This paper examines media framing in coverage of the proposed Islamic Cultural Center and Mosque near Ground Zero in New York City. The author analyzes framing devices—including numbers, metaphors, shorthand, and visual imagery—employed by CNN and Fox News to construct narratives around the controversy. By reviewing literature on framing theory and identifying specific frames used by major news outlets, the paper demonstrates how media selection and presentation of information influenced public perception and contributed to Islamophobic sentiment nearly a decade after the September 11 attacks. The analysis applies cultivation theory and mean world theory to explain the social and political consequences of these media frames.
Framing is a foundational concept in media studies, though one that has long lacked consensus definition across disciplines. Entman (1993) describes framing as a scattered concept where previous researchers lack clear conceptual meanings and depend on context-based definitions rather than general applicability. Brosius and Eps (1995) acknowledge that while framing may not be entirely clear in explication and general usage, it functions as a metaphor that does not convert directly into research settings.
While different authors agree that there is a lack of commonality in defining this term, researchers have used the term "frame" to refer to similar but distinct approaches. For this particular analysis, framing refers to the way media houses employ techniques to shape readership and viewership by presenting information that appears new but is intricately woven to control thought processes and opinions.
Framing extends beyond simple agenda-setting or opinion formation. It pinpoints specific issues at hand rather than general topics, and framing theory directs media to take an issue and place it to connote a new meaning or opinion. This technique is significant because it enables media to serve as opinion leaders, tailoring public thoughts toward particular directions. When journalists choose a frame, they provide a structure such that the audience interprets only what is presented to them. A frame is a notion that serves to organize and direct social meaning toward a given issue, with the intention of shaping how the targeted audience thinks about a news bulletin or article.
This paper examines the myths, stories, metaphors, narratives, and traditions that media employed to capture the attention of American citizens regarding the proposal to construct a mosque near Ground Zero in New York City. Although research has shown that the proposed Islamic Cultural Center and Mosque was not to be constructed at the World Trade Center site itself, the frames employed by major news outlets clearly depicted that media conditioned public thought in a particular direction by associating the 9/11 bombing with Muslim extremists and the construction of the cultural center.
Extant literature on media framing can be categorized into four broad historical stages. The initial stage, occurring between the 1920s and 1930s, was characterized by World War I events, propaganda effects, and beliefs regarding media influence on public attitudes. The second phase, spanning the 1930s to 1960s, emphasized the importance of personal experience in attitude change. Researchers of this period, including Klapper (1960), believed that the primary media effect was reinforcement of existing attitudes rather than creation of new ones.
The third stage, occurring between the 1970s and 1980s, introduced stronger media effects concepts. The focus shifted from attitude change to more cognitive-based effects, as outlined by Noelle-Neumann (1973). The fourth stage, from the 1980s to the present, has been heavily influenced by elements of "social constructivism," as demonstrated by scholars such as Berger and Luckmann (1966), Gamson and Modigliani (1989), and Tuchman (1978).
Political scientists including Iyengar (1991) and Scheufele (1999) further developed the concept of social constructivism to explain relationships between media and audiences, combining elements of both strong and limited media effects in mass media. Gamson and Modigliani (1989, p. 2) stated that "Media discourse is part of the process by which individuals construct meaning, and public opinion is part of the process by which journalists...develop and crystallize meaning in public discourse." The authors further portrayed media framing as the main organizing idea or storyline that gives meaning to a succession of events, suggesting what a controversy is about and the essence of the issue involved.
Entman (1993) clarified that frame meaning is tied to the selection of certain aspects of perceived reality in order to make them salient, thereby promoting a certain definition of a problem, its moral evaluation, causal interpretation, and treatment recommendations. Iyengar (1991) differentiated between thematic and episodic media frames. Episodic frames depict public issues as concrete instances or specific events resulting from individualistic actions, while thematic frames reflect problems in society at an abstract level with general outcomes. The media framing of the mosque at Ground Zero represents a clear example of thematic framing.
Simon and Xenos (2000) concentrated their analysis on media framing's influence on public deliberation actively involved in social creation and societal change. They noted that deliberation is a political argumentation process involving discursive exchange, with effects intricately linked to media framing. Gamson and Lasch (1983) identified various framing and reasoning devices that combine to create frames. Framing devices include metaphors, exemplars, visual images, and depictions, suggesting a framework for viewing issues. Reasoning devices—roots, appeal principles, and consequences—provide justification for adopted positions. Stone (2002) added synecdoche (a figure of speech representing an idea in whole or part) and numbers to the inventory of devices, with large or abnormally small numbers frequently used to dramatize ideas.
A dominant framing device used by CNN's Anderson Cooper in covering the mosque near Ground Zero was the deployment of large statistics. CNN purported that polling revealed 68 percent of Americans opposed construction of the Ground Zero mosque. This numeric framing, while potentially reflecting genuine polling data, occurred within a broader media context. The escalating opposition percentages suggest that the frame itself—and broader anti-Muslim campaigns by media and activist crusaders—may have shaped the polling results rather than merely reporting independent public sentiment.
