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Content Analysis of American Print Media Coverage
Content Analysis of American Print Media Coverage
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
MOROCCAN-AMERICAN STUDIES
MASTER PROGRAM
S4 Term Paper
July 2017
Abstract
This research paper examines three elite daily American newspapers coverage of political
Islam in Morocco from 2011 to 2017. A content analysis approach has been adopted in the
analysis of the newspaper articles. Quantitative content analysis has provided quantitative
analysis has inferred latent content by relating the quantitative findings to the adopted
variables, which are the most covered issues and the newspapers’ editorial line. The findings
have revealed an overall positive attitude towards political Islam in Morocco. However, there
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Table of Contents
List of Abbreviations………………………………………………………………………….5
1. Introduction………….….………….……………………………………..……………….6
1.1. Purpose ………………………………………….…………………………………….8
1.2. Rationale ………………………………………………………………………………8
1.3. Research Questions and Hypotheses …………..…….………………………………..9
1.4. Scope ……………………………………………………………………………...….10
4. Methodology…….………...………………………….…………………………...…....….30
4.1. Data Collection………………………………………………………………………..30
4.2. Data Classification………………………………………………………………….…33
4.2.1. Classification by Editorial Line……………………………………………………..33
4.2.2. Classification by Top Issues ………………………………………………………..35
5. Findings……………………………………………………………………………..…...…39
7. Conclusion……………………………..……..……………..……....….…………...……..55
References ………………………………………………………………..……………..……58
Appendices …………………………………………………………..………………..….…..61
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List of Tables and Figures
Table 5.4. Positive and Negative Adjectives and Verbs in Liberal Newspapers
Table 5.5. Positive and Negative Adjectives and Verbs in the Conservative Newspaper
Figure 5.1. Distribution of the Main Issues in Liberal and Conservative Newspapers
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List of Abbreviations
Adj. Adjectives
Art. Articles
Freq. Frequency
5
1. Introduction
Across the Islamic world, Islamist groups have chosen to join protests stemming from
the 2011 Arab Spring. In Morocco, however, an exception emerged. The country’s main
Islamist political party – the Justice and Development Party – has chosen not to join protests
organised by the 20 February movement for change. Such an incident might be considered a
unique feature of Islamism in Morocco, which differs from its counterpart in other Arab
countries.
This paper examines the way the main American newspapers have represented political
Islam in Morocco in the last six years. The focus is on the three key components of Islamism
which are the religious, political and social fields to decide on the most tackled components
and why there is an emphasis on that peculiar area of interest. The classification of the
newspaper articles in terms of Liberal and Conservative offers the potential of comparing the
two distinct editorial lines. On the one hand, quantitative content analysis reveals the stance of
each category. Qualitative content analysis, on the other hand, infers and interprets the
dominant attitudes of both Liberal and Conservative articles towards Islamism in Morocco.
The initial section of this paper presents the review of the literature. First, an overview
of political Islam is offered along with meticulous definitions which attempt to define and
limit such complex and debated phenomenon. Second, a brief account on representation and
presented. This part sheds light on the history of Islamism in Morocco, its nature and how
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The second section presents the theoretical framework of the study, which defines and
reviews the literature on the adopted content analysis approach, and discloses examples of
three case studies using this research method to analyse newspaper articles’ content. The
reviewed case studies are the following: Halisatu Aziz (2015), Indraja Gugle (2016), and
The third section, methodology, displays the major implemented data collection,
classification, coding, analysis and interpretation processes. First, this section alludes to the
determined criteria of data collection which comprise articles on the topic of Islamism in
Morocco in three of the most circulated American newspapers. The classification of the
newspaper articles abides by the following prime variables: most covered issues and
newspapers’ editorial line. It is also explained in the methodology section that content
analysis is the chief adopted method in the study and KH Coder is the used software program
The fourth section sorts out the main findings which are presented throughout this part.
To inquire the dominant issues and attitudes of the chosen newspapers, the articles are
categorised according to the most tackled issues and the editorial line of each newspaper;
Conservative and Liberal. Differences across these two groups are discussed according to the
prevailing attitude of each editorial line. Other contexts are made use of to interpret the main
findings.
in the following newspapers: The New York Times, The Washington Post, and USA Today.
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The data analysis also helps inspecting the attitude of each editorial line which may influence
the nature of the coverage and determine the most covered issues.
The examination of three major American newspapers reveals a foreign stance about political
Islam in Morocco. The significance of choosing American newspapers; which have high
number of circulation and readership, resides in their vital role in shaping public opinion not
only in America, but in various countries from all corners of the world.
1.1. Purpose
represented in three of the most circulated American daily newspapers. The academic goal of
this study is twofold: the first aim is to look at the way Moroccan Political Islam is
represented in three of the elite American newspapers, and better understand the effect of such
representations. The second aim lies in delineating the main differences and similarities
1.2. Rationale
Political Islam in the Middle East and the MENA Region is one of the key concerns of
America’s foreign policy. Focusing on the case of Morocco, Moroccan Islamists have proven
resilient in the wake of the Arab Spring and have offered a different model of Islamist
participation that partly reflects the country’s unique monarchical context. The Brotherhood-
inspired Justice and Development Party (PJD) has secured a foothold in government through
popular movement Al Adl Wal Ihsan has sustained its appeal and access through non-violent
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activism. In this context, this research study investigates how Moroccan political Islam is
represented in American print media. The prime objective of this study is to inquire the
attitudes and tone of both Conservative and Liberal newspapers. I think this research topic is
relevant in the sense that it contributes to the existing literature on Morocco. Being an
international outlet, the most circulated American print media plays a great role in modeling
public opinion and affecting the decision-making process. In this regard, this study is worth
inspecting because it may provide background knowledge to future researchers and policy
makers on the stance of the selected print media towards political Islam in Morocco.
This study is concerned with the representation of Moroccan political Islam in the
following American newspapers: The New York Times, The Washington Post, and USA
Today. Political Islam had tremendous effects on the American newspapers dealing with the
coverage of the issue, yet their attitudes and stance vary in consistency.
While several newspapers adopted a negative attitude towards Islamism in various Arab and
Islamic countries, others hailed the unique nature of Islamism in certain countries. Various
campaigns consisted of an attempt to frame a rough picture of Islamism to their public. At the
same time, newspapers and media channels owned by Muslim countries and groups attempted
to illustrate what they believed to be the true image of Islamism. This discrepancy and
difference in viewpoints came to be more evident in the war the United States launched
against Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003 in what it called the ‘War on terrorism’.
In the light of this argument, this study addresses the following key research questions:
1) How is Moroccan political Islam represented in the three selected American newspapers?
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2) What are the most covered issues which dominated the selected data during the period from
2011 to 2017?
3) Which attitudes did the chosen American newspapers hold towards Islamism in Morocco?
This question is concerned with identifying the attitudes of the selected newspapers from the
beginning of the Arab Spring until 2017. More importantly this question inquires whether
they are for or against Islamism in Morocco. The study also investigates whether there is a
difference in terms of attitudes and tone between Conservative and Liberal newspapers.
Last but not least, this study assumes that there will be some clear distinctions among the two
editorial lines, i.e. Conservative and Liberal, in terms of attitudes as well as the issues of
1.4. Scope
The scope of this thesis is to investigate how political Islam in Morocco is represented in
three elite American newspapers. It considers some related fields to Islamism like the
religious and socio-political domains. This thesis bases its discussion and analysis on the
findings from the sixty chosen newspaper articles. In an attempt to study the media coverage
of political Islam in Morocco, a quantitative and qualitative content analysis of the data is
adopted. Like any other research paper, this study has its own limitations that need to be
addressed. First, this thesis does not display a thorough analysis of all American newspapers
because, as it has been noticed, the focus is more on newspaper categories, i.e. Conservative
and Liberal. Second, despite the well-defined criteria of data selection, it is difficult to claim
the coverage of all newspapers’ archives. According to Babbie (2010), “regardless of your
data-collection method, you will frequently face the problem of missing data”.
