Info-Bias Mechanism and American College Students’ Attitudes Towards Arabs KAMAL ABOUCHEDID Notre Dame University-Lebanon RAMZI NASSER Notre Dame University-Lebanon This paper investigates American college students’ attitudes towards Arabs along four dimensions: government, women, men, and Arabs in general. The study signifies the importance of ‘‘info-biased media’’ in the attitude formation of national groups outside the United States. Hispanics had the lowest positive aggregate; they also had the highest negative aggregate rating of Arabs. College students who had little knowledge of the Arab World were to rate Arabs more negatively than those with high knowledge. This study provides a glimpse of American public opinion of Arabs. Internationally, it also uncovers the stereotypic way American college students portray Arabs and their countries. The study helps people in the media working in international organizations to devise better ways to represent Arabs realistically beyond stereotypical images. Keywords: Arabs, info-biased media, racial profiling, media social- ization, September 11 The American media has been charged with being ‘‘info-biased’’ rather than being truly informative about Arabs and the Arab World (Suleiman 1999; Shaheen 2001; 1984). The American media often presents the Arab World in terms of dictator- ships, abuse of human rights, discrimination against women, illiteracy, and insti- tutional corruption. In addition, the relatively weak presence of Arab media in the United States contributes to the unchecked American info-biased media. With the exception of Al-Jazeera and a few local Arab media channels, Arab TV stations in the United States are increasingly becoming ‘‘info-tainment’’ in that they lay emphases on entertainment rather than releasing documentaries and educational programs about the Arab World. These factors explain the reasons behind the failure of the news media in the United States to portray Arabs fairly. As enumerated by Morris International (1980), well before September 11, cultural bias, the think- alike atmosphere, the Arab-Israeli conflict (Shipler 1986), and racism against Arabs in America all provide the media ample material to portray Arabs in stereotypic terms. In particular, racial stereotypes against Arabs remain persistent in American popular and political culture, fueled, among other things, by foreign policy atti- tudes, competing domestic constituencies and the role of the info-biased media (Samhan 1987). In fact, the events of September 11, 2001, seem likely to have r 2006 International Studies Association. Published by Blackwell Publishing, 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA, and 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK International Studies Perspectives (2006) 7, 204–212.