On the Margins: Exploring Minority News Media Representations of Women during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disproportionately negative affect on women, especially women from minoritized groups. Minority news media are an important information source for these groups, when it comes to providing alternative views, and health related information. Whilst the poor representation of women in COVID-19 related mainstream news coverage is acknowledged, little is known regarding the representation of women in digital minority news content, during the pandemic and beyond. Considering this gap, we examine how women have been represented within a diverse corpus of minority news, and explore how these representations serve to bridge between different social groups. Critically analyzing the representation of these marginalized groups offers a lens through which we can better understand the function of minority news media in a democracy. Using critical discourse analysis, this study examines three online minority newspapers and one podcast from the US. Findings show that women are covered in an inclusive and empowering way, containing perspectives and concerns unique to the minority group, strengthening identities, platforming community-specific issues, communicating a call to action, and promoting intersectional solidarity. These representations also reveal the complex tensions between counterhegemonic and dominant publics which minority news media sources constantly negotiate through their content.

Keywords:

• Women
• ethnicity
• minority media
• counterpublics
• COVID-19
• discourse analysis

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has been challenging, but for some more than others. Women, especially from minoritized backgrounds, are among the most negatively impacted due to multiple factors, including healthcare access, discrimination in healthcare settings, occupational status, increased vulnerability to domestic violence and disadvantaged status within households (Connor et al. 2020; Laster Pirtle and Wright 2021; Crenshaw 2020). Women make up 70% of global health care workers and face higher infection risk (Miyamoto 2020; Steinert et al. 2021). Mothers have been taking over more care work and struggling with their professional responsibilities more than fathers (Barroso and Horowitz 2021). Infection and mortality rates have also been higher among individuals with lower socio-economic status and from ethnic and racial minoritized groups, whilst disparities in vaccination rates are also found along those lines (Williams 2020; Ayers et al. 2021). In short, COVID-19 has propelled pre-pandemic hyper-inequality to new levels (Kim and Bostwick 2020).

News media have played a crucial role in bringing these issues to peoples’ attention. Given that audiences are more dependent upon and consume more news – particularly online news – during a crisis, and that the news media provide a key role in the uptake of health information, the influence of representations on audiences during the pandemic is especially strong (van Aelst et al. 2021; Motta et al. 2021). In this context, low levels of visibility of minoritized groups including women are particularly concerning, because sharing similarities with sources in the news, can affect source credibility and the impact of negative stereotypes on marginalized groups is amplified (Kreuter and McClure 2004; Quintero Johnson et al. 2021). Mainstream coverage of women during the pandemic – as experts, stories with women protagonists, and in terms of coverage of gender equality issues – has been consistently low (Kassova 2020; Fletcher et al. 2021).

Minority news media can provide alternative, heterogenous and more positive portrayals (Bozdag, Hepp, and Suna 2012) while being at the same time an important information source for minority groups, also when it comes to health-related issues (Rasmussen 2014). Despite this, we know little about minority news content, and more specifically, women’s representation within this. Understanding minority news coverage of this underrepresented group is particularly pressing during the pandemic as this was a “critical moment for journalism,” with the potential and possibly contradictory opportunities to transform, reverse or amplify longstanding hierarchies, patterns in content, and indeed the role of the news media (Quandt and Wahl-Jorgensen 2021: 1201). In this period audiences turned towards the news media more than “normal” times; our understanding of how minority media address and construct the publics they speak to therefore becomes all the more relevant, when those communities-as-counterpublics are marginalized, for example as women, ethnic minorities, or otherwise “subaltern” in the larger societal hierarchy.

Therefore, this study asks: How are women represented within minority news sources during the pandemic, and what do these representations tell us about the broader role of minority news in a democracy? Analyzing the coverage of four online minority news outlets from the US using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this paper finds that minority news media serve an important function of advocacy and empowerment for women. Through highlighting and contextualizing issues of inequality, whilst platforming key role models and celebrating marginalized identities, the minority news media’s representations of women simultaneously “counter” and negotiate mainstream news media representations, whilst alternating between modes of mainstream and counterpublic address. Besides contributing to the limited literature on representations of women in minority news content, this study calls the process of counterpublic formation to attention, and demonstrates the tension between minority news outlets shifting between counter and dominant publics.

Minority Media as Counterpublics

The concept of counterpublics helps us understand the formation, nature and significance of minority news. This concept was born out of a critique of traditional notion of the public sphere as a discursive space in which members of the public – more specifically, the bourgeois – could deliberate societal issues (Habermas 1989). The free press served as a central pillar of this public sphere, and deliberation process. Yet, Habermas’ original concept was, and is heavily criticized for failing to recognize the multiplicity of any public, and ignoring the vital role played by subordinated groups in promoting change; hence, the notion of subaltern counterpublics was born (Fraser 1990; Asen 2000). Through offering a discursive space in which groups and issues ignored in the mainstream are discussed, counterpublics address matters of social exclusion and have the potential to reshape power relations (Asen 2000: 425). Warner (2002) proposes that it is more accurate and useful to define counterpublics by the way in which they engage with the public sphere, and how they negotiate connections to and embeddedness within dominant publics. Such an approach acknowledges that counterpublics function within the same social systems as dominant publics, and recognizes inherent overlap and connectedness. The crucial difference between counterpublics and publics from this point of view is that within counterpublics “a hierarchy or stigma is the assumed background of practice” and that counterpublics only come to fruition when “participants are addressed in a counterpublic way” (Warner 2002: 87); one which implicitly or explicitly calls for transformation.