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As a matter of fact, when there is a wider selection of articles and sources, it is easier to draw
generalizations from the selection. Nevertheless, more research into the stance of the
would offer a chance for comparing the two distinct fields of media and the American
administration.
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2. Review of the Literature
This section offers an overview of political Islam in Morocco and shows how distinctive
it is from the rest of Arab countries. By the same token, it provides a brief account of Political
Islam in Morocco and how distinctive it is from the rest of Islamic countries. Additionally,
this section defines the content analysis approach used in the current paper. Certain significant
definitions are presented and examined in succession. Three relatable case studies are
reviewed and their relevance stems from the use of an analogous approach which is applied to
a parallel theme. These case studies analyse American newspapers and a fourth case study
analyses Asian newspaper; they all take into consideration the effect of newspaper coverage
on a particular issue.
Over the past few decades, Islam has turned out to be the key element of reference for
various political activities and movements. The landscape of the Muslim world today reveals
countries from North Africa to Southeast Asia. Political Islam, also known as Islamism, is a
relatively recent phenomenon which developed in the last two centuries of Islam’s 1400 year
history. According to The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Politics, “political Islam
represents a form of social and political activism, grounded in an idea that public and political
life should be guided by a set of Islamic principles.” This very definition presents a literal,
straightforward description of the concept, yet political Islam is a much more complex issue
which has raised many questions and generated a hot debate among scholars, policymakers,
governments and students of international politics alike. These questions, indeed, revolve
around the implications of Islamism on diversity, minorities and women’s rights, the extent to
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which Islamism, democracy and modernity are compatible or not, and Islamism being a
potential threat to the West. Looking at it from one side, adherents of Islamism believe that
“Islamism as a body of faith has something important to say about how politics and society
should be ordered in the contemporary Muslim world and implemented in some fashion.”1
In this regard, Islamism is seen as a pragmatic ideology, which is part and parcel of the
a future, the foundations for which rest on re-appropriated, reinvented concepts borrowed
Looking at it from the other side, critics of Islamism hold a set of assumptions on the
phenomenon of political Islam, which drive them to reject it. In his book entitled The Many
Faces of Political Islam, Mohammed Ayoub (2008) sums up the predominant assumptions in
the literature dealing with the analysis of political Islam which he divides into six major
1
Graham Fuller, The Future of Political Islam. Palgrave, New York, 2003, page xi.
2
Guilain Denoeux, “The Forgotten Swamp: Navigating Political Islam”, Middle East Policy, June 2002, p. 61.
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instrumentalist fashion to come to power, but once in power they
are likely to jettison the democratic system in order to perpetuate
their rule thus proving true the dictum that Islamists are committed
to “one person, one vote, one time”. (e) Political Islam is inherently
violent or, at the very least, predisposes its followers to undertake
unconstitutional and extra-legal activity to achieve their “divinely
sanctioned” objectives.
Ayoub (2008) asserts that such assumptions may seem valid academically speaking, yet they
still present a limited, mistaken reading of political Islam. In this context, he argues that the
interlacing of religion and politics is not exclusive to Islam. Judaism, Christianity, and
Hinduism have all incorporated religion into politics. In fact, tying religion and politics has
been more prominent in Christianity starting from the 4th century down through the medieval
period than was the case in Islam’s classical age. Ayoub also asserts that political Islam,
contrary to what is believed, is not monolithic. It comes, however, in numerous forms and
differs from country to country and even within countries as well. From Ayoub’s point of
view, Islamism’s popularity and legitimacy stem from the use of a jargon that makes sense to
the public and the authoritarian nature of regimes in power in the Muslim world.
By the same token, Graham Fuller (2003) perceives that the aspect of violence is a commonly
held attribute of political Islam. He elucidates that the events of September 11, 2001, the War
on Iraq and the conflict in Palestine have participated in linking political Islam to violence and
caused its identification as an essential enemy to the West. Fuller, however, illustrates that
political Islam does not necessarily entail violence, but rather its broad spectrum runs from
modernist”.
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2.2. Media Representations
Media are one of the most influential disseminators of meaning which shape the way
we perceive ourselves and the world. As a matter of fact, mass media play a major role in
creating, instructing and distributing knowledge and ideologies. According to Van Dijk
(1991), “the stories and images in the Media provide resources and symbols through which we
organize ourselves into this culture” (p. 45). Several studies have proven true the power of
media in articulating prevalent social values and ideologies, which often lead to
misrepresentation or stereotypical portrayals. Being the basis of all media texts, representation
is one of the most debated notions in the field of cultural and media studies. Representation is
the process whereby the media construct a different, distorted version of reality by resorting to
written, symbolic and technical codes. The Oxford dictionary provides two definitions of the
term representation:
These straightforward definitions denote that the media’s main business is to describe
things to us by representing people, or issues so that we end up believing that we know what
they are like. According to the cultural theorist Stuart Hall, “Representation means using
language to say something meaningful about, or to represent, the world meaningfully, to other
people”. Hall (1997) believes that language is not merely restricted to a system of linguistic
signs, yet the non-linguistic signs — such as visual images, body language, and language of
the music and fashion —are also part and parcel of language and they do communicate a
given message.
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In this context, Hall alludes to two systems of representation which include both the
conceptual images in our mind and the linguistic signs. The former system of representation
relies on thoughts which may represent the world, objects, or abstract things; whereas the
second system is a medium through which our thoughts can be organized, represented and
exchanged. Thus, representation is the process whereby things, concepts and linguistic signs
In his seminal book entitled The Work of Representation, Hall delineates three
approach. According to the reflective approach, language, or any other emblematic system,
operates as a mega mirror which can reflect or distort reality, whereas the intentional approach
argues that “it is the speaker, the author, who imposes his or her unique meaning on the world
through language (Hall, 1997: 25). Thus, meaning in both the reflective and the intentional
this approach, the material world is considered the place where things and people exist and
signs are regarded as having a material dimension. However, it is within language systems
that meaning is constructed and produced and therefore meaning is produced through its
symbolic function not its material quality (1997: 26). As opposed to the former approaches,
the constructionist model sustains that there is no distinct, fixed, unanimous true meaning.
Because of the linguistic turn in Cultural Studies and Social Sciences, the
constructionist approach became the prevailing one. This shift had urged many theorists to
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embrace the model of the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure and the French historian
Michel Foucault.
signification system in language, whereby the signified and the signifiers work to produce
investigates power relationships and knowledge in discourse and perceives the subject as
constituted through discourse. Saussure’s constructionist approach has many limitations. The
first limitation lies in stressing the formal aspects of language, while neglecting dialogue or
language interaction.
