- Only one woman from the Middle East-North Africa and no Indigenous women made Sunday appearances.
- Most guests were White Men who were invited to speak on-air about George Floyd’s murder.
- A small, but often identical group of people of colour are asked to share their expertise via TV.
No Indigenous woman has been invited on any of the top 5 Sunday morning TV News programs in 2020.
According to a report, these shows generally excluded women of color. Recent reportFrom the Women’s Media Center – A non-profit organization that was co-founded in 2005 by Jane Fonda, Gloria Steinem and Robin Morgan. It’s dedicated towards increasing women’s representation in media.
Communications experts believe that during a year of major news events and overlapping crises, including the 2020 presidential race, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and increased protests for racial justice and equality, the overarching omissions of Indigenous, Black, Latina and AAPI women are particularly glaring.
Experts claim that not only is it disrespectful to women of color, but it also affects the quality of lives of other people in these communities.
“These news shows continue to set the agenda for the week, so they have an outweighed importance when you’re looking at the news cycle, which then impacts the way people see themselves represented in legislation,”Insider spoke with Kate McCarthy, WMC director of programming.
Inequality of communities of color is caused by a lack WOC
This report examined five of the most important Sunday news programs, including ABC’s This Week and CBS’ Face the Nation. It also included CNN’s State of the Union, Fox News Sunday and MSNBC’s Meet the Press.
The report found that only a handful of women from color were featured on each of the five shows. White men comprised approximately 75% of all guest appearances.
Latinas accounted for 9% of the population but only 2% of the guest appearances. Asian American females, who make up 3% of the total population, made less than 1%.
In 2020, a guest appearance was made by a North African/Middle Eastern woman.
“The results of the report are to be expected, but I was a little surprised that it hasn’t gotten better given all of the conversations that have been happening around systemic racism,” Isabel Molina-Guzmán, a professor of Latina/Latino studies and communication at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, told Insider.
“That Latinas make up only 2% of guest appearances is quite blatant, especially given the current context in which Latinos have been hit exponentially by COVID-19 by the
recession
, and police violence” Molina-Guzmán explained.
We typically don’t hear from the people who are directly affected by an issue, which leads to their narratives being diminished.Rachel Grant, University of Florida
Molina-Guzmán noted the data”It tells us a lot about how far the country is behind in providing equal access for Latinas and other people of color.
Black women, representing 7% of the total population, made up 9%. However, the report warns that this statistic is not indicative of significant progress. “finding implies a greater representation than actually occurred, because of reappearances.”
White men were also the most frequently invited guests to discuss George Floyd’s assassination on-air.
“We typically don’t hear from the people who are directly affected by an issue, which leads to their narratives being diminished,”Rachel Grant is an assistant professor of Journalism at University of Florida. Her research focuses on race and gender.
“It leads to the media moving forward with preconceived notions of narratives and sticking to oppressive tropes,”She added.
Joely Proudfit, the director of California State University San Marcos’ American Indian Studies Department, spoke to Insider “when the media does bother to talk about our issues, they don’t speak directly to our experts.”.
“When you don’t invite actual people, actual Indigenous voices, to speak, it’s a modern form of genocide,”She spoke.
Proudfit, the first Indigenous woman to serve on the Commission on the Status of Women and Girls in California, stated that things could be changing slowly because of the increased use of social media. “hold media to account”In a way that it has never been before.
She points to the spate of recent coverage surrounding Gabby Petito, a 22-year-old travel blogger who went missing on a trip with her fiancé, as providing an opportunity for the media to speak on missing and murdered Indigenous women.
“Native women have gone missing for years, yet people can’t say or name one Indigenous woman or girl or one Black or Latina woman or girl, for that matter, who went missing,”Proudfit.
Proudfit said that Indigenous women are more than able to talk about gender-based violence.
“They can speak on pay equity, environmental justice, sovereignty and other legal issues,”Proudit stated. “We have Indigenous experts for every topic.”
It is a form of shaming to use one WOC as a spokesperson for thousands.
The report shows that women of color often appear on television news as the same people are asked to comment and share their expertise.
12 Latinas were among the 26 guests, 6 Asian American women were 10 and 46 Black women appeared on five of the major Sunday shows.
“I could name all the Latina guests on these shows,” Molina-Guzman said. “When you have 12 people speak on behalf of 18% of the population, that’s a problem.”
“They’re often called upon to perform tokenizing roles and sometimes used to strategically cover really racist beliefs,”She added.
The authors of the report suggest that pigeonholing specialists flatten the nuances and complexity of stories before criticizing Sunday shows for perpetuating them. “social perception of race as a Black/White issue.”
“Racism affects all people of color, and it is alarming that entire communities were completely omitted from the conversation,”Write to the authors of the report.
The report’s authors state that diversity within the media industry continues to be a major issue. Their findings are in line more than three decades worth of research. “remain a mostly white and male affair.”
Experts recommend reforms to address the lack of women, especially of color, on-air after the few years of marginal progress.
These reforms include requiring bookers make an effort not only to be on their immediate roster but also to search for leaders from underrepresented or marginalized backgrounds.
“The way things currently are, we’re seen as such an afterthought that we’re not viewed as human beings,”Proudfit. “That’s why it’s critical to attack this from every angle.”