Extant research has turned to various facets of the communications landscape to study counterpublic content; recent research has focused on blogs (Steele 2018; Eckert and Chadha 2013), radio (Leonardo 2012), podcasting (Vrikki and Malik 2019), social media content (Foucault Welles and Jackson 2019) and the comments sections of legacy news websites (Toepfl and Piwoni 2015). In this study, we are interested in minority news media. Minority news is a highly heterogeneous category, predominantly based online, produced by and for different marginalised groups (e.g., based on gender, sexuality, religion, ethnicity, race, and migrant status), with varying aspects and degrees of difference from the mainstream news (Matsaganis, Katz, and Ball-Rokeach 2011; Ferrer and Retis 2019). Rather than being inherently “counter,” it is most productive to consider minority news as a possible, but not guaranteed site of counterpublic discourse (Budarick 2017; Couldry and Dreher 2007). Previous studies adopting an institutional approach attempted to implement structural criteria to differentiate between minority news both for and by a minority group; findings show that minority news cannot be easily categorized, with many outlets varying greatly in terms of initiative, design, function, representation and access (Caspi and Elias 2011).

As a sub-category of minority news, ethnic minority news plays an important role in fulfilling entertainment and information needs of diverse audiences and maintaining certain aspects of cultural identity (Deuze 2006; Johnson et al. 2010; Lin, Song, and Ball-Rokeach 2010; Ramasubramanian, Doshi, and Saleem 2017). There is reason to believe that the role of ethnic minority news media has been heightened during the pandemic especially regarding health-related communication, as sources adapt information communication (cf. Kreuter and McClure 2004). Additionally, what makes minority news attractive and important for their audience is an alternate, positive portrayal of the respective minoritized group, challenging mainstream representations (Ramasubramanian, Doshi, and Saleem 2017). This is particularly the case for women, whose compound marginalized identities often render them invisible, or negatively stereotyped in the mainstream news media (Slakoff and Brennan 2019; Ward 2017).

Women are considered a minoritized group in society due to their lack of power, access to power, and public prominence, despite making up approximately half of the population. Within the field of political communication, there is a deficit of studies examining minority news media content, meaning that our knowledge of women’s representation is largely derived from studies of mainstream outlets (Bleich, Bloemraad, and De Graauw 2015). Most studies exploring news coverage of women have targeted high-profile figures and politicians (Sisco and Lucas 2015; Williams 2020). Overall, whilst the representation of women in political news stories has been steadily increasing in quantity and quality (Humprecht and Esser 2017), extant findings uncover great inequality between the frequency of men and women cited as experts, and in the age of men and women being included (Ross et al. 2018; Ross and Carter 2011). Also, studies in multiple national contexts have found that news coverage of prominent women in society typically foregrounds women’s role in the family and the domestic sphere, most typically through emphasizing an individual’s role a mother (Garcia-Blanco and Wahl-Jorgensen 2012; Vandenberghe 2019). Overall, inequalities in coverage have remained consistent, despite some improvements in global patterns of women’s representation in the news (Macharia et al. 2020).

Some gaps have persisted in research on female representation in the news; namely studies examining the representation of “ordinary women,” here defined as women not holding prominent positions in society (Beckers 2017; Mitchelstein et al. 2019). Further, few studies have considered the intersectional impacts of class, ethnicity, race, sexuality, and disability on the visibility of women in media texts. Evidence from the coverage of politics and crime in the UK and US contexts have shown that whilst the visibility of women of color is sometimes higher than that of their white counterparts, the coverage is overwhelmingly and disproportionately negative (Ward 2017; Slakoff and Brennan 2019). To our knowledge only one study engages specifically with women’s representation in minority news content, with findings indicating that the representations are influenced by both mainstream and local media cultures (Yu 2017).

An intersectional perspective can shed light on power imbalances in the representation of different groups of women (Crenshaw 1991). Crucially, intersectionality is comprised of three central dimensions; structural, political, and representational (Crenshaw 1991). It is the third tenet, representational intersectionality, that is most important to this study, as it targets the marginalization of women within media texts and emphasizes the importance of fair representation. Drawing upon McCall’s (2005) conceptualization of intersectionality, this paper utilizes the “intra-categorical” approach, meaning that social categories such as “women” and “ethnic minority” are understood as socially constructed, but relevant to life. Investigating the process by which such categories are created and articulated, and exploring their use in representations is crucial in order to comprehend the power dynamics communicated through discourse. In exploring the representation of women in minority news sources, this study focuses on how different aspects of intersectional identities are emphasized or mitigated to communicate particular messages. Targeting minority news representations during the pandemic can shed light on the way in which minority news sources navigate the discursive space between counter- and dominant publics, whilst showing how representations can have a bridging or polarizing effect between different groups. This study asks:

RQ1: In what ways are women represented within minority news during the pandemic?

RQ2: How do these representations contribute to counterpublic formation and reflect counterpublic discourse?

Besides drawing attention to the complex, interconnected set of power structures underpinning patterns of inequality, intersectionality helps us to explore how coalitions are formed and groups are mobilized around shared issues or identity aspects (Fisher, Dow, and Ray 2017). In other words, an intersectional approach can present an opportunity for minoritized individuals to unite in actions of solidarity. We use Ciccia and Roggeband’s (2021) framework for intersectional solidarity to approach the texts. Although their framework was developed in relation to organizations, we argue that its definitions and application can be useful for studying (mediated) expressions of solidarity between social groups in minority news. Ciccia and Roggeband (2021) differentiate between intersectional solidarity based on shared issues and experiences (the “Common Denominator” frame) and solidarity expressed through drawing attention to the unique challenges faced by certain groups (“Recognition of Difference frame”) (see Table 1). Crucially, the latter frame incorporates, rather than minimizes differences between groups, by highlighting marginalized subjectivities. On another dimension, Ciccia and Roggeband (2021) also distinguish between expressions of solidarity based on short-term, isolated incidents, and those which present opportunities for long-term change, or take a broader, contextualized view of the situation; these are labelled as having a “transformative praxis.”

Table 1. Types of intersectional feminist solidarity, Ciccia and Roggeband (2021).

Transformative praxis	Issue framing
	Recognition of differences (RD)	Common denominator (CD)
Absent	1. Instrumental intersectionality (Short-term, Single issue)	3. Incorporation (Short-term, Single issue)
Present	2. Transformative solidarity (Long-term, Multi-issue)	4. Pragmatic solidarity (Short-term, Multi-issue)

Such a framework allows for distinction between articulations of solidarity based upon the extent to which they engage with marginalized subjectivities, and the transformative potential of such representations. Thus, the final research question asked in this study is:

RQ3: In what ways do these representations establish solidarity between groups?

Methodology

Case Study and Sample

The US has faced the largest number of COVID-19 infections and deaths worldwide, both being higher among individuals from ethnic and racial minorities (Mackey et al. 2021). The country has a rich minority news landscape, the largest and most established being the (contestably labelled) LatinX media landscape and the black American press (Pew Research Centre 2021). Originally, the LatinX press was formed as a way for white elites to reach the predominantly immigrant-origin Hispanic population (Retis 2019). Today, the geographical scope, editorial perspective and opinion and ownership of LatinX news sources is mixed (Retis and Chacón 2021). Regarding the Black press; this long-established news sector “fosters black group consciousness” through disseminating important in-group information, promoting counter-narratives, and advocating for Black counterpublics (LaPoe and LaPoe 2018). Despite recent concerns that the advocacy function of the Black press is softening due to increasing volumes of entertainment content, Williams Fayne (2023) has argued that the Black American press has maintained its vital role as a form of positive representation.

Both the Black and LatinX press can be considered counterpublics to the extent that they advocate for and platform the voices of a marginalised group (LaPoe and LaPoe 2018; Retis 2019). Contrary to mainstream media’s portrayal, these outlets often promote fairer, contextualized, positive representations of Black and LatinX Americans (Brown and Gershon 2017; Retis 2019). Despite recent decline due to reduced advertising revenue, social media, and broader shifts in the traditional media environment, the minority news media landscape has not only endured, but expanded in some sectors, facilitated in part by a transition to online and digital news media (Castañeda 2018; Jackson 2017), highlighting their importance to audiences.

Articles were selected from digital minority news sources in the US.¹ We focus on a selection of the most prominent and read minority news sources produced by and for the two largest minoritized groups. Namely, AL DÍA for the LatinX community, the Haitian Times for the Black American and Haitian diaspora of New York, and African American News and Issues (AANI) for the Black American communities (Firmstone et al. 2019). These outlets were selected based on their readership, strong digital presence, and their recent growth. Specifically, AANI has a circulation of 175,000 (Ford, McFall, and Dabney 2019), the Haitian Times has 150,000 unique views per month (CCM, 2023) and AL DÍA is expanding digital reach on a national scale (Holmes 2023). Also, in order to reflect the diversity of the news landscape, and the news consumption patterns of audiences through including non-traditional news sources, transcripts from the podcast, Code Switch by the public radio network NPR are included. Code Switch focuses predominantly on race-related issues (Ellis 2013) and is classified here as a hybrid digital news outlet, situated between mainstream and minority news. Code Switch was ranked the top show of 2020, indicating not only the large audience, but the cultural influence and significance of this platform (McBridge 2020).

