RE: How does Western media cultivate "Islamophobia" in the minds of viewers?
i think a major point is that alot of christians (and muslims) dont realize is how similar the koran and the bible are content wise, just the koran does not do chronological order. im christian reading the koran and the major differences i can see is jesus relationship to god, the koran can easily be turned into a law/advice book as it states advice how to handle situations like poverty, loans or divorce. with the "and muslims" part i mean that just because the koran also gives advice to christians to not see jesus as god, that alot of muslims think christians are idol worshippers and hence unbelievers, when actually christians agree jesus is born as a human (and god loves us so much that he would even sacrifice his own son for us). Already in sure 2 it emphasizes christians and jews being believers and all believers can marry other believers (no mentioning of restriction on women muslims with other believers in the koran, which is against the popular belief).
then in countries like indonesia sometimes the media just sees the christians like iblis trying to get muslims off the correct path for daring to say "merry christmass" or one case where a road crossing looked like a christian cross and some people were believing it was an intentional advertisement for christianity (cross-phobia like vampires, and ofcourse there were sane people who reasoned with).