French Facial Covering Ban: A Comparison of American and French Media Coverage from 2010 – 2012

Abstract

In September 2010, France became the first European country to enact a ban on full facial coverings. French Parliament cited safety and French values of secularism as the reasoning behind the ban, but public debate around the true intentions of the ban and its implications for the country’s large Muslim population intensified. This paper seeks to analyze media coverage surrounding the ban and its ensuing effects on public perception of the event throughout the year it was passed and up to two years post-legislation. Turning a critical eye to the dissemination of information on an international scale, this research seeks to analyze the language, tone, and themes between major American and French news agencies as two countries with widely impactful media outlets, vast international influence, and a populous with access to the increasing accessibility of technology and social media of the time. Ultimately, France’s facial-covering ban includes written law that does not specify religious garments at all, differing from the articles identified within this research and showing potential correlation between the media’s reporting and the public’s perception of the law.