The pandemic has been described as a “critical moment” impacting all areas of society and journalism, including content (Quandt and Wahl-Jorgensen 2021). Given that media representation has a particularly strong effect in defining public attitudes towards certain topics and groups during a crisis (Johnson et al. 2010), this study investigates the representation of women during 2020 and 2021. Accessing the news outlets through open archives (AANI), through requested archival access (AL DÍA) and through FACTIVA (Haitian Times and Code Switch) articles were selected by conducting a keyword search including terms related to women and COVID-19 (see the online Appendix 1 for search terms, Appendix 2 for details and brief summaries of articles cited in the Findings section, and Appendix 3 for details on the remaining sampled articles, supplementary materials). Relevant articles were identified by checking that both women (or a woman) and COVID-19 appeared in at least two sentences. In total, 158 texts were identified that form the basis for the empirical analysis. The sample is purposeful in order to explore diverse representations of women in depth.

Method

To address the explorative aims of this study in understanding the nature of women’s representation, we used CDA. Emerging first in the early nineties, CDA is best understood as an adaptable tool for analyzing a range of semiotic data (Fairclough 1995). As a research paradigm, CDA has developed within three central schools, including Fairclough’s (Fairclough 1989) systemic functional linguistic perspective, van Dijk (1993) sociocognitive approach predominantly concerned with ideology, and Wodak’s Discourse Historical Approach (Wodak 2001) which focuses on sociocultural and historical contexts in the analysis of texts. Whilst each “school” has a different focus, they share principles of being interdisciplinary, problem-orientated, and defining discourse as “socially constitutive as well as socially conditioned” (Fairclough and Wodak 1997: 258; Wodak and Meyer 2009). Building from this foundation, discourse is seen as both forming and reflecting social reality, simultaneously reinforcing and challenging the status quo and patterns of exclusion. CDA approaches build upon Critical Theory, understood as a form of social theory that uncovers and critiques the often-invisible ways in which power operates in society, as well as aiming to alter society for the better in some way. Over time CDA has attracted a great deal of criticism, predominantly from scholars working in positivist traditions, who claim that CDA researchers bring preconceived ideas into their analysis of texts, that their analysis contains political biases, or even an “ideological commitment” (Tyrwhitt-Drake 1999). While CDA comes from a critical, problem-orientated standpoint, scholars push back against such critiques, arguing the explicit foregrounding of a critical theoretical underpinning serves to contextualize the findings.

Given that we are examining the coverage of underrepresented and discriminated groups from an intersectional perspective, and that we are concerned with power dynamics and manipulation concealed within such coverage, this critical perspective becomes an asset, and offers an ideal approach to develop meaningful understanding of mediated discourses (Carvalho 2008), following traditions of researchers who have brought CDA to the study of news (Fowler 1991). A further defining aspect of CDA making it ideal for this study is the importance of researcher’s positionality being acknowledged alongside the analysis; as four white researchers from Western countries, numerous privileges and aspects of our identities must be considered alongside findings. Indeed, though we hope that our study may be insightful, the findings should not be listened to before the work of someone’s whose positionality more fully reflects the intersections explored in this study.

CDA is often critiqued for lacking a vigorous set of reproducible analytical steps, however, given that CDA researchers are targeting a diverse range of social problems, the approach must understandably be adapted to investigate different contexts and issues. That said, within the CDA paradigm, a number of adaptable, analytical frameworks do exist to guide researchers. This study adapts Carvalho’s (2008) two-part analytical framework for studying media discourse, which is divided into textual and contextual analyses; a summary of the approach is included in the Appendix (Appendix 4).

Given the focus on women’s representations within this study, we adapt the framework drawing mainly upon the analysis of actor representations (Who is mentioned? How are they mentioned?) and consideration of discursive strategies employed in order to construct such representations (framing, positioning, legitimation and argumentation strategies). Specifically, following an open-ended, initial reading of all relevant articles we examined the use of individual and collective labels, pronouns, the employment of direct and indirect speech, the use of stereotypes and the linguistic devices employed in descriptions. The next analytical phases included comparing representations within the corpus to each other, followed by considering whether the representations departed from broader hegemonic discursive patterns or not (Carvalho 2008).

Findings

Using CDA to study minority news outlets form the US, we find that representations of women during the COVID-19 pandemic communicated different types of solidarity with other marginalized groups and individuals; these representations emphasized different aspects of identity, whilst the precise nature of this solidarity varied across outlets and topical contexts. Such variation is emblematic of the diverse nature of representations within minority news outlets, vacillating between dominant and counterpublic discourses. The following sections present the themes across which women’s representations emerged within the digital outlets, in establishing solidarity between groups.