whereby reality is being used as a normative standard to measure the quality of newspaper
articles. The key rationale for using this model is because of the study’s exploration of news
content, and analyses of the news tend to explore the relationship between the reporting of
reality and the referent. In this case the referent refers to the events in the material world,
therefore the constructionist approach, which neglects to explore the material structures within
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2.3. Political Islam in Morocco
Morocco is one of the few Arab countries that was able to sustain its monarchical regime
regardless of the turbulent times which have been shaking the Arab world. The country has
been ruled by the Alaouite dynasty since the mid-seventeenth century. The king is both the
mundane leader and the religious ruler (Commander of the faithful), who incarnates a spiritual
authority. As a matter of fact, the monarch’s authenticity originates from the fact of being a
descendant of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him). During the reign of king
Hassan II, the main monarchical regime’s opponents were mainly Leftists. The king’s
reaction, therefore, was drastic and the phase from the 1960s to the 1980 is known as the years
of lead. During this period, the situation was insecure as there were two coups d’état in the
1970s, and successive protests in the 1980s and the 1990s. In 1974, an unprecedented event
took place when Abdessalam Yassine, the leader of the Moroccan Islamist organisation Al-
Adl Wa Al-Ihssan (Justice and Spirituality), wrote a letter to king Hassan II in which he
decries his rule and describes it as unislamic. This very incident had marked the outburst of a
new kind of opposition that of political Islam. And Since then, Morocco witnessed a gradual
ascendency of Islamism. According the Islamic Studies expert Mohamed Darif, the
resurgence of Islamism in Morocco was attributed to the great impact of the Islamic Iranian
Revolution of 1979. To put it in Darif’s exact terms as cited in (Marvin Howe 2005):
King Hassan II, subsequently, adopted an unprecedented religious plan that seeks to
support Islamism which counteracts Nasser’s doctrine and the Left in Morocco. Founded in
1969 by Abdelkrin Moutii, the Islamic Youth Association (Al-Chabiba Islamiyya) was able to
win the palace’s support due to its opposition to the Marxist and Moroccan Leftists’
ideologies. The majority of scholars agree that the Islamic Youth Association was the first
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organized Islamist group in Morocco that was meant to limit the power of the left parties
mainly Independence party and USFP. However, the organization’s abrupt growing appeal
and Moutii’s adoption of Sayyid Qutb’s discourse urged the palace to contain the power of the
association and defame it (Bouyahya, 2015: 3). According to Darif (1992), After the murder
of Omar Ben Jelloun, many members of the Islamic Youth Association were arrested for this
incident. Moutii then was compelled to leave the country and run the association from abroad.
He therefore continued his combativeness and wrote a book entitled Al-Mujahid in which he
Shahin (1997) states that numerous key members and militants of the association
withdrew their membership. A few members like Baha, Benkirane, Yatim and Othmani turned
out to be keen on forming a political party. In 1983, they formed AL-Jama’a al-islamiyya (the
Islamic Community) and looked for official recognition. Yet Al-Jama’a was obliged to
change its name and quit any allusion to Islam. Afterwards, Al-Jama’a became Movement of
Reform and Renewal (Harakat Al-Islah wa Tawhid). The movement sought to voice the
demands of its constituency and guarantee political participation. Thereafter, the movement
founders declared the formation of a new political party called National Renewal Party (Hizb
At-Tajdid Al- Watani). Still, the party was denied official recognition in spite of its assertion
that the party has no intention whatsoever to use Islam for political reasons. According to
Willis (2004), the party chief leaders were compelled “to look for fielding candidates in
elections under the banner of officially recognized political parties”. The Movement of
Reform and Renewal, subsequently, chose the little- known political party the Constitutional
and Democratic Popular Movement. It was due to this party that Islamists could enter the
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Movement became officially Party of Justice and Development (PJD). Al-Khatib, the
founding father of the Islamist Party of Justice and Development, kept on stressing that the
modification of the party’s name is a change of orientation rather than a mere alteration of the
party’s name. Thus, being an Islamist political party, the PJD has faced several hurdles and
experienced many transformations to reach its present condition. This brief overview exhibits
that Moroccan Islamist movements are as pluralistic as the country’s cultural make up. On the
one hand, the non-political movements tend to focus on preaching and refrain from interfering
in politics. On the other hand, the political Islamist movements take part in the political
decision-making process and articulate many complex social and economic concerns.
Darif (1992) distinguishes three sorts of Moroccan Islamist political movements: the
radicals, syntheticals, and reformists. While radicals believe in the power of political violence
and Jihad in re-Islamizing the state and society, syntheticals consent to democracy yet they
challenge the official interpretation of Islam. They stress the paramount importance of having
a strict religious education and they put it at the heart of their educational agenda. Last but not
least, Reformists are generally well-educated; they completely dismiss violence and the idea
that it can be an efficient instrument of change. Unlike Radicals, they support the democratic
processes and reject working clandestinely. PJD and MRR are examples of this type.
After the death of his father king Hassan II, king Muhammad VI succeeded to the throne and
came up with a new progressive agenda which allowed him to be welcomed by both liberals
and Islamists. According to Mohamed Daadaoui, king Muhammad VI makes sure “to
Islamists” (2013: 33). For Daadaoui, the key conflicts surrounding the nature of the Moroccan
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As opposed to most of Arab countries, Morocco has not gone through the experience of
the Arab Spring, yet it had its share of protests and unrest. In 2011, ensuing the Tunisian and
Egyptian revolts, thousands of Moroccans took the streets and rallied under the name of “The
20 February Movement” to call for social justice, equality and democracy. During the
demonstrations, there were no demands to oust the regime, but there was a will to restrict
royal powers under a constitutional monarchy. Following this incident, king Mohamed VI
announced plans to reform the old constitution and embark on many reforms. A general
election resulted in the triumph of the Islamist Justice and Development Party, which proved
its resilience and ability to secure a foothold in the political arena. In this regard, Avi Spiegel
(2013) states that “the PJD provides a different model of political participation that partly
reflects the unique monarchical system”. The Justice and Development party has managed to
whereas the movement of Al-Adl Wal Ihsan has remained marginal and resorted to peaceful
activism.
Unlike Al-Adl wal Ihsan which seeks to demystify the monarchy and render it a subject
for criticism, the PJD supports the monarchy’s religious legitimacy and considers it a major
pillar of the country. The PJD has managed to display itself as a reformist actor which
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3. Theoretical Framework
Considering the nature of this study which attempts to display how Moroccan political
Islam is represented in American newspapers, content analysis is used as the major data
analysis method. Content analysis of articles from the three elite newspapers in America helps
deducing the way American print media portray Moroccan Islamism. For adequate
examination of the study therefore, the framing theory and content analysis shall be reviewed
and examined.
Content analysis is a scientific method which allows researchers to grasp and examine
technique for the objective, systematic, and quantitative description of the manifest content of
as it limits content analysis to the surface structure of a text. He also affirms that the fact of
describing this method as being objective is not necessarily valid since media communication
analysis is “a research technique for making replicable and valid inferences from data to their
concept”.
As for Weber (1985), content analysis is “a research methodology that utilizes a set of
procedures to make valid inferences from text”. Weber’s definition differs from its previous
counterparts as it stresses that the text’s analyser can make valid inferences from the text.
These inferences revolve around the sender of the message, the message itself, and the
message’s audience. In this context, Stone confirms Weber’s definition and adds that
‘’content analysis refers to any procedure for assessing the relative extent to which specified
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The former definitions stress the notion of measurement and manifest content, whereas
Weber’s definition encourages the interpreter to infer meaning from the text. For him, content
analysis is not restricted to quantifying words frequency, yet it scrutinises other discursive
elements such as the sender of the message, the message itself, and the audience.
following principles of content analysis as a scientific method. These criteria are objectivity,
reliability and accuracy of findings are much emphasised — the same applies to any
quantitative method like observation, questionnaire, and experiment. That is why, quantitative
content analysis focuses on the neutrality of data collection and analysis, data credibility, the
On the other hand, qualitative methods which appeared in the 1970s have greatly
impacted the evolution of content analysis. This method relies on beliefs which differ from
those of the quantitative methodology. Therefore, new sorts of inquiry objectives have
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3.2. Quantitative and Qualitative Content Analyses
Content analysis is a typical scientific method mostly used in social sciences and mass
communication studies, and can be used both in quantitative and qualitative studies. Looking
at it from one side, many scholars see content analysis as a distinctive feature of quantitative
research and preclude the potential of qualitative research. Looking at it from the other side,
scholars like Veal (2006) behold that it is a research method that can fit both quantitative and
qualitative examination of the data. Quantitative content analysis deals with the counting of
words frequency and time in the cases of radio and television. On a quantitative level, content
analysis includes any sort of analysis in which content is grouped and classified.
