This study explores the portrayal of Islam and Muslims in the western media talk
shows, CNN and BBC from January 2012 to December 2012 and draws the required
data from their online editions. It is a content analysis of 50 programs focusing on
Islam and Muslims from Piers Morgan Live, Fareed Zakaria GPS, HARDtalk and
Newsnight. The findings show that rather than economics, religion and war on
terror both news channels were more focused in discussing the political shifts
and regional transformations of the Muslim world. Mostly the geopolitical issues
of Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region were given immense coverage in
the discussions and Muslims were framed as politically fanatics. The findings
also established that western media differs from the previous rhetoric by not
framing Muslims as terrorists, violent and threat to western democracy.