The Politicization of Terrorism and Religion in US News Coverage of the 2015 San Bernardino Attack

Though the Western ideal of journalism heralds ‘objectivity’ and ‘independence’ as crucial characteristics for a democratic press, the reality is that biases, even unrealized ones, permeate all forms of media. The currently politically polarized media environment in the United States often seems to disregard those journalistic idealisms altogether in favor of unabashed partisanship. This division is particularly pronounced on the issue of terrorism, the politically charged term frequently used to justify military action, and religion, as can be witnessed by their definitions and coverage in the media.

This research will determine how the term terrorism and its relation to religion are covered in mainstream news reports in the United States, how they are defined, and how perpetrators of crimes are described in relation to them, using framing analysis as a theoretical base. The data will be drawn from online coverage of the 2015 San Bernardino attacks from three diverse US news outlets: MSNBC, Fox News and PBS. As the San Bernardino attack was orchestrated by an American citizen, it presents a gray area in terms of the labeling of the attack, in which 14 people were killed and 22 seriously injured by a co-worker while attending a work function.

The three selected outlets are frequently attributed with very different political leanings: while PBS, as a government-funded news outlet, is considered a more balanced news source, MSNBC has been accused of liberal leanings, and Fox News with being the mouthpiece of the Republican Party. The data collection process, previously used for research on domestic and international treatment of terrorist attacks, involves an extensive questionnaire of rating scales and binary prompts to quantify information concerning diction, use and frequency of terminology, news origin and sources cited, and definition of the attack, among others.

Following coding and analysis, this research will determine how these news outlets differ in their online coverage of the attack, perhaps to keep in line with the set media agenda and audience expectations of each respective outlet. These results will shape the final discussion section of the paper. When completed, this research will quantitatively highlight if and how the rhetoric of news organizations can shape the portrayal of religion and terrorism in the American news landscape.