What’s missing from mainstream media coverage of the Coronavirus pandemic
In Ireland, there are probably less than a hundred people in newsrooms across the country who get to decide what’s important, what gets covered and how. Those people are mostly white, male and middle class and the media they produce reflects those biases.
Newspapers run opeds asking people experiencing domestic violence to reach out for help, without recognising the enormous psychological barriers that stop them from doing that. Commentators casually compare this pandemic to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, without fully understanding the scale and devastation of that outbreak on a generation of gay men.
Of course, I’m generalising. There are some journalists doing great work to surface experiences outside of the so-called ‘mainstream’. There are others who offer opportunities for people to contribute their own stories. (Ciara Kenny is a great example of this.) But in general, the story of the pandemic in the Irish media has been understood through a traditional, hetero-patriarchal lens. A lens that I find both suffocating and misleading.
What follows is a list of stories that you might not find on the front pages of national outlets though they are just as worthy. Some topics have been covered, but the impact of the pandemic on folks outside the “norm” (as defined by a mostly white, male, middle class media) hasn’t been centred in any meaningful way.
I have no power to change that. But I wanted to spotlight a few of the stories that have made me think about how the media tells this story over the last few months.
Gender + the pandemic
If newsrooms were more diverse, perhaps we’d see more attention paid to the fact that:
Young men are more likely than women to ignore the social distancing restrictions and that women wash their hands significantly more than men. (Unfortunately, I haven’t seen any stats outside this rigid gender binary.)
Toxic masculinity could make the virus even more deadly.
Women’s well-being has been impacted more severely, largely due to inequalities in the home.
How the pandemic has impacted women experiencing infertility.
We’ve heard almost nothing about how the pandemic has impacted survivors of sexual violence. The #MeToo movement published a resource for survivors. It says:
“Survivors of sexual assault are experiencing the deep impact of this moment in ways we could have never imagined. Those of us in abusive situations and those who are seeking therapy are struggling to get the support they need. Conditions that were already challenging are now exacerbated, and the needs of sexual assault survivors are being left out of the national dialogue in more ways than one.”
We’d know that nurses in the US are using zoom to help survivors self-administer DIY rape kits.
We’d think about how re-traumatising it has been for victims of digital violence to have their entire work and social lives operating virtually. Even if you haven’t experienced a significant level of violence, digital spaces are often dangerous ones for women, non-binary folks and people of colour.
(It’s worth mentioning that there has been coverage of a rapist trying use Covid 19 to get out of prison and the at-risk elderly inmates serving sentences for sexual violence.)
Incidents of domestic violence and child abuse have risen during this time period. In France, several women were killed by their partners and others were moved to hotels. French authorities instituted a code word in pharmacies and grocery stores in an effort to protect women.
Some very worthwhile provisions were put in place for people experiencing domestic violence, though there is still comparatively little for male or LGBT survivors. Intimate partner violence outside of the heterosexual, patriarchal paradigm is almost entirely invisible in Ireland.
Race + the pandemic
The pandemic has disproportionately impacted people of colour.
In the US, the pandemic disproportionately took black lives. Similarly, people of colour in the UK have died at a much higher rate though white Irish people in the UK were half as likely to die from Covid 19 than other minorities.
People of Asian descent face increased stigma and racist attacks throughout this time period too, though it hasn’t gotten much attention.
It’s worth remembered too that the hand sanitiser we’ve all been scrambling for was invented by Lupe Hernandez, a Latina student nurse invented in the 60s.
How the pandemic impacts the LGBT+ community
A few commentators have pointed to parallels with the HIV epidemic. This is not like the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Not at all.
"According to the CDC, from 1981 to 1987 there were 50,280 reported cases of HIV. Only 2,103 of those people were still alive by 1987; a staggering 96% of patients had already died. The CDC estimates the coronavirus mortality rate to be 0.25-3%, so, no, this outbreak is not the same.”
(with thanks to Them for original reporting on this)
What must it be like for survivors of the HIV/AIDS epidemic to watch governments mobilise to save lives while their community was left to suffer?
What must it be like to live through the HIV epidemic and watch scientific, public health, media and political leaders turn the other way while your community is decimated. But when this coronavirus comes, threatening everyone, the experts spring into action. Some lives are more worth saving than others.
In many ways, the LGBT+ community are especially vulnerable to this pandemic. They are more likely to face additional barriers when accessing healthcare, have more pre-existing conditions and be more economically vulnerable. I haven’t seen a single piece in Irish mainstream media on how trans folks are accessing their medical care in this environment. Or how LGBTQIA+ people are being forced to shelter with homophobic family members. The psychic toll of a that kind of toxic environment can be enormous.
And let’s not forget that the Mayor of New York invited Samaritan’s Purse to establish a field hospital in Central Park. This organisation has a long history of anti-LGBT discrimination. Mayor de Blasio said he was “very concerned” about Samaritain’s Purse but the city needs “all the help we can get”. It doesn’t take much for the rights of LGBTQIA+ folks to be disregarded.
Misc
While elected leaders in the US got caught up in a pissing contest, the countries who responded most effectively to the crisis were led by women. (Not coincidentally, these countries have also taken significant action in response to the climate crisis.)
Economically, the pandemic has been devastating but not every group has been impacted equally. Once again millennials didn’t stand a chance. (Here are the Irish figures and see Barra Roantree’s analysis for more details.)
There has been some general reporting on the adverse effects of quarantine on people’s mental health but not much has gone into detail on the specifics. Like, what’s it like to be an addict in isolation? How do you manage an eating disorder in this environment? What about people who rely on the fellowship of AA to stay sober? The gambling industry has proven remarkably resilient in terms of turning a profit, but what about people with gambling addictions? How has the pandemic exacerbated pre-existing mental health conditions like OCD?
And of course, little has been said about those who just can’t adhere to the public health advice. How can you self-isolate if you share a bedroom, if your entire family is on one hotel room, if you’re in direct provision.
I’ve written 1200+ words and barely scratched the surface. If there’s anything else, you’d like to spotlight, please let me know. The coronavirus story is big, complex and multi-faceted. If we stick to the headlines, we’re likely to miss a lot of what’s really going on.
