Social media and the cultivation of Americans' perceptions towards Arabs and Muslims

Abstract

The west has perceived Arabs and Muslims through the stereotypes they are associated with in the media, such as news broadcasts, print media, films, or TV shows. With the emergence of social media, these stereotypes followed Arabs and Muslims to the Internet. Most of the existing literature focused on studying the cultivation of Americans' perceptions of Arabs and Muslims based on traditional media rather than social media. So, this research incorporated social media upon studying the cultivation effect of media by studying the perceptions of the portrayals of Arabs and Muslims on social media, using the Perceived Realism Scale, and their effect on how participants perceive Arabs and Muslims. Unlike most existing literature, the results of the research generally showed a favorable perception towards Arabs and Muslims, lacking a strong correlation between the portrayal of Arabs and Muslims and Americans’ perceptions towards them. The results also showed that interpersonal communication plays a role in the formation of perceptions towards Muslims. The results also emphasized that upon studying the cultivation effect of different media platforms, other factors, like interpersonal communication, affect perceptions. Future research can study why social media may or may not affect perceptions by researching trust level, the use of various social media platforms, and social media content related to Arabs and Muslims.