Islamophobia, Foreign Interference, and Social Stability: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Le Figaro’s Mosque-Attack Coverage
Authors
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Fitriani Nuranisa
Universitas Negeri Semarang
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Bernadus Wahyudi Joko Santoso
Universitas Negeri Semarang
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36312/jolls.v6i3.5575Keywords:
Discourse analysis, Framing, France, Islamophobia, RacismAbstract
The discovery of pig heads at several mosques in France on September 2025 attracted public attention and became one of the incidents widely reported by online media. Although previous studies have examined the representation of Muslims and Islamophobia in the media, research explaining how anti Muslim incidents are constructed into broader narratives through media framing remains limited. This study aims to analyze how Le Figaro framed the reports on the placement of pig heads at several mosques in France. The research corpus consists of seven Le Figaro news published in September 2025. The analysis integrates Robert N. Entman's framing model with Teun A. van Dijk's Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) model. Entman's framing model was employed to identify the elements of define problems, diagnose causes, moral judgments, and treatment recommendations, while Van Dijk's model was used to examine the macrostructure, superstructure, and microstructure that constructed the framing. The findings indicate that Le Figaro framed the incident through a narrative progression that began with acts of intimidation against the Muslim community, followed by domestic political conflict, and subsequently emphasized the response of law enforcement authorities and official suspicions of foreign interference conveyed through statements from official sources. The discourse structure of each article reinforced this framing through textual organization, the use of official sources, and consistent lexical choices. This study concludes that Le Figaro tended to construct a geopolitical frame around an anti-Muslim hate incident without presenting the emerging suspicions as verified facts. The findings underscore the importance of responsible media reporting through clear source attribution, careful communication of uncertain information, and ensuring that narratives of alleged foreign interference do not overshadow the issue of Islamophobia.
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