Framing & islamophobia. Spanish reference press coverage during the Egyptian revolution (2011-2013)

Abstract

Introduction: This article evaluates the coverage of the Egyptian Revolution in ABC, El Mundo, El País and La Vanguardia, between January 2011 and December 2013, with the goal to investigate if there was Islamophobia and how it manifested itself. Methods: The study is based on the examination of the units of analysis that present Islamophobia through a system of deductive or predefined frames, and inductive frames, which emerge from reading the texts. Specifically, 428 journalistic pieces are examined through an analysis of quantitative content, and twenty-two editorials based on a qualitative content analysis. Results and conclusions: The results reveal that Islamophobia, when it does appear, does so in a subtle way. Moreover, it concentrates as much on political Islamism as on discourses that subscribe to the incompatibility between Islam and democracy, or the backwardness and homogeneity of the Arab-Islamic world with respect to Western superiority.