Covering Edward Said – 40 years of Islam, media and the West

Author and columnist Nesrine Malik explores the legacy of Edward Said's "Covering Islam", published forty years ago – and his views on the relationship between Islam and the media.

In 1981, Edward Said published a book that examined how ideas of Islam are disseminated in the western news media by commentators and experts. It was called "Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World".

Forty years on, columnist and author Nesrine Malik examines how Said's ideas – and the responses to them – stack up.

BBC Radio 4: Covering Edward Said – 40 years of Islam, media and the West