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.