The Islamophobia Index: Exploring the Challenges in Establishing Reliability for a Content Analysis Instrument Evaluating Islamophobia in Media Texts

In a wide variety of studies over the past two decades, media has consistently been identified as significant social institution implicated in normalizing and disseminating anti-Muslim prejudice. Identifying combating Islamophobic discourses challenging proposition, however, due to difficulties systematically identifying evaluating “Islamophobia” within texts. Islamophobia is complex contested phenomenon that defies easy classification boundaries terminology which would normally be employed describe hostility or prejudice based on, for example, race religion. This article outlines some challenges involved defining categorizing through an exploration process constructing, evaluating, applying unique content analysis instrument, “Islamophobia Index,” texts, using data sets drawn from Australian news media. We critically reflect upon methodological limitations systematic quantitative studies, importance qualitative interpretive approaches take into account researcher subjectivities, ultimately reposition repurpose this project mixed-method study. conclusion, potential applications Index, including non-media textual analysis, are considered.