Connotations of the Word “Muslim†Portrayed in Newspapers Before and After the 9/11 Attack

The negative image of Muslims is often assumed to be reinforced to a large extent after the 9/11attack, with the spread of negative stereotypes towards them. Given this, this study found the collocates of the word “Muslim†and verified if these collocates have changed before and after the 9/11. Moreover, an in-depth comparison was provided on the question whether the connotations of the collocates have changed in newspapers due to the terrorist attack of the 9/11. The mechanism of analyzing the data required a mixture of qualitative and quantitative approach. A Corpora Analysis using the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) was necessary for the purpose of this study, as it gives us access to separate years in balanced manner and allows us to see the authentic language that newspapers have employed to portray Muslims. The results showed that the collocates remained almost the same after the attack but the connotations of these collocates have drastically changed.