Abstract:
This study examines the role of the Italian press in spreading and legitimating the islamophobic discourse in the country. The driving force behind investigating the media representation of Islam is the extreme Muslim discrimination rate in the country, notwithstanding Italy is not the major European destination of immigrants and it has not experimented the so-called Islamic terrorism recently. Therefore, differentiating reality from perception is deemed to be a core topic in Italy, as its population overestimates the Muslim presence in the national territory by 500% and, according to recent research, it has the highest percentage in Europe of people believing the Islamic teachings to promote violence.
This thesis aims to demonstrate the existence of a link between the attitude of the Italian press towards Islam and muslim people and the increasing prejudice and hate crimes in the country, through a qualitative content analysis of the articles released by La Stampa and Corriere della Sera, the two main Italian newspapers, and the pictures published by Panorama, a prominent Italian magazine. The above-mentioned examination considers the press contents published in relation to some of the main events which concerned the Muslims throughout the last twenty years, since the 9/11 attacks until the Iranian riots started in September 2022, and it is supported by the classifications of the most common stereotypes in the western representation and iconography of Islam.
