POLITICAL ISLAMOPHOBIC NARRATIVE: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE EAST-TO-WEST MEDIA

Abstract

Mediacy (mediateness), meditation (medialization and re-medialization) and focalization (point of view) occur on political agendas. Islamophobia’s political agenda is presently mediated by cultural, intellectual, social, and religious perspectives. This political agenda aligns with Chatman’s narrative focalization, which is most compatible with Stanzel’s narrative scenario (first person, authorial, and figural narrative situation). Both eastern and western narratives mediate via distinct story situations that reflect their perspectivization of the agenda of Islamophobia. The current study qualitatively examines four (4) speeches by eastern and western political leaders. These speech instances of Muslim and non-Muslim world leaders, accessed through the purposive sampling technique, are analyzed with the help of the theoretical background of Mediacy, Mediation, and Focalization. It is concluded that mediacy lies in the Islamophobic narrative. The mediation also changes the narrative, which is also affected by Chatman’s three forms of point of view, which filter the narrative from perceptual, conceptual, and interest-based points of view.