On the Margins: Exploring Media representations of Ethnic Minority and Migrant Women during the Pandemic

COVID-19 has propelled pre-pandemic hyper-inequality to new levels, exposing the systemic and stark differences between groups (Kim and Bostwick, 2020). Women from different minority groups are among the most negatively impacted by the pandemic due to healthcare access, occupational exposure, increased vulnerability to domestic violence and disadvantaged status within households (Laster Pirtle and Wright, 2021; Crenshaw, 2020; Smith et al, 2021). The news media have played a crucial role in bringing these issues to peoples’ attention. Despite this, little is known about the news media’s representation of these groups during the pandemic, nor how these representations vary between mainstream and minority sources. Given the profound impact of media representations on people’s identities, attitudes and political behaviour, such representations must be identified and understood. Therefore, this explorative, intersectional research asks: In what ways are women represented in minority and mainstream news? Whilst the simultaneous negative stereotyping and underrepresentation of minority groups within Western news media is well-researched (Castañeda, 2018; Tukachinsky et al, 2015), the impact of intersectionality on representations remains understudied (Brown and Gershon, 2017). Crucially, intersectional research draw attention to the power structures serving to compound exclusion and ensuring that the diversity of different groups’ experiences is considered (Crenshaw, 1991; Gouma and Dorer, 2019). Most extant research on ethnic minority women in the news has focused on politicians (Ward, 2017), with fewer studies examining ordinary women’s representation (but see: Slakoff and Brennan, 2020), especially during the pandemic, and in non-mainstream news sources. Our analysis is based on (online and offline) COVID-19 related articles from two mainstream sources and two ethnic minority newspapers from the UK and the US. These countries were chosen due to their ethnically diverse populations and media landscapes; the chosen newspapers are produced by and for the largest ethnic minority groups in each country (ONS, 2020; Firmstone et al, 2009; Ford et al, 2019). Twenty articles were selected per publication (N=160). Minority media articles were selected via keyword search within a unique corpus, whilst comparable articles from mainstream news sources were selected using the topics identified in minority outlets. Carvalho’s (2008) analytical framework for Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) was implemented, incorporating textual and contextual analysis (Carvalho, 2008). Findings indicate that whilst the pandemic-induced exacerbation of pre-existing patterns of intersectional disadvantage was well-reflected across the ethnic minority newspapers, such coverage was largely absent from mainstream news. Whilst minority women in high-profile positions appeared prominently in mainstream newspapers, the voices and experiences of ordinary women impacted by COVID-19 appeared more in minority news. Also, ethnic minority news sources highlighted key issues neglected in mainstream newspapers, such as the issues surrounding PPE for women wearing the Hijab. This demonstrates ethnic minority news's crucial role not only in countering mainstream representations (or the lack of), but also in highlighting problems unreported in mainstream sources. This explorative study highlights both problematic and promising aspects of intersectional news coverage within a unique corpus. Given the profound impact of news representations on audiences, coverage of ethnic minority and migrant women must be comprehensively understood.