Unlike quantitative analysis which is limited to the numerical analysis of data, qualitative
analysis provides a detailed interpretation of a given text by relating it to its context. In this
subjectively. According to Shannon (2005), qualitative content analysis is ‘“a research method
for the subjectivist interpretation of text and data through the systematic classification process
of coding and identifying themes or patterns” (p. 12). The researcher then provides a
description of the findings relying on the data analysis which generate conclusions and further
study. Qualitative content analysis therefore is crucial to comprehend the text’s profound
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One of the distinctive features of this method is its ability of using inductive or
deductive approaches or both of them. According to Elo & Kyngäs (2008), in the literature
content analysis often adopts two contradicted methods: quantitative or qualitative. Mixed
approach (triangulation) is usually applied as a third alternative, which accommodates the two
distinct methods.
inductive or the deductive approach. The inductive approach is appropriate when prior
inductive approach, codes, categories, or themes are directly inferred from the data. The
deductive approach, however, starts with preconceived codes or categories derived from prior
relevant theory, research, or literature. The deductive approach is appropriate when the
objective of the study is to test existing theory or retest existing data in a new context.
Ultimately, as any other scientific research method, content analysis has its advantages
and limitations. In this regard, Forman and Damschroder (2008) believes that the remarkable
feature of qualitative content analysis is that it is “a more hands-on approach to research than
quantitative content analysis” (p. 60). Nevertheless, McNamara (2006) maintains that
qualitative content analysis depends to a great extent on the researcher’s interpretation of the
texts. Still, many scholars contradict McNamaras’s point of view and consider it another
Limitation of qualitative content analysis, as it puts an intense emphasis on the researcher who
can be biased.
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3.3. Case Studies
Content analysis is one of the most frequently used research methods in the fields of
social science and mass communication studies. By the same token, reviewing relevant case
studies in a content analysis paper is a useful tool for the introductory phase of descriptive,
case studies helps providing answers to ‘’how’’ and ‘’why’’ questions. In this chapter, three
case studies, which are grounded on content analysis of newspapers coverage of Muslims and
Islam, are going to be reviewed. The pertinence of the following case studies — Halisatu
Aziz (2015), Indraja Gugle (2016), and Naureen Aqueel (2015) — stems from their use of
content analysis as the major data analysis method and their reliance on newspaper texts as
In the first case study, Halisatu Aziz (2015) inquires the representation of Islam in
Ghanian newspapers by applying a quantitative content analysis of 172 news stories on Islam
published in the Daily Graphic and Daily Guide newspapers in 2013, 2014 and the first half
of 2015. Halisatu’s findings are derived from a careful analysis of the two<, prominent
Ghanian newspapers. As opposed to what is believed in the literature, Halisatu finds out that
the 172 stories on Islam that were analysed, 64.5 percent were neutral, which contradicts the
commonly held belief that stresses the negativity of the media’s coverage of Islam. He also
discloses that most of the stories which were coded for as negative in tone were sourced from
foreign agencies like BBC and CNN and were mostly terrorist activities. All news items that
were written by Ghanaians were mostly positive issues like charity, donations and religious
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In the second case study, Indraja Gugle (2016) investigates how Islam was represented
in the aftermath of the attacks of Charlie Hebdo in the press of France, USA, and Pakistan.
The study aims to examine how Muslim immigrants are being treated by the press and how
such treatment may or may not affect the freedom of expression. By adopting a quantitative
and qualitative content analysis, newspaper articles from each country were analysed to gather
information about the tendencies in reportage about Muslims and the freedom of expression.
The language used to describe Islam and Muslims was also examined, and so were the sources
used in the stories. Results exhibit a shift in the way Islamic terrorism is being represented.
The Islamophobic tone was not the dominant aspect of the press discourse as efforts were
being made to grasp the roots and causes of terrorism as a violent practice rather than
demonising Islam as a faith. As for freedom of expression, the research paper finds that all
three countries have shown a tendency to reject the right to offend, though freedom of
In the third and last case study, Naureen Aqueel (2015) examines the role of Muslim
media, which is established in North America in voicing new different discourses, which
opposes and challenges the mainstream media. To this purpose, two print Muslim newspapers,
The Muslim Link (United States) and Muslim Link (Canada), are used to explore how the
journalism, goals and practices of the Muslim media differ from the mainstream media. A
mixed method approach, comprising comparative content analysis, discourse and text analysis
and interviews, is used in the study. The content of both Muslim newspapers is compared to
the mainstream newspapers of their respective regions. Drawing from theoretical perspectives
on alternative media, the findings show, in varying ways, that these Muslim newspapers can
newspapers are also able to foster social and political engagement in their
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communities and in many ways, attempt to write the Muslim community’s own narrative
about itself.
To conclude, this section has reviewed part of the prime literature which is believed to
be pertinent and crucial to the development of this paper. First, this paper has offered a brief
account of political Islam as a relatively recent phenomenon and the hot debate it has struck in
the Western media. It has also alluded to political Islam in the context of Morocco, how
diverse it is and different from other Islamic countries, media representation and framing and
their paramount importance in shaping the public opinion. Moreover, this chapter has also
outlined what has been said by some of the pioneer scholars on content analysis theory since
The last section, on the other hand, has presented three case studies: Halisatu Aziz
(2015), Indraja Gugle (2016), and Naureen Aqueel (2015). The relevance of these case studies
stems from their use of content analysis of newspaper articles to investigate the representation
of Islam and Muslims in various newspapers from three corners of the world; mainly USA,
France, and Ghana. The findings, in fact, differ from one case study to the other. While
Halistatu (2015) finds out that most of the stories which were coded for as negative in tone
were sourced from foreign agencies like BBC and CNN and were mostly terrorist activities,
Indraja (2016) contends that the Islamophobic tone was not the dominant aspect of the press
discourse as efforts were being made to grasp the roots and causes of terrorism as a violent
practice. Naureen Aqueel (2015), however, proves through his findings that Muslim
newspapers can provide alternative representations and discourses. These newspapers are also
able to foster social and political engagement in their communities and in many ways, attempt
28
to write the Muslim community’s own narrative about itself. Last but not least, the three
reviewed case studies along with the research questions and the study’s objectives have all
29
4. Methodology
This section displays the main employed processes of gathering, classifying and
analysing data. The criteria of selection of the newspaper articles about political Islam in
Morocco are carefully described. This section likewise delineates the variables and elucidates
This research paper is a content analysis of newspaper articles in The New York Times,
The Washington Post, and USA Today related to the coverage of Moroccan Islamism. The
chief concern of this study is to inspect how Moroccan political Islam is represented in three
of the elite American newspapers. Therefore, the major data for this paper are newspaper
articles related to the coverage of political Islam in Morocco from 2011 until 2017. The
choice of the year 2011 is very significant in the sense that it marked the beginning of the
Arab spring events, which is a major turning point in the history of the Arab world in general
and Morocco.
The Sample of this study consists of 60 articles published from January 2011 to 2017.
The chosen articles meet the following key criteria. First, they tackle the topic of Islamism in
Morocco, or compare it to other Arab countries. Second, they are published in one of the top
ten American newspapers. Finally, they comprise at least 60 terms related to the topic of the
research paper.
The selection of the aforementioned American newspapers is not done at random; these
newspapers have high circulation and readership rates and they play a central role in shaping
30
the American public opinion as well as affecting the decision-making process. According to
the American Audit bureau of circulation (2016), USA Today is ranked the first American
(2,101,611), the Wall Street Journal (1,337,376), and The Washington Post (356,768).
The chart below displays the top 10 American daily newspapers by circulation.
8. Newsday 321,296
http://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-10-most-popular-daily-newspapers-in-the-united-states.html-for-May-2017
31
The table above presents the top ten daily American newspapers, yet this study adopts a
sample of three newspapers from the list; USA Today, The Washington Post, and The New
York Times. The total number of the articles gathered from the three aforementioned
newspapers is 170 articles. The articles content is divided into topics that tackle political Islam
in Morocco as the main country, and others which address the issue of Islamism in other Arab
countries while alluding to Morocco. Although the search resulted in the appearance of 170
articles, only the most pertinent 60 articles were selected so as to carefully analyse them. The
table below exhibits the number of articles per each selected newspaper.
Original Number
of Articles (the
Title sample of 500 Selected Articles (60 articles)
articles)
3. USA Today 80 30
The source of the data is the LexisNexis database. The related articles surfaced after
typing some key words like “Islamism in Morocco”, “Moroccan Political Islam’’, ‘’PJD’’, or
“Islamic movements in Morocco”. The key word “Morocco” was also added alone to the
search bar to guarantee more pertinent data. This procedure has resulted in the eradication of
irrelevant articles which divert from the focal interest of this paper that of political Islam in
Morocco in all of its aspects. Lastly, the search was guided and narrowed by the setting of the
32
4.2. Data Classification
The chief concern of this paper is to investigate how Moroccan political Islam is
portrayed in three of the prominent daily American newspapers. Therefore, two classification
criteria are adopted. The first classification method divides the newspapers according to their
editorial line to inspect whether they have similar or different attitudes, positive or negative
tone towards political Islam in Morocco. The second one, however, relies on the major tackled
In this study, the newspaper articles are divided into two main categories. Two liberal
newspapers The New York Times and The Washington Post and one conservative USA Today.
Working on these twofold categories would offer a more nuanced view of how liberal and
Cambridge English Dictionary, the term liberal means “accepting beliefs and behaviour that
are new or different from your own’’. Politically speaking, “liberal entails “Liberal political
ideas emphasise the need to make new laws as society changes and the need for government
to provide social services”. As for the term conservative, The Oxford Dictionary defines it
as “Averse to change or innovation, holding traditional values, and favouring free enterprise,
The pertinence of classifying newspaper articles in terms of their editorial line stems
from its primordial role in interpreting the tone and the attitude a newspaper holds towards
reflects the newspaper’s political tendency, the selection of topics, their interpretation and
33
presentation are often driven by specific interests. In this regard, Tim Groseclose and Jeff
Milyo (2005) assert that while liberal is associated with the Democratic party, conservative is
strictly related to the Republican party. This means that the alignment of a newspaper with a
given political party voices the interests of that party, which impacts public opinion and the
voting behaviour.
In their work entitled A Measure of Media Bias, Groseclose and Milyo contend that all
media procedures are biased starting from the news selection to the presentation phase. They
also add that that media bias seldom occurs by distorting reality, yet rather through the ellipsis
of peculiar facts which are essential to the unfolding of the story. Yet, this is not the only
illustration of media bias, it takes in fact many forms. Steven Allen (1992), the head of CRC’s
Investigative unit and the former press secretary to U.S. Senator Jeremiah Denton, came up
The table below presents the editorial line of the three selected American newspapers,
34
the number of adopted articles from each one, and the date of coverage of the data.
Another major criterion of data classification is sorting out the most tackled issues in
the articles. After skimming and scanning the selected articles, it shows that the data address
mostly the following issues with different recurrence. The first addressed issue is the Islamist
Party of Justice and Development as a leading party, the main taken decisions by the PJD as
well as their resilience in the wake of the Arab spring are two of the most highlighted themes.
The second topic, monarchy, pertains to king Mohammed VI religious diplomacy within
Morocco and the paramount importance of religion in the sustenance of the monarchical
institution, the king’s popularity, and the stability of the country. The third issue is Islamic
movements in Morocco, and it deals with the orientation, goals, and role of each movement in
the Moroccan political sphere. The fourth issue, entitled terrorism, addresses the attitude of
the government towards terrorism and its endeavors. The fifth issue is religion, and it pertains
As far as Weber (1990) is concerned, data can be classified in terms of the three
following elements. The first classification method divides the text’s content into positive and
35
negative categories; whereas the second classifies it in terms of strength and weakness. The
last method classifies the units of the text into active and passive. Yet, the focal interest of this
Besides listing the most tackled issues in articles, this study attempts to inspect the tone
and the dominant attitudes about Islamism in Morocco in the three selected American
newspapers. In this context, the newspaper articles are split into those reflecting prevailing
negative attributes and those disclosing overriding positive characteristics. Nevertheless, this
paper does not only focus on the positive and negative attitude of a given newspaper, it also
In his seminal work entitled Positive and Negative Associations Underlying Ambivalent
Attitudes, De Liver (2007) contends that ‘’ambivalent attitudes are thought to have both
positive and negative associations’’. However, ambivalent attitudes are distinguished from
neutral attitudes in terms of the extent of positive and negative overtone. Unlike ambivalent
The adopted parts of speech for analysis are the following. Looking at it from one side,
there are specific nouns which are checked out to uncover the top tackled issues mentioned
above. The parts of speech units are determined by the words which recurred at least 20 times.
The selection of this frequency is to exhibit the most and least frequent terms. Only pertinent
nouns which resonate to the focus of the study are kept, other words like day, place, woman,
etc. are discarded. Looking at it from the other side, adjectives and verbs do also disclose and
classify attitudes. In fact, these parts of speech units are chosen according to a frequency
which equals or exceeds 15. This recurrence detects the prevailing adjectives and verbs. The
software program KH Coder, used for quantitative content analysis and text mining, helps
distinguishing the aforementioned parts of speech, their recurrence and classification. The
36
software offers a part of speech option which helps in the classification and analysis of the
newspaper articles.
This study adopts a quantitative and qualitative data analysis methods. Quantitatively
speaking, the newspaper articles are analysed by using the software program KH Coder,
which performs a set of procedures to depict the manifest content of the data. In this regard
Weber (1990) states that content analysis relies on measurement as a key method which
enumerates words, phrases, themes, and content categories’ frequency. Being a chief aspect of
content analysis, counting, discloses various aspects of the text content. Still, the data analysis
is not restricted to the quantitative procedures solely, qualitative analysis is also part and
parcel of this study. It cannot be neglected that quantitative analysis provides numeral
findings, which its qualitative counterpart builds on to generate a more profound analysis and
interpretation. As stated by scholars like Berelson (1948) and Krippendorf (2004), providing
statistical frequencies does not denote much unless it is complemented by qualitative analysis
which infers the hidden meaning of a given text, what is known in the academia as ‘’latent
content’’. In this paper, inferring latent content occurs by relating the quantitative findings to
the adopted variables, which are the most covered issues and the newspapers’ editorial line.
Moreover, qualitative analysis also allows cross checking and interpreting quantitative results.
Data analysis is one of the major stages of any research paper which responds to the
already asked research questions. Selecting adequate methods to present the findings is
another key element which participates in the clarity and transmission of the results. This
study therefore makes use of different visual tools like charts, tables, histograms and pie
37
To conclude, this section has displayed the major adopted procedures of data
collection, classification, coding, analysis and interpretation. It has demonstrated the criteria
upon which the sixty chosen articles on the topic of Moroccan Islamism in three daily
American newspapers. The data is classified in terms of two variables; mainly the most
covered issues and newspapers’ editorial line. The software program KH coder is of much
help when it comes to the coding, classification, and the analysis of the data. However, it is
not the only used method, as the qualitative side is integrated with the quantitative one. The
qualitative analysis is used to make inferences about the latent content of the newspaper
The following section, indeed, complements the methodology section. It presents the
major findings of this study and puts into practice the data classification and analysis methods.
The sixty articles are distributed over the four prevailing issues to shed light on the attitudinal
5. Findings
The main findings of the study are presented in this chapter. Quantitatively, the sixty
38
selected articles are dispensed on the fifth prevailing issues to shed light on their discrepancy.
These five issues are divided into conservative, liberal, negative, positive, neutral, and
ambivalent. The findings are also cross checked and interpreted with the help of some
After analysing the data quantitatively, it is shown that the sixty articles cover mostly
the following eight issues, with distinct recurrence: government, monarchy, Islam, terrorism,
and Freedom of expression. The category of others, however, comprise all topics which
address news about economy or education. The table below presents the number of articles
Monarchy 25 41,66%
Islam 30 50%
Terrorism 28 46,66%
Others 2 3,33%
The pie chart above displays the most covered issues in the three selected newspapers,
from February 2011 to April 2017. One newspaper article, for instance, may address more
than two issues related to political Islam in Morocco. These issues mirror the type of news the
39
three American newspapers were mostly interested in while covering Islamism in Morocco.
The news, in fact, can be split into three major parts. The first is the political bodies of the
country such as the government (PJD) and the monarchy, which constitute the first most
tackled issue. In consonance with what Mohamed Daadaaoui (2012) stated in his article
The second section, Religion, highlights the nature of Islam in Morocco, the use of religion
for political reasons, and the various leanings of certain Moroccan Islamic movements. The
third category, terrorism, addresses Morocco’s main taken initiatives in this regard and the
international matters it is taking part in, primarily the fight against terrorism. The fourth and
last category, Freedom of speech, highlights the paramount importance of voicing one’s
Considering the socio-political changes that Morocco has been going through in the
last six years, there is no wonder that the four mentioned categories occupy the largest
proportion of the tackled issues about Moroccan Islamism in three of the elite American
newspapers.
The description of the four most tackled issues is backed by certain nouns’ frequency
in the 60 articles. The importance of this method lies in its efficiency in exhibiting and
underlining the major addressed matters. The choice of nouns’ grouping, as stated in the
methodology section, is based on a recurrence which equals or exceeds 20. Nouns which have
40
no specific allusion to the four most addressed issues, such as day or hour, are discarded. The
Media 26 Regime 48
Crisis 20 Reform 55
Pluralism 46 Activist 60
Tolerance 50 Demonstration 44
Terrorism 65 Corruption 36
Human 40 Freedom 80
Jihad 33 Human 35
The nouns and adjectives’ recurrence in the tables above reveal that the three elite
American newspapers are much more interested in the religious and political spheres while
41
covering political Islam in Morocco. However, the figures above also show that the social
field occupies an important share of the coverage, which comes last in the category of the
most frequent words. Bearing in mind that politics, religion, and society are strictly related
fields, it is no wonder that they dominate the list of most frequent issues.
5.1.1. The Most Covered Issues in Liberal and Conservative American Newspapers
articles under the label of Liberal and the other 30 articles belonging to a Conservative
newspaper. Such difference reflects the extent to which each newspaper’s category is keen on
Moroccan political Islam and what aspects of this latter which is more interested in.
Nevertheless, the study’s focus does not only reside in displaying the main covered issues in
three of the most circulated American newspapers, yet to examine the contrast between
Conservative and Liberal newspapers in covering Islamism in Morocco. The histogram below
presents the variance in covering the four most covered issues between Liberal newspapers
(The New York Times and The Washington Post) and the Conservative Newspaper (USA
Today).
42
As shown in the histogram above, the most tackled issues in Liberal newspapers (The
New York Times and The Washington Post) are Islamism, the Moroccan government (PJD),
and the monarchy. On the one hand, this finding demonstrates that Liberal newspapers are
more concerned with the religious and political issues, which are the two key components of
political Islam. Conversely, the issues of terrorism and freedom of speech are slightly
covered. In the Conservative newspaper USA Today, on the other hand, the issues of terrorism
and Freedom of speech constitute the most tackled issues. In fact, the political and religious
issues are still addressed, yet they are less frequent. Such comparison exposes the contrast
between Liberal and Conservative newspapers in terms of interest in peculiar issues linked to
the coverage of Islamism in Morocco. These variant findings and different subjects of interest
43
Applying the research method of content analysis does not only permit underlining the
most addressed issues, yet it also yields inferring the attitude of the selected newspapers
towards the coverage of Islamism in Morocco in general. Counting the adjectives and verbs
frequency in the data would reflect the prevailing attitudes of both Liberal and Conservative
newspapers. The classification of the adjectives and verbs is done by dividing them into two
major categories, mainly those which have positive and negative tone. This classification
mirrors the tone and attitudes the three elite American newspapers hold towards political
Islam in Morocco. Knowing that the selected newspapers are three of the most circulated
newspapers in America, their attitudes are very significant as they can influence decision
makers and American citizens alike. In addition to the categorisation of the adjectives and
verbs into positive and negative ones, the newspaper articles are also categorised in terms of
A content analysis is applied to the total sixty articles in order to deduce the most
recurrent adjectives and verbs. In an attempt to disclose the prevailing adjectives and verbs,
the two part-of-speech in the table below are chosen in terms of their frequency, which equals
or exceeds 20. The table below shows both the positive and negatives adjectives and verbs.
44
Reformist 66 Reform 22
Progressive 39 Promise 24
Human 40 Reconcile 20
Liberal 22 Encourage 30
Important 21
As illustrated in the table above, it is apparent that the number of positive adjectives and
verbs outnumber the total negative ones. This proves the predominance of the positive attitude
over the negative one in the entire sixty articles. The data is classified in terms of four
attitudinal groups: positive, negative, neutral, and ambivalent. The positive category
comprises articles with strong positive characteristics; whereas the negative category consists
of articles which have strong negative traits. The neutral category, on the other hand, includes
articles with the least strong effects. Lastly, articles which belong to the ambivalent category
comprise both strong positive and negative effects. The following graph presents the
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
Positive Negative Neutral Ambivalent
45
Figure 5.2. Distribution of Newspaper Articles According to their Revealed Attitudes
Similar to the results found in the section of the most tackled issues, the distribution of
articles according to their attitudes has also highlighted the clear differences concerning the
newspapers’ attitudes towards those issues. The graph above demonstrates that 58,33% of the
selected articles expose a predominant positive attitude in what concerns the religious and
political fields in Morocco. On the contrary, the negative attitude only occupies 18% of the
total articles, which is far less than the positive attitude. Finally, the neutral attitude forms
15.78% of the data and the ambivalent attitude comes last and constitute 7,89% of the sixty
articles.
As stated in the methodology section, this study does not only endeavour to expose the
dominant attitudes of the whole articles, yet to mirror the attitude of both Conservative and
Liberal newspapers; each in turn. To do this, articles from each editorial line are analysed
separately. The articles are categorised in terms of four attitudinal groups: positive, negative,
neutral, and ambivalent. The positive category comprises articles with strong positive
characteristics; whereas the negative category consists of articles which have strong negative
traits. The neutral category, on the other hand, includes articles with the least strong effects.
Lastly, articles which belong to the ambivalent category comprise both strong positive and
negative effects. The following pie charts present the distribution of attitudes in Liberal and
46
Conservative articles:
47
The pie charts above have exposed the main attitudinal differences between Liberal and
Conservative newspapers. They make it plain that the thirty articles from the Liberal
newspapers, The New York Times and The Washington Post, have shown a positive attitude
towards Islamism in Morocco and the many socio-political reforms that Morocco has assisted
since 2011; the beginning of the Arab Spring. Only 10% of the articles have a negative
The other thirty articles from the Conservative newspaper, USA Today, have reflected an
unfavourable attitude towards the issues of freedom of speech and human rights in Morocco.
Nevertheless, 25% of its articles are neutral, 30% are positive in what concerns the nature of
political Islam in Morocco, and there is no single article which holds an ambivalent attitude.
Looking at it from one side, most of the selected articles from Liberal newspapers
contend that the Moroccan constitution states that Islam is the state religion, yet it guarantees
the free exercise of any religion to everyone. The king is depicted as the faith protector against
It is also believed that Morocco offers a unique religious model for various reasons.
First, unlike many Arab countries which are plagued by regional conflicts and anarchy,
Morocco remains consolidated by its identity and principles which bear the stamp of
moderation and tolerance. Second, the country proceeded in 2004 to restructure the religious
field as a major concern with the commitment to doctrinal unity of the nation. Finally,
Morocco provide a solid education in Islamic sciences in all disciplines as part of a unified
48
Quranic learning system and maintaining the facilities against exploitation or deviation.
Going back to the reflected attitudes in Liberal newspapers, which is presented in the pie
chart above, it is shown that the positive attitude is the prevailing one in the total sixty articles.
The following table, however, presents the most recurrent positive and negative adjectives as
well as verbs in the thirty articles from Liberal newspapers. The adopted frequency of the two
parts of speech equals or exceeds 15. The two POS units are divided into those which have
positive and negative effects. The table below includes the frequently used adjectives in the
Table 5.3. Positive and Negative Adjectives and Verbs in Liberal newspapers
Democratic 70 Achieve 18
Reformist 44 Promise 19
Progressive 29 promote 15
Human 18 protect 17
important 15
49
Total 376 Total 159 Total 15 Total 53
As noticed, the table above confirms the predominance of the positive adjectives and
verbs over the negative ones, which are minor. The prevalent adjectives, which describe
Islamism in Morocco and the main taken initiatives in the socio-political fields, are the
following: moderate, tolerant, peaceful, and reformist. Such adjectives reveal how Moroccan
political Islam is represented in two of the most circulated Liberal American newspapers.
In attempt to reveal the attitude of the Conservative newspaper USA Today towards the
religious and socio-political fields in Morocco; which are key components of political Islam, a
counting of the most frequent adjectives and verbs is adopted. The following table displays
the main positive and negative effects. The frequency of the two selected parts of speech
Conservative Newspaper
50
Reformist 15 Unfair 15 Attack 15
Insecure 15 Threaten 28
Repress 15
Beat 18
Disrupt 17
The table above exposes the prevailing positive and negative effects in the
Conservative newspaper USA Today while taking into consideration the neutral and the
ambivalent categories (see figures 4.5. and 4.6.). As demonstrated in the table above,
the Conservative newspaper reveal a negative attitude towards the socio-political fields in
While recognizing the authentic and unique attributes of Islamism in Morocco and its
moderation, USA Today still harshly criticises the human rights situation in Morocco and
mainly the issue of freedom of expression. As a matter of fact, many of the selected
Conservative articles argue that despite the promising reforms introduced in 2011 and the new
Prosecuting journalists, activists, and citizens who show any criticism for the king, Islam, or
Morocco’s legitimacy over the Sahara are considered the main reasons behind the detainment
of these people and the government’s restrictions on freedom of speech. From the point of
view of the thirty selected Conservative articles, such restrictions are completely improper and
51
5.3. Interpretation of the Findings
After comparing the main attitudes of the Conservative newspaper USA Today and the
two Liberal newspapers: The New York Times and The Washington Post, it is apparent that
the two selected categories differ in terms of attitudes as well as the nature of the most tackled
issues.
Unlike the selected Conservative newspaper, Liberal newspapers show a more positive
attitude towards Islamism in Morocco and the changes it has gone through in the last few
years. Looking at it from one side, Liberal newspapers exhibit a favourable attitude towards
the issues of “monarchy”, “Government” (PJD), and Morocco’s effective role in countering
“terrorism”. Liberal newspapers have covered more news about Islamism in Morocco and the
52
country’s main socio-political reforms compared with the chosen Conservative newspaper. In
addition to this, Liberal newspapers have demonstrated a favourable attitude towards the
various religious, political and social issues in Morocco. The average positive attitude in
distinction between the two different editorial lines in terms of their attitude does not
necessarily reflect a permanent position. Bearing in mind that the American media is part and
parcel of the American state policies, it is more likely that each editorial line may reflect the
party while liberalism is often associated with the Democratic party (p. 7). This entails that the
positive stance reflected in Liberal newspapers mirrors, to a large extent, the position
Obama’s administration holds towards Moroccan Islamism and many of its aspects.
In many occasions, Obama’s administration has hailed the gradual evolution Morocco is
witnessing in various fields, and the fact that President Obama has a democratic affiliation
which is often related to liberalism, Liberal newspapers therefore are great supporters of
Obama’s administration.
To conclude, it is apparent that the hypothesis stated in the first section of this research
paper is proven true. This latter stipulates the probability of the three selected American
newspapers’ editorial line showing some clear differences in terms of attitudes. Both the data
collection and classification have reflected a variant attitudes and interests in the religious and
socio-political issues related to the coverage of Islamism in Morocco in the period that
extends from the beginning of the Arab Spring 2011 until 2017. The data analysis has also
revealed that the topic of Moroccan political Islam has not greatly influenced some areas of
53
news coverage, mainly in the Conservative newspaper USA Today. On the one hand,
Islamism has influenced the editorial line of the two chosen Liberal newspapers. The issues of
“monarchy”, “government”, and “countering terrorism” are the most addressed issues about
Islamism in Morocco. On the other hand, it has been remarked that the issue of “freedom of
according to this latter, a major block to the actual implementation of the progressive taken
reforms, which is often attributed to the Islamist leading party in Morocco that restricts such a
6. Conclusion
This research paper has inspected three of the elite daily American newspapers coverage
of news about political Islam in Morocco from 2011 to 2017. The purpose of such inspection
has been to inquire how Moroccan Islamism is represented in three of the most circulated
American newspapers. To this aim, the selected data comprise sixty articles from three
American newspapers. The data were classified in terms of two categories. The first category
is the most tackled issues which resulted in the identification of five major issues; whereas the
second one is the editorial line of the chosen newspapers; the data have been divided into
“Conservative” and “Liberal” newspapers. Through the analysis, the data have been
contrasted according the following levels of classification, and the major findings have been
discussed in the light of other contexts. The data collection and classification have generated
54
variant results and highlighted the differences among Conservative and Liberal newspapers in
what concerns their subjects of interest and attitudes towards political Islam in Morocco and
the related socio-political fields. The data analysis has shown that American news coverage of
Moroccan Islamism is not the same in both types of the selected editorial lines.
The findings have proven that while political Islam in Morocco has not influenced a
large scope of newspaper articles in the Conservative newspaper USA Today, it has in fact
influenced the news coverage of the two selected Liberal newspapers The New York Times
and The Washington Post. The most covered issues about Islamism in Morocco are the
Moroccan political institutions; mainly the monarchy and the government (PJD), Islam,
terrorism, and freedom of speech. The Liberal newspapers, on the one hand, has shown a
strong positive attitude towards Islamism in Morocco in all its aspects which range from the
monarchy to the government and religion itself. The Conservative newspaper, on the other
hand, has demonstrated an unfavourable attitude while covering the issues of freedom of
speech and Islamism in Morocco. As it beholds that putting much restrictions on the freedom
of expression is due to the nature of the Islamist leading party, which relies on its religious
legitimacy to curtail such a fundamental human right. Moreover, the unique, open features of
Islamism in Morocco, according to this newspaper category, are considered theoretical and
still lack one of the pillars of any democracy, that is of freedom of speech.
