Islamophobia in the Spanish Press: An analysis of the media coverage of the Charlie Hebdo attacks

Abstract

This paper analyzes the representation of Islam and Muslims in two Spanish newspapers, El País and El Mundo, two months before and after the attacks on the Paris-based satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in 2015. The objective of the research is to determine how representations of Islam and Muslims may have changed before and after the attacks; and thus to investigate the possible increase of Islamophobia in the media after a terrorist attack. Four months of headlines were collected and analyzed from both papers. The results indicate the existence of islamophobia before and after the attacks in both papers, with some evidence of an increase in islamophobia after the attack.