An article by Thi Anh Thu Dinh
The internet possesses qualities that are powerful and harmful at the same time: it aids the proliferation of virtual phenomena with incredible speed; it welcomes anonymity and public contribution; it is global. While the internet is proved to be a useful resource and is promoted as the prominent access to information when this would otherwise be physically inhibited, issues of misinformation as well as pre-existing racial bias may well exacerbate.
The coronavirus pandemic has made people turn to new ways of living in which digital technologies play a crucial role. Especially, sharing knowledge and information so as to maintain a well-informed global community has become one of the key components of global solidarity. However, while digitalization is helping communication flow, it also deepens racial divides whereby online news and social media while attempting to fasten the thinking process and information distribution are more likely to deepen tropes of biased racial representation. This article shall dissect such representation in terms of news reporting and internet jokes. In the process of combating racism, stereotypes have either changed or remained, while new ones continue to emerge. Institutions such as the media and their misplaced attempts at humor create a range of settings that allow these stereotypes to reproduce and circulate (Spoonley, 2019).
How can online media about Covid-19 become toxic? A study shows that long-term exposure to news media that depicts certain social groups stereotypