Countering Islamophobia through webcomics on Instagram : a multimodal analysis of @Yesimhotinthis /

The widespread use of social media is directly proportional to the widespread practice of spreading Islamophobia in the digital realm, especially in Western societies whose understanding of Islam or Muslims is Primarily based on negative media stereotypes. Various efforts were made, including from M...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Fawzy, Dwimay (Author)
Format: Thesis Book
Language:English
Published: Kuala Lumpur : AbdulHamid AbuSulayman Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences, International Islamic University Malaysia, 2022
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Online Access:http://studentrepo.iium.edu.my/handle/123456789/11449
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Summary:The widespread use of social media is directly proportional to the widespread practice of spreading Islamophobia in the digital realm, especially in Western societies whose understanding of Islam or Muslims is Primarily based on negative media stereotypes. Various efforts were made, including from Muslim groups who counter against these negative stereotypes through social media and form of counter-narrative. One of them is the Instagram account @yesimhotinthis, which conveys a message about countering Islamophobia from an Egyptian-American Muslim perspective through the format of autobiographical webcomics. The approach taken is different from mainstream comics, which are mostly superhero-themed. This study analyses how countering Islamophobia is represented and how Instagram is used to counter Islamophobia by using Stuart Hall’s Representation Theory as a theoretical framework on seven webcomics of @yesimhotinthis. The analytical tools used are Kress and van Leeuwen's Visual Grammar for analyzing pictures, Halliday's Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) for analyzing texts, and van Leeuwen's Inter-Mode for analyzing Instagram captions related to webcomics. The results indicated that representation of countering Islamophobia is more emphasised on the aspect of equality and highlighting similarities between Muslims and non-Muslims in social aspects. In addition, Instagram is utilised by adjusting the relations between webcomics and its captions, giving the impression that although Islamophobia is countered in a casual way, it is still a serious problem.
Item Description:Abstracts in English and Arabic.
"A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Science in Communication." --On title page.
Physical Description:xii, 85 leaves : color illustrations ; 30cm.
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references (leaves 71-77).