Unveiling the American-Muslim press: News agendas, frames, and functions

The growing scholarly literature on Muslims and the media in the United States has paid little attention to the American-Muslim press. This study compares the coverage of two major American-Muslim publications, the bimonthly news magazine Islamic Horizons and the weekly tabloid Muslim Journal, at four key moments beginning with 9/11. Content analysis (N = 576) indicates both publications are overwhelmingly US-centric, focusing on domestic political and community affairs rather than the so-called ‘Muslim world’. Aiding Muslim assimilation into American society emerges as the most important function of the American-Muslim press. However, Muslim Journal attends almost exclusively to black Muslims while Islamic Horizons emphasizes the coverage of immigrant Muslims from the Middle East and South Asia – reflecting and reproducing a historical schism within American-Muslim society. The study also reveals how minority media can reinforce power structures within the minority community and thus serve as a means of social control.