Scott Titsworth Dean, Scripps College of Communication ii Abstract MICHAEL, VALENTINA MICHELLE, M.S., August 2019, Journalism Framing Terrorism and its Effects on Attitudes toward Islam: An Experiment Director of Thesis: Jatin Srivastava This study intended to measure the influence of radical Islamic frame in terrorism news coverage on attitude toward Islam and to explore how any negative attitude resulting through such frames can be negated. Social identity theory was used to cite expert sources in the news stories from both the in-group and the out-group. Based on the two primary independent variables, an experiment was designed with four treatment groups. Although there were no statistically significant results indicating any relationship with the dependent variable (attitude toward Islam), the ANOVA means and the ranking of the groups based on mean attitude score show that in general, participants who were exposed to the in-group source had a relatively high positive attitude toward Islam . Political preference proved to be the strongest variable that had varying degrees of correlations with attitude toward Islam, media consumption, and age. Unlike what previous literature has shown, this study also suggests that increased knowledge of Islam can contribute to more favorable attitude toward Islam. iii Dedication To God, “for from Him, and through Him and for Him are all things.” - Romans 11:36. And to my mom, for being my first and forever role model. iv Acknowledgments I extend my sincerest thank you to the following individuals for helping me in this long process and for being supportive overall in my endeavors. Dr. Jatin Srivastava, my thesis committee chair, for being patient with me and meticulously guiding me from the day I started thinking about my research. Thank you for keeping me on track and pushing me to go further. Dr. Hugh Martin, thesis committee member, for instilling a love for statistics and helping me understand it. Dr. Victoria LaPoe, thesis committee member, for always opening your door to me to brainstorm and being willing to help in any way you can. Mommy, Rochelle, and Romel, for always having my back and for supporting me from miles away. Lynn and Bernie, for going out of your way to make America feel like home and for always cheering for me. Purva, for being my friend and sister and for standing by me as I evolved through this process. Graduate school would have been far less fun without you. Mohammad Adaileh, for agreeing to be photographed for my study even when you barely knew me. Wesley Temple, for helping me with the photos for my experiment and making sure they met all the criteria. God, my very existence wouldn’t be possible without you. v Table of Contents Page Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii Dedication .......................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... v List of Tables ................................................................................................................... viii List of Figures .................................................................................................................... ix Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Literature Review................................................................................................................ 4 Framing ......................................................................................................................... 4 Terrorism....................................................................................................................... 7 Social Identity ............................................................................................................... 8 Variables and Hypotheses ................................................................................................. 11 Method .............................................................................................................................. 14 Pilot Study and Factor Analysis ........................................................................................ 15 Experiment Design............................................................................................................ 19 Stimuli ......................................................................................................................... 19 Questionnaire .............................................................................................................. 21 Experiment Method .......................................................................................................... 24 Procedure .................................................................................................................... 24 Analysis............................................................................................................................. 26 Data Structure ............................................................................................................. 26 ANOVA Assumptions ................................................................................................ 28 Results ............................................................................................................................... 30 Discussion ......................................................................................................................... 36 Religious Framing ....................................................................................................... 36 Source Group .............................................................................................................. 37 Media Consumption .................................................................................................... 38 Knowledge of Islam .................................................................................................... 39 Implications....................................................................................................................... 40 Limitations and Future Research ...................................................................................... 42 References ......................................................................................................................... 43 vi Appendix A: Original BBC Story that was Used to Create the Stimuli ........................... 48 Appendix B: News Stories Used in all Four Treatment Groups ....................................... 50 Group 1: Cleveland Arrests Foil Major Terror Attack ............................................... 50 Group 2: Cleveland Arrests Foil Major Terror Attack ............................................... 52 Group 3: Cleveland Arrests Foil Major Terror Attack ............................................... 54 Group 4: Cleveland Arrests Foil Major Terror Attack ............................................... 56 Appendix C: Experiment Questionnaire ........................................................................... 58 Attitude toward Muslims ............................................................................................ 58 Muslim Contact ........................................................................................................... 59 Threat Perception ........................................................................................................ 59 Media Consumption .................................................................................................... 60 Knowledge Questions ................................................................................................. 62 Demographics ............................................................................................................. 63 vii List of Tables Page Table 1 Independent variables and treatment groups ...................................................... 14 Table 2 Pilot study factor loadings .................................................................................. 18 Table 3 Frequency Tables of Socio-Demographic Variables .......................................... 27 Table 4 Descriptive statistics for DV attitude toward Islam score .................................. 30 Table 5 T-tests for news frame, source group, and gender .............................................. 32 Table 6 Spearman’s correlations for the six primary variables ....................................... 33 Table 7 Spearman’s correlations for the four secondary variables .................................. 35 viii List of Figures Page Figure 1. Estimated marginal means of attitude