Islam in the Dutch press: with special attention to the Algemeen Dagblad

Extending an earlier analysis by Jessika ter Wal (2004) of domestic reporting in the newspaper De Volkskrant about Islam, minorities, & integration in the Netherlands, offered here is an analysis of how these issues were covered in the Algemeen Dagblad before & after the brutal murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh in 2004 by a Moroccan. All Islam-related articles appearing 1998-2004 (N = 677) are coded for topic, location, type of Islam (foreign vs Dutch), speaker, location in the paper, whom mentioned Muslims represent, & slant. Analysis reveals that coverage in the 2 months after the murder was decidedly more negative toward Dutch Muslims than had been the case beforehand, when negativity was reserved for "extremist" or "terrorist" foreign Muslims. Corresponding changes in journalistic practices are also examined, & the agenda-setting role of the popular media is discussed. Tables, References. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Ltd., copyright 2007.]