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Most people get most of their information from friends, families and acquaintances.
The media play into people's prejudices, they don't create them. The people of Hartlepool hung a monkey before the Daily Mail was around and the Sun wasn't at all involved in the Gordon Riots.
At the risk of being thick I can't see the dishonest reporting in this one. It's an article about Mohammed in all its spellings being the nations favourite name - if there is dishonest reporting surely in its the media which didn't report that the permutations of Mohammed was the number one name.
It even explains why it is so popular
There is a starting point for the information from friends etc.
Sure the people of Hartlepool hung a monkey. But their from the north, you kind of expect that sort of behaviour (besides we are talking about a level of hysteria during a war)...
The media reinforce people's prejudices, yes. With bogus stories or very, very twisted stories like the example above, of the Daily Star article about Muslim only toilets, or muslims wanting windows barred at a swimming pool or we could bring in the whole propaganda about Saddam/Iran/Bankers or even the wartime propaganda in WW1 which suggested that Germans bayonetted nuns and children.
At the moment people have a fear about financial ruin. Are the media reporting it honestly, with balance? Or are they hyping it up and thus making people very downbeat?
In the US, there were people concerned about a Democrat in the White House, some about a black dude and what happens with the reporting...?
But this gets back to my original point, which wasn't about whether the media have influence (you say they have lots and I say they have limited, as neither of us are pyschologists we're probably never going to be able to say which of us). Which is that the UK media is very similar to the US, but in the US people are more optimistic (whether or not they like Obama in the White House).
Man A thinks it must be true, because he read it in the paper
Man A tells Man B, it's fact.
As for the US being optimistic...
http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/39368/gloomy_views_on_economy_continue_in_us/
http://www.gallup.com/home.aspx
Not sure opinion polls completely agree with you though.
Man B says no it isn't and Man A agrees that you can't trust the papers
Those polls are also short-term, ie what do you feel at the moment rather than long term trends. I've only got anecdotal sources (including my own experience), but they seem to point to Americans being more can-do, and having greater belief in the future being prosperous and better (eg they had Star Trek, we had Blake's Seven)
Yeah, after claiming that the official results are "disguising the truth," which is pure bullshit. You've got to ask yourself why are they not so quick to lump all of the different versions of John/Jon together if this is a case of "disguising the truth?" Why not give the position of the most popular female muslim name, if you're interested in balanced and accurate reporting? Come off it, the intent behind such a story and the way it is written is pretty obvious from where I'm sitting. The fact that it's even a story should tell you everything you need to know.
Of course the official results are 'disguising the truth'. I imagine the variations of John/Jon or Jane/Jayne are marginal and don't make a big difference to the placings. However Muhamed/Mohammed (and the various other spellings do make a difference - from it not being placed in the top ten to number two last year and number one this). It should also be noted that the major reason for the different spellings is the problem of translating a word in Arabic to the English Alphabet. If we spoke and wrote Arabic number of variations would be minute.
I assume why they don't mention the most popular female Islamic name is that it is not in the top ten, which isn;t surprising given that the article explains
and to be honest if they had mentioned a female name which was way down the list people would have been screaming they've given undue prominence to a name which is fifty-fifth (or something) on the list.
To be honest this story seems an example of people looking for racism in the media and therefore finding it, rather than an example of racism in the media.
And as to why it's a story - ever year I can remember since I was a kid there is the annual story on what are the most popular names. I'm not sure that the media should stop doing this because people think it's racist.
Same blog talking about it in 2010
The story is about one name being picked out of a list and conveniently ignores the fact that the vast majority of names do not have a "Muslim" connotation. That suggests an agenda, using an tenuous link to build on people's prejudice.
And who do we think will latch onto this little story and use it to push their own agenda?
I assume you noticed the irony of using as evidence on the media having an agenda a blog that has a transparent agenda.
That said I'm still rather shocked by the cultural insensitivity of the site (and indeed borderline racism) in not recognising that the different spellings of the name are due to its transliteration into English rather than them being different names. *
* see everyone can spot racism if they can be bothered
Oh god yes. Total agenda.
Mainly pointing out piss poor reporting, and in the main looking at The Star, Express and Mail. If your agenda is getting the balanced argument in the public domain then surely that's an agenda we should laud?
Indeed, when someone looks at the same list and counts all the different variations of "John", and discovers that, in fact, there are more...
Ignore, or don't, the video link at the top. It does, sadly, support my theory that poorly written stories have echoes...