On November 11, 2010, CNN employed another dominant framing device: the shorthand use of "Ground Zero" in quotation marks. Despite the actual Park 51 site being located two blocks away from Ground Zero and not visible from it, the term appeared far more frequently in coverage than "Park 51," the actual name of the proposed Islamic center. In debate with activist Pamela Geller, who had called a rally against what she characterized as an attempt to "Islamize" America, the argument advanced was that because Muslim extremists perpetrated the 9/11 disaster, construction of a Muslim religious center would inculcate jihad teachings and dishonor victims' memory. The counterargument—that strip clubs, bars, and other establishments exist zero blocks from Ground Zero—remained unexamined in such framing.
CNN also employed metaphor as a framing tool. The term "Cordoba House," used to describe Park 51, invoked historical resonance with the conversion of a church in Spain into a mosque during the 12th century. This metaphorical framing antagonized Muslim groups with broader American audiences, creating a sense that Muslim intentions involved conquest and conversion comparable to medieval religious conquest. The Cordoba frame magnified fears of a triumphant Muslim America where "rogue mosques" could be constructed without government intervention.
CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 featured guests who characterized Islam as totalitarian, anti-Christian, and seeking "the extermination of Western ideology and civilization," with one segment introducing Islam as "a lie from hell." This use of depiction as a framing device encouraged audiences to use Christian identity as grounds for shunning Islam and Muslims. By inviting guests with established anti-Islam positions, CNN signaled alignment with their views, preparing audiences to hear one-sided perspective while attracting otherwise neutral listeners to that interpretive stance.
Fox News employed similar framing devices to CNN, with visual imagery, metaphors, and shorthand appearing as the most conspicuous tools. Laura Ingle's descriptions of Park 51 as "Ground Zero" perpetuated the false geographic association, relying on the understanding that detachment from actual Ground Zero would render the story irrelevant—journalists likely recognized that other nearby mosques did not attract equivalent controversy. The repeated use of "Cordoba House" metaphor placed Muslims in the position of having to explain whether they were celebrating a "conquest" of the area, a question entirely of the press's creation.
Fox employed narrative framing to cast doubt on the Imam leading the mosque project. While mainstream media described him as a moderate Muslim, Fox coverage invoked a narrative technique by noting claims he had made equating Christian bombing of Hiroshima with Muslim extremist attacks, suggesting different moral standards applied. This framing aimed to discredit the Imam's authenticity in condemning terrorism rather than evaluating his actual positions.
Across both CNN and Fox, the framing devices that featured most conspicuously included visual imagery (placards carried by protesters), the "Cordoba House" metaphor associating Muslim construction with Christian conversion, and recurrent shorthand references to "Ground Zero." Frames appearing frequently across Pamela Geller's interviews included "Islamic Domination," "rogue mosque," "Islamization of America," and "Ground Zero." These frames recycled across Fox, CNN, MSNBC, and print outlets including Big Government, Salon, and Atlas Shrugs. CNN's particular regularity in using "Cordoba House" even prompted viewers unfamiliar with the historical reference to question its relevance.
The media attention to the Ground Zero mosque controversy brought Islamophobia into American discourse and reversed the healing process that had gradually advanced nine years after the 9/11 attacks. The escalation in anti-Muslim sentiment appears to result from media framing in conjunction with organized anti-Islamic campaigns that magnified minor concerns into major public controversies. The portrayal of the Imam, initially viewed as a moderate Muslim, shifted toward characterization as an extremist celebrating Muslim triumphalism over the Twin Towers bombing.
Media framing transformed public understanding from viewing the attacks as crimes by individual criminals—distinct from Islam as a religion—to holding the entire Muslim community collectively responsible for September 11 by virtue of their proposed construction of a cultural center. This shift contributed to stereotyping all Muslims as warmongers, demonstrating how sustained framing can reshape categorical thinking about entire populations.
Analysis of news clips from CNN and Fox revealed that viewers of the Ground Zero mosque controversy experienced consequences explainable through two dominant theories: cultivation theory and mean world theory.
Cultivation Theory: This social theory examines the cumulative and overarching impact that television viewing has on audiences' worldviews. The theory emphasizes effects of television viewing on viewer attitudes rather than behavior. Viewers who watched stations with extensive Ground Zero mosque framing came to believe that America faced real danger of being taken over by extremist Muslims—a conviction cultivated through repeated exposure to particular frames.
Mean World Theory: This phenomenon occurs when people exposed to extensive media coverage begin believing the world is more dangerous than reality warrants. The resulting sense of insecurity creates desire for self-protection from perceived imminent threats. The panic some Americans felt due to Islamophobic imagery and rhetoric can be characterized as a consequence of mean world theory, wherein media frames shaped both perception of threat and emotional response to that perceived danger.
"Network differences and dual potential of framing"
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