Inter-Group Solidarity in the US

Racist attacks against Asian Americans have increased exponentially through the pandemic across the US (BBC 2021); this crisis, and its gendered dimensions were covered by some of the sampled outlets. In “To be Asian and Atlantan right Now,” the Haitian Times reported on how coronavirus has strengthened solidarity with other ethnic groups. A Chinese American medical student, Clara Wang states, “since the pandemic began, I’ve grown more fearful […] I’ve felt stares on my way to the hospital.” In detailing the everyday experiences of Wang through using direct quotes and emotive language, this article emphasizes the uniqueness of her experience of marginalization. Based upon Ciccia and Roggeband’s (2021) intersectional feminist solidarity framework, this exemplifies “instrumental intersectionality”; whereby the idiosyncrasies of an individual’s experience are foregrounded, emphasizing marginalized subjectivities.

Solidarity operates on different scales, and through different frames in this Haitian Times article; after describing her own experience with racism, Wang references the “unique solidarity in being lumped together, othered together” as Asian-Americans. Notably, the term “Asian-American,” is highly contested, drawing together a highly culturally and ethnically heterogenous range of groups and identities. Nonetheless, Wang describes how “East Asian, Southeast Asian, South Asian” and “people from any other part of Asia” came together to have “rallied and supported each other.” This reveals transformative action, whereby an initially problematic, homogenizing label is recontextualized and mobilized to form a community. This article also touches upon discursive parallels between heightened instances of racist attacks during the pandemic against Asian Americans, and against other minoritized groups during previous crises:

My mother and I were talking about how this process is cyclical and why it feels so familiar. We know South Asians are watching us endure this and thinking back to 9/11. And it’s just a reminder that white supremacy operates against whichever marginal minority group is most convenient to target. (emphasis added) - Haitian Times, March 24 2021

In describing a conversation with her mother, Wang highlights the persistence of racism in the US, with the pandemic merely being the latest event to trigger such a “familiar” reaction; the uniqueness of the context of COVID-19 is overlooked. Wang stresses the lack of novelty in her experience; Asian Americans are described as the latest “convenient target.” This exemplifies “pragmatic solidarity,” whereby multiple instances are drawn together focusing on the “common denominator” of experience that many minoritized groups have faced. It is not the white majority group, but the enduring system and institutions of white supremacy, standing in opposition to the minoritized group. This contrasts against the well-established pattern we see in mainstream news, creating a binary division based on group membership.

Within Code Switch, actions of solidarity were also highlighted. In one episode featuring listeners questions on COVID-19, one question confronted the actions allies should take in response to increased instances of racism. A white American woman, Jacqueline, describes the challenge of knowing how best to support her Asian-American friend, “my constant, I’m sorry white people are so dumb, is overused and unhelpful. What are the things that I as a white person should or should not say and do?” Here, the concerns of one member of the majority ethnic group are articulated. Her questions are both general in expressing the experiences and concerns of many members of the majority ethnic group, and specific, regarding details of her friend’s experience. The public being addressed encompasses the majority group, who are advised to “be a monitor, an observer” and “document it.” Additionally, effective allyship is defined as “not in the abstract, but, what she [the friend] specifically says would be most helpful to her.” This topic of effective allyship is not something addressed in the other minority news sources analyzed, possibly indicating the difference in focus regarding the intended public and stressing Code Swith’s role as a hybrid minority news outlet.

Shared Histories

We also find message of solidarity communicated through vaccination coverage, advancing the mainstream narrative beyond targeting Black and Hispanic communities’ lower vaccination rates (Ndugga et al. 2021), or conspiracy theories circulating on social media influencing these vaccination rates (Khubchandani and Macias 2021). Rather than dismissing the vaccine hesitancy among minoritized groups as a matter of “ignorance,” AL DÍA addresses lesser-known historical events contributing to this hesitancy as Latin American women were sterilized without consent in the sixties, leading to long-term mistrust in the medical system (March 31 2021). It does this temporally, constructing a generational link between these historical tragedies and the present through “the daughters and granddaughters of these women,” but also in in terms of sentiment, scale, and urgency. The article alludes to the scope of historical suffering as a “pandora’s box of unresolved – or even inadequately compensated – trauma.”

Platforming the voice of the granddaughter of one victim, it notes this is symbolic of “an unknown quantity of Latin American women,” reinforcing the collective nature of this injustice and explaining why many women in the LatinX community are hesitant, yet stopping short of adopting an anti-vaccine stance. In this “us/them” construction, AL DÍA reinforces its own community orientation towards a Latin American public, simultaneously constructing an audience who are aware of and understand this trauma, whilst building an emotional bond with those who may have endured similar experiences. By directly addressing those who assign simplistic explanations for this hesitancy, they admonish these voices: “when people talk about the lack of confidence of black, Latino or native people in the vaccine […] they tend to forget the terrible racist shadow that hangs over these people whose history cannot be separated from recent eugenics.” The text encourages intergroup understanding, as AL DÍA’s journalists navigate a complex discursive space between promoting the official government message, whilst ensuring that these women are heard.

This is amplified further by connecting instances of state-sanctioned eugenics impacting other marginalised groups, to contemporary debates on vaccination. Comparable cases are described as having happened “all over the country,” with “Southern black women and native American women as victims”, showing how AL DÍA advocates for other marginalized groups. This is an example of “incorporation,” whereby commonalities are briefly mentioned on a single issue in a sometimes superficial way (Ciccia and Roggeband 2021). Comparable representations can be seen regarding “concern for the rising number of cases among all women of colour nurses” (AL DÍA, June 3 2020, emphasis added), through highlighting how “Latino and Black communities have been disproportionately affected by the disease,” and claims such as “if our brothers and sisters who are black are not free, then I am not free” (AL DÍA, June 17 2020, emphasis added). Here, emphasis is consistently placed on shared identity aspects. Similarly, in Code Switch’s episode “A Shot in the Dark,” one woman is quoted, “I’m a 37-year-old Black woman, so I’m hesitant to take the COVID-19 vaccine because of the way the medical industry has treated Black people since the start of this country.” Rather than dismissing this scepticism, an expert on this history, Harriet Washington is quoted. She states, “I wish people were more willing to get the vaccine. But no one can say it’s illogical given the history.” Whilst the correct course of action here is implied as vaccination, the doubts and challenges that people have are acknowledged and contextualised. For example, in the Haitian Times specific challenges to getting the vaccine are addressed towards those in power (“if you make it easy for people, they will get vaccinated”) and the minoritized group, noting that challenges were mitigated when shown “how easy the process […] was”, by a “trusted”, member of their community. Describing the women’s identity means that the public may relate; it is about evoking a sense of trust with an in-group member. Besides the call to action, this article shows the active, embedded nature of the minority news journalists in working with members of the community.

Precarious Employment

In the US (but also in many other countries), women of color and immigrant women are more likely to work in “front line” positions than their white counterparts. Most coverage of women working through the pandemic focused on healthcare, charting the challenges faced by women in this sector, whilst celebrating their work ethic. At the beginning of the pandemic, one Haitian Times article (March 19 2020) emphasizes the “dire lack of basic practical personal protection equipment” available to nurses, and their financial struggles (“these women and nurses […] hold one, two or three jobs to make ends meet”). Simultaneously, the women are celebrated as “loving taking care of crises,” and being “infamous for taking care of everyone else.” Members of the in-group are presented as more caring and hardworking than other nurses (“particularly our Haitian nurses”).

Code Switch focused on the experiences of female Filipino nurses. In the March 31 episode, they state that, “Filipino nurses make up 4% of all the nurses in the United States, they make up 31% of the deaths of nurses from COVID.” It focuses on Rosary Castro-Olega’s life (“she came out of retirement at the start of the pandemic because she really wanted to help out”) described in detail, using emotive language. Voices of her friends and daughters are included, shifting constantly between the broad and the specific, the experiences of many women immigrating to do nursing in the sixties, and the details of Rosary’s life. Crucially, in describing Rosary’s “really intimidate, hard work,” the presenters emphasize the significance of “bedside-care work”: “there’s front line workers and then there’s front line of the front-line workers. And that’s these nurses.” The metaphor of being the “front line of the front line” reiterates the risks of working in such proximity to the virus. Rather than highlighting the immediate dangers of the job, Code Switch also emphasizes the broader contextual factors leading to higher death rates among Filipino nurses, including, “historical reasons and the economic reasons that brought them to this country in the first place” as well as “cultural factors” whilst connecting to broader immigrant identities. In connecting Rosary, and other female Filipino nurses’ experiences to the broader “immigrant” identity and experience, this potentially provokes a sense of identification and understanding with a much broader public.

Solidarity Across Borders

Moving beyond expressions of solidarity with marginalised women across the US, the sampled digital news outlets frequently reference women beyond US borders. AL DÍA’s coverage represents women from a range of different, predominantly Spanish speaking countries, reflective of the highly heterogeneous diaspora. Crucially, identities of women of Latin American heritage, and migrant women were not clearly demarcated; instead, open, inclusive labels were used. Additionally, shared issues, history and heritage with other women of colour in the US were consistently highlighted, emphasising common denominators of identity. This is defined by Ciccia and Roggeband’s (2021) as “pragmatic solidarity,” a short-term, multi-issue form of intersectional solidarity. The following extract from AL DÍA’s front-page article, focuses on Symone Sahib’s mural for world refugee day (see Figure 1), highlighting some immigrant women’s responses to the pandemic:

Figure 1. “The Real Heroes of 2020” (July 21 2021).