The findings’ interpretation has argued that the prevailing attitude and tone of each
newspaper’s editorial line is strictly related to the stance of its affiliates in the White House.
For instance, while the Conservative newspaper USA Today shows a negative attitude
towards Islamism in Morocco and the issue of freedom of speech, Liberal newspapers display
a more positive attitude towards political Islam in Morocco and the changes the country has
55
gone through since the beginning of the Arab Spring. Such distinct attitudes and tone are
attributed to the editorial line of the newspaper, which is impacted by the position of its
affiliates who are in power. This is illustrated through the example of President Obama’s
administration and its link to the Liberal editorial line. Lastly, it has been concluded that
Liberal newspapers reflected the positive stance of President Obama’s administration towards
Islamism in Morocco and the progress the country is witnessing in various fields, during the
period from 2011 to 2017. Yet this stance is not permanent as it changes with the change of
those in power.
A comprehensive analysis of each selected newspaper could not be presented due to time
constraints. This research paper has focused more on the editorial line of each newspaper to
infer the attitudes of each separate one. Aside from that, the gathering of the data through
precise search key words and predetermined criteria does not entail the comprehensiveness of
administration’s attitudes regarding the religious and socio-political fields in Morocco would
complement this study. It is also fruitful to compare both the media and the American
administration’s policies to inspect the impact of media in shaping public opinion and voicing
56
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S.l: Dar al-Afaq, 2001.
Links to Data:
This section presents the links to the sixty selected newspaper articles from the
following daily American newspapers: The New York Times, The Washington Post and USA
Today.
1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/10/20/the-islamists-are-back-in-
morocco-how-did-they-do-it
2. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/10/13/what-moroccos-election-
results-tell-us-about-islamist-parties/?utm_term=.5925f3f20c6d
3. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/abdessalam-yassine-moroccan-opposition-
leader-dies-at-84/2012/12/13/9ab923d4-4558-11e28061253bccfc7532_story.html?utm_term
4. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/10/24/the-evolution-of-islamism-
since-the-arab-uprisings/?utm_term=.299a7b3c8c43
60
5. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/10/06/moroccans-vote-friday-but-
neither-main-party-will-really-win/?utm_term=.c99fb7338a79
6. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/new-arab-order-in-morocco-uproar-over-
marriage-law-tests-islamist government/2012/04/15/gIQA2kxGKT_story.html
7. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/charles-krauthammer-the-islamist-
ascendancy/2012/07/12/gJQArj9PgW_story.html?utm_term
8. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/fareed-zakaria-arab-springs-hits-and-
misses/2013/01/30/fc72dcc2-6b15-11e2-af53-7b2b2a7510a8_story.html?utm_term
9. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/how-an-obscure-policy-effort-could-hurt-american-
muslims/2017/01/11/8ce93184-d76e-11e6-b8b2-cb5164beba6b_story.html?utm_term
10. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/egypts-identity-crisis/2013/08/16/70d1459c-0524-
11e3-88d6-d5795fab4637_story.html?utm_term=.a94ed8d89f39
11. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/after-the-hope-of-the-arab-spring-the-chill-of-an-arab-
winter/2011/11/28/gIQABGqHIO_story.html?utm_term
12. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/05/16/why-jordan-and-morocco-
are-doubling-down-on-royal-rule/?utm_term
13. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/spain-attack-raises-questions-on-extremism-
among-moroccans/2017/08/22/fb7cadda-874d-11e7-96a7-
d178cf3524eb_story.html?utm_term=.cb5a318fb395
14. https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2014/06/04/morocco-tackles-radical-
islam/?utm_term
15. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/03/01/middle-east-regimes-are-
using-moderate-islam-to-stay-in-power/?utm_term
16. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/12/opinion/12Charai.html?mcubz=0
17. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/world/africa/moderate-islamist-party-winning-morocco-
election.html?mcubz=0
18. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/11/world/africa/morocco-ban-burqa-niqab.html?mcubz=0
19. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/30/world/africa/morocco-islamist-named-
premier.html?mcubz=0
20. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/03/world/africa/muslim-conference-calls-for-protection-of-
religious-minorities.html
21. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/28/world/africa/moderate-islamist-party-to-lead-coalition-
government-in-morocco.html?mcubz=0
22. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/31/travel/in-morocco-exploring-remnants-of-jewish-
history.html?mcubz=0
23. http://www.aidaalami.com/2016/10/morocco-test-time-for-islamic-pjd-party.html
61
24. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/19/opinion/19kristof.html?mcubz=0
25. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/world/middleeast/18youth.html?mcubz=0
26. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/26/opinion/human-rights-in-morocco.html
27. www.nytimes.com/2011/05/12/world/middleeast/12iht-M12-MOROCCO-MOVEMENT.html
28. www.nytimes.com/2012/02/16/world/africa/moroccan-protests-one-year-on.html?mcubz
29. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/13/world/europe/netherlands-election-muslims.html?mcubz=0
30. https://www.nytimes.com/times-journeys/travel/culture-history-and-progress-in-
morocco/?mcubz=0
31. http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-04-26-morocco-terror_N.htm
32. https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/2011-07-01-morocco-election-constitution_n.html
33. https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-05-15-1683808038_x.html
34. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/08/12/morocco-moves-legalize-abortions-
cases-rape-and-incest/31153009/
35. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/07/09/key-party-quits-morocco/2502791/
36. https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/religion/story/2012-01-30/arab-spring-
christians/52894182/1
37. https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2011-02-15-riedel16_ST_N.htm
38. https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/05/08/qatar-funding-islamism-muslim-
brotherhood-hamas-column/101300766/
39. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/11/21/obama-morocco-king-visits-white-
house/3666283/
40. http://www.usatoday.com/2012/12/16/world/africa/abdessalam-yassine-leader-of-moroccan-
opposition-movement-dies-at-84.html
41. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/02/22/morocco-dream-energy-
independence/98247966/
42. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/08/23/france-train-attack/32224933/
43. https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/03/22/radicalization-isil-islam-sacred-texts-literal-
interpretation-column/81808560/
44. https://www.usatoday.com/story/theoval/2013/11/22/obama-john-f-kennedy-peace-corps-king-
mohammed-vi-of-morocco/3672713/
45. https://ww.usatoday.com/He-Was-a-Moroccan-Muslim-in-a-Refugee-Camp-She-Was-a-Mormon-
Volunteer-They-Fell-in-Love/s/83006
46. https://www.usatoday.com/world/2011/mar/09/morocco-constitutional-reform-king
62
47. https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/religion/2011-07-17-moderate-muslims_N.htm
48. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/06/09/western-sahara-independence/2394651/
49. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2013/04/16/morocco-cancels-war-games-with-us-over-
rights/2089089/
50. https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/2011-04-28-morocco-explosion_n.htm
51. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/08/19/barcelona-cambrils-terror-attack-
police/582801001/
52. https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2016/03/31/voices-why-do-my-people-become-
terrorists-foreign-soil/82462648/
53. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/05/01/islam-muslim-pew-research/2124941/
54. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/09/30
55. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/06/10/
56. http://www.usatoday.com/2016/10/morocco-test-time-for-islamic-pjd-party.html
57. https://www.usatoday.com/picture-gallery/news/world/2015/12/10/pumped-dry-morocco/7683
58. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/03/09/netherlands-election-muslims-geert-
wilders/98146882/
59. https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/2011-07-04-morocco-vote-reforms_n.htm
60. https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2011-09-25/Morocco-protest/50546878/1
63