Hayg Oshagan could never have imagined the attack on America September 11.

It's an amazing revelation for Oshagan, assistant professor, Communication, Wayne State University, who in 1995 began researching the increased tension between the West and the Arab world. His research focused on the biased treatment of Islam by the Western media.

Oshagan is an Armenian who was born in Lebanon and came to the United States in 1975. He says Arabs and Muslims are often undifferentiated or distinguished from each other. "Sunni and Shi'ite, Hamas and Hezbollah, Syrian and Egyptians are all treated similarly despite their differences, which are important in the Arab world," he says.

He believes there is a very practical reason for this. Single events that rise above the fray get the media's attention.

"They pop up, are covered and then disappear," he says. "The wider context of why and how is not covered. The history and context get lost. Reporters, unable to easily explain or justify these incidents, resort to labels to help make sense of them."

The result is that reporters often use words like "militant" or "fanatic" to characterize Islam and Arabs. Oshagan points out that the tendency to cover the negative is true of the media in general and not just when covering issues about Islam.

After September 11, there was more of an interest to examine the deeper issues behind terrorism.

"Suddenly, there seemed to have arisen a realization that we are not loved, in fact are disliked, in large parts of the world to an extent that could give rise to September 11," Oshagan says.

This early interest has given way to the traditional demonizing and focusin gon a single individual, like Osama bin Laden. "The broader reasons, responsibilities, consequences and policies for terrorism have been lost," Oshagan says. Exacerbating the problem is the fact that reporters often don't know much about the Arab world. Reporters get a quick review before being sent to the Middle East. They don't understand the religious and tribal differences or why there might be an ongoing conflict. Deadlines don't provide journalists with the opportunity to gather this information and with the ever-increasing pressure for news organizations to break the story, this is not likely to change.

Oshagan believes the Western media tendency to rely on official sources, mainly government sources, contributes to the problem. One of his conclusions from his research is that Arabs are not as well organized. They don't have the media contacts and spokespeople to get their views across. Reporters rarely speak Arabic and Arabs usually don't speak fluent English. By contrast, Israelis are fluent in English. The fact that more Western representatives are based in Israel than in any other country in the Middle East results in reporters relying on official Israeli sources, further diminishing the Arab point of view.

He cites, as an example, a current Arab complaint - Western media framing the Arab-Israeli conflict as a "war." A "war" implies relatively equal parties, Oshagan says. The Palestinians have only guns to oppose an Israeli arsenal of F-16s, helicopter gun ships, tanks and a highly trained army. Oshagan says that framing the conflict as a "war" allows Israel unhindered and unquestioned use of its military arsenal. Arabs complain that the media is uncritically accepting the Israeli-official frame of "war," and is generally refusing the Palestinian view of the conflict as a national liberation struggle.

This generally pro-Israel stance in the Western media has led to a common Arab opinion - the U.S. is the leading force keeping Israel in power and keeping the Arab world weak, Oshagan says. "In the 1950s, there was tremendous goodwill in the Arab world toward the U.S.," he says. "The U.S. had none of the colonial ties that Europe had. In the last 20 to 30 years, the U.S. has lost this position in the Arab world."

Oshagan believes some simple steps on behalf of the Western media and the Arab world would help the problem. He would like to see Arabs gain more experience in dealing with the Western media through internships, journalism degrees and appointing proficient English speakers as press agents to deal with Western reporters. He also suggests they develop English-language media services to provide news from the Arab perspective.

Likewise, he believes that Western reporters need to be better versed in Middle Eastern issues, refrain from simplifying complex issues and allow continued coverage of issues that don't resolve in a few days. "All sides need to be interviewed and represented - not one, not two, but as many as matter," Oshagan says.

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Fast Facts

• Birthplace: Lebanon
• Residence: Ann Arbor, Michigan
• Education: Bachelor's degree in Comparative Literature, University of Pennsylvania
• Master's degree in Journalism, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Ph.D. in Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Years teaching at WSU: 5
• Career Highlights: Assistant Professor, Department of Communication College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts, Editor in Chief, Armenian Review, Assistant Professor, University of Michigan, Department of Communication