(RNS) — For years, scholars have been identifying the negative stereotypes about various faith groups that are commonly perpetuated through our media. A 2021 report on how film and TV portray Muslim communities found that while Muslims make up nearly a quarter of the world’s population, they only represent about 1% of the characters in popular TV shows. And in those relatively few cases, Muslims were typically portrayed as foreign and violent.
But a new study from the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding on the effects of these stereotypes revealed a surprising connection between media portrayals of Muslims and our politics. First, a no-brainer: Those who viewed positive portrayals of Muslims in the media are more likely to oppose anti-Muslim policies, according to the ISPU’s study. But it also found that showing Muslims in a positive light made viewers more likely to oppose anti-democratic policies in general.
In other words, our democracy is and will be stronger when we ensure positive depictions of minority communities.
This idea feels intuitive to me, perhaps because of my own experiences of belonging to the Sikh community, which itself has been overlooked and misrepresented by media. I’ve long argued that the best way to combat dehumanization is to humanize people, and that storytelling is a powerful tool for building that empathy.
Understanding the stakes is important. But given the overwhelming dominance of stereotyped Muslims on our screens, the question remains: How do we take on such a gargantuan task?
This question came up repeatedly throughout a recent retreat I attended with my cohort from the Faith and Media Initiative at Oxford University. The fellows and guests discussed a variety of topics, from artificial intelligence and influencer economies to propaganda and religious persecution, but kept coming back to media.
What I came away with is this: The media landscape is variegated, complex and multifaceted, and our solutions must be equally so. There is no single solution, and the work demands a broad movement, not a silver bullet. To borrow a metaphor from my friend Jonathan, we can imagine our intervention as a flotilla, one that not only invites collaboration but actually demands it.
Over the past few years, I have seen a number of incredible thinkers and leaders investing their time and treasures to this area of faith and media. I have done so too, with the understanding that media shapes our culture, that this was a way to make the world a better place.
I’ve also realized that this is not a solo exercise, that no single individual, no matter how smart or powerful, can do this work on their own. All the social movements in human history have been just that, social movements, meaning that they relied on human collaboration.
This doesn’t mean that everyone agrees on everything, even on the end goal of the effort. What it does mean, though, is that we recognize people’s dissatisfaction with the status quo and harness it to inspire positive change, which makes our world stronger and our societies healthier.
I realized this again this weekend in Oxford, as a I sat alongside brilliant leaders with tons to offer. There’s so much each of them brought to the table, and our power increased exponentially when we began to connect and collaborate. Imagine what might happen when we expand beyond that small group and turn this initiative into a movement.