Beyond those main storylines were those heroes holding their communities and families together through sheer willpower and love […] their heroic efforts went unseen in the moment, but had lasting impacts. They shaped how their communities responded to the pandemic and are now playing a role in how they recover. - AL DÍA, July 21 2021

After highlighting the work of medical professionals throughout the pandemic, the article focuses on the invisible labour of immigrant women. Positive labels reference “those women”; “those” is simultaneously massifying and specific, capturing the seven women within the mural, and many more. Further, using strong verbs highlights the women’s agency and influence – through descriptions such as “shaped” and “played a role” – despite the unseen nature of their work. This is clear example of “pragmatic solidarity” (short-term, multi-issue) (Ciccia and Roggeband 2021), which is limited in its emancipatory potential due to the emphasis on common denominators of identity as opposed to unique aspects of women’s experiences. Later in the article, the women featured in the mural are metaphorically constructed as representing “countless others” and “lifting the entire country up,” communicating the importance of this group to the audience being addressed. In showing these women’s plight, the article potentially reinforces and promotes pro-immigrant attitudes of AL DÍA’s imagined audience (speaking for these women) whilst also letting these women know that their work is acknowledged (speaking to).

Similar representations appear in a second AL DÍA article published May 19 2021 on protests in response to the Colombian government’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis. The article highlights the women’s place “among the front lines of these protests,” with “women” being inclusive of “trans women, and non-binary individuals that run a higher risk of facing violence.” The “powerful shows of bravery” by these groups of women are platformed, whilst the consequences of marginalized women’s mobilization is foregrounded, including the disproportionately negative impact on trans women. Similar to the story of the “seven women” above, the mobilization of women is portrayed as an act of community agency. Crucially, the way newspapers address their readers offers the first indication of the nature of that public; here we can say that they are community-oriented, collectively standing against certain injustices. Hence, the advocacy potential of this newspaper is not limited to the US population, but also to a (connected but distant) diaspora. This is an example of instrumental intersectionality, whereby the difference in experiences and issues faced by the Colombian women are detailed, but the focus is placed on this single issue (Ciccia and Roggeband 2021).

Role Models and Individual Responsibility

Across the sample, women’s actions of solidarity during the pandemic were celebrated through platforming female role models. The dominant message is that women are responsible for, and have the power to endure a range of issues resulting from the pandemic; COVID-19 is constructed as a unique challenge to be overcome by resilience and hard work. This message of individual responsibility communicated through female role models’ representations can be seen in AANI when, as one example, an article on the career and work of Judge Elaine Marshall (April 5 2021) foregrounds a dynamic of responsibility:

The COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic has each of us on edge. But ultimately, it begins with each individual and their mind-set and, more so, how they stand in the face of adversity; something Marshall will not let slow her down. (emphasis added) - AANI, April 5 2021

It is implied that the extent to which COVID-19 can impact a person is due to “mind-set,” and Judge Elaine Marshall demonstrates this by presenting women’s responses to the pandemic as a simple choice. There is a construction of “us” and “them” (or “they” here), creating a binary between the community who shares the experience of living in fear (“each of us on edge”) and those who respond by doing nothing, or take action. The line of inclusion and exclusion is not built around aspects of identity, but women’s attitude. Further, a specific type of action is valorized here, to “stand in the face of adversity.” In another profile piece on Georgia Provost, an important figure in Houston’s education sector, she says “common sense and critical thinking” may help to address some pandemic-related issues (ANNI, July 19 2021). Whilst the sense of a shared experience of the pandemic in the community is constructed (“simple solutions right in front of us”), she implies that there are those who recognize such “simple solutions” (positive), and those who do not. Thus, the public being addressed has to adhere to this notion of being proactive, led by examples of individual role models.

Whilst platforming female role models is positive, potentially as a form of aspiration to the community being addressed, these messages may be discouraging for those who do not see themselves in the same position and are struggling to cope with the negative impacts of the pandemic. As such, there is an implicit hierarchy within the community of women created between those who fit and are able to achieve the desired behaviour, and those who cannot.

Role Models – A Call to Action

The focus on individual responsibility is not consistent; whilst some articles mitigate the impact of socioeconomic factors on women’s ability to adapt, other articles highlight broader issues compounding the situation. In this sense, whilst some of the high-profile women represented in the newspapers – including in the examples above – are used as exemplars of ideal behaviour, others appear as champions for their communities, encouraging others to take action. Even in pieces profiling women’s careers, what is often being celebrated is their work in and for the broader community rather than personal success. For example, in an article on Antonia Villarruel, it is “the fact that she has spent most of her nursing career supporting Latinx communities across the world,” that is emphasized (AL DÍA 2021, April 21).

We see minority news coverage of women during the pandemic does not merely highlight inequalities, but serves as a call to action among adults who have “an obligation at this time to step up and take charge.” Describing the volunteer Beatriz Mignens, her resilience is presented positively, her response as motivated by a desire to serve the older community reflected in an “us” vs “them” generational framing (“We have the training, the experience…”), and between the government and the community, as it is suggested that government inaction necessitates community action, to “step up and take charge,” or “take over actively” (AL DÍA, April 15 2020). The use of a martial reference through the “cannon fodder” metaphor signals an urgent sense of “us,” with the younger generations being called to save the rest.

