Representation of religion in the print media of Great Britain and Jamaica and cultural barriers to communication: a comparative study

Abstract

This research is an investigation of the representation of six religions and secular groups in four newspapers from the UK and one from Jamaica made in 2013. Through content analysis, authors aimed to ascertain, inter alia, which religion was more prominent in the news, which were the sources used and the main discourse or subject about these religions. They conclude that no major differences were found in the representation of religion across these media systems and countries with similar culture and socio-political context. Islam and Christianity received the most ‘negative’ representation but also ‘positive’ framing for Christianity and others, while some religions are not represented at all. Freedom of religion and inter-religious dialogue is relative absent from the public and journalistic discourse. This article also analyzes the possible Cultural Barriers to Communication that may be present in the information on religions.

Keywords

• Socio-Cultural Competence/Skill
• Multicultural Education
• Cross-Cultural Study
• Religious Communication
• Cultural Barriers to Communication