Islam, Muslims and Journalism Education (IMAJE), a project of Michigan State University’s Muslim Studies program in collaboration with the School of Journalism, has developed a website to help journalism faculty and students generate more accurate and nuanced reporting on Islam, Muslims, and Muslim societies. The site is not intended as an exhaustive resource on Islam and Muslims. Rather, it serves as an instructional resource for journalism professors and professional journalists who seek materials related to Muslims in the mainstream media.
IMAJE is funded through a grant from a Carnegie Corporation-supported program at the Social Science Research Council to support efforts at select universities to deepen public understanding of Muslim peoples and their diverse histories and cultures by bridging the gaps between academic and public discourses.
In addition to providing journalism instructors with readily accessible materials, the website also seeks to encourage MSU Muslim Studies faculty to engage the media’s treatment of Islam. To this end, the website includes video interviews with MSU faculty whose expertise ranges from Islam in Indonesia and West Africa to political Islam in a global context.
Organized around a series of core topics, the website includes short essays, teaching materials, short interviews with scholars, journalists and media producers, and lists of resources. These materials are designed specifically for teaching purposes. They are short and focused treatment of particular topics and make reference to media coverage. The essays and the videos can serve to start a class discussion or as point of departure for a research exercise.