Through representing individuals as role-model figures, minority news outlets platform challenges faced by certain groups of marginalized women, serving as a call to action whilst shedding light on longstanding issues. In one Haitian Times article from 11 December 2020, they say “the mandate is clear and urgent: we must improve the health care inequity that Black women face. It is no longer satisfactory to be ‘not racist’.” The public being addressed here is simultaneously the Haitian diaspora, and Black women in New York City, as well as the majority group. The author discusses the damaging impact of “pretending we are color blind,” with the “we” referring to white people, whilst being a member of the Haitian community. This article, like many others across the sample, embeds the experiences of Black and Haitian women during the pandemic within much broader issues.

Besides contextualizing many COVID-related challenges to women in the marginalized communities, many of the calls to action are legitimized through emphasizing key identity markers, including women’s role within the group and society, as “mothers,” “carers,” “immigrants,” “advocates,” or “activists.” As such, there are certain conditions defining women’s capacity to call for action in the news sources. Using these identity markers, particularly those relating to women’s roles as mothers or carers can reinforce traditional stereotypes (Macharia et al. 2020).

Discussion and Conclusion

This study set out to examine how women have been represented in minority news during the COVID-19 pandemic. Analyzing four different digital ethnic news sources from the US using CDA, we find that their coverage is inclusive, empowering, and contains perspectives and concerns unique to the minority group. Through the strengthening of collective and individual identities and the platforming of community-specific issues, minority media communicate a call to action, and promote intersectional solidarity. Do these representations contribute to counterpublic formation, and what are the implications for minority news media’s role in a democracy? The representations analyzed in this study reveal a dual function of minority news sources, both oscillating and manoeuvring between the counter and dominant public spheres.

Minority news coverage plays an important political function in three key ways. Firstly, our analysis shows these media platformed the voices, stories and experiences of marginalized women during the pandemic. This emerged in the consistent use of direct quotes from women within the communities being addressed, typically using emotive language, and including narrative features. Secondly, and critically, the coverage contextualized the impact of the pandemic. Women’s stories were situated within broader historical, political, economic and cultural patterns of inequality and exclusion. By making the broader power structures and influences visible, representations develop an emancipatory potential; when power structures are made visible, they can be addressed. Thirdly, all sampled digital news outlets platformed the voices and experiences of marginalized women from different groups, both within the US and beyond. Intersectional solidarity was communicated through the nature of the stories chosen to be covered, the identities of the women featured, and labels used to refer to such identities. Besides the matter of who was represented, solidarity emerged in the mode in which the public was addressed; ambiguous group labels (“we”/“us”) could be used for women across the world) thus promoting solidarity between groups. This challenges the idea that counterpublics are speaking to specific, closed, identity-based groups (cf. Ref). Across the outlets, different types of intersectional solidarity were mobilized over various topical contexts, often within the same article.

At the same time, some coverage of women during the pandemic, and specifically the representation of “female role models,” reflected aspects of a neoliberal feminist paradigm, inhibiting the emancipatory potential of the coverage. This emerged in coverage of successful women in business, family, and healthcare, reinforcing the idea that the individual is responsible for their wellbeing; women’s success is regarded as a matter of preparedness, and attitude, particularly hard work and resilience (whilst ignoring other structural factors). Such representations ultimately detract from the messages of solidarity by shifting the blame to individual women and ignoring external factors.

Overall, minority news is constantly shifting between “counter” and “mainstream” spaces. These findings expose the tension between the emancipatory, political aims of a coherent counterpublic that communicates intersectional solidarity, serves as a platform for calls for action, ensures a diverse range of voices are heard, highlights the broader contexts which have led to marginalized women’s precarious position during the pandemic, whilst simultaneously reflecting mainstream values. Where this complicates an understanding of minority news media as counterpublics, it also reflects the constant negotiations of identities and belonging within the societies where these media operate. As the topic of COVID-19 might have been more likely to reveal these patterns, future research should examine the representation of intersectional identities in other contexts.

Whilst this research has begun to delve into an understudied area of the digital news landscape – minority news media – crucially, we do not claim to represent this highly heterogenous news sector. Evidently, in exploring four diverse online news outlets, and targeting the pandemic period, the scope of the paper is limited. Therefore, future studies should explore more varied news sources that cater to minoritized groups beyond ethnicity to understand the way in which different groups are represented, both during the pandemic and beyond. A more systematic comparison of representations across minority and mainstream news outlets, and exploring the way in which minority and alternative digital news landscapes function across different countries could also prove to be fruitful avenues for future research and further enhance our understanding of the democratic role of minority news.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank participants of the 2022 ECPR Joint Session workshop “Health, diversity, and the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic for political representation” for their helpful comments on the manuscript, as well as Arjun Agarwal at AL DIA for his kind support in archival access and our student assistant Carolin von Bredow for her work on this project. We would also like to thank the Editor and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by Emmy Noether Programme from the DFG Funding No. WA 4161/1-1.

Notes

1 It should be noted here that while we focus on the digital versions, these outlets are hybrid newspapers who publish online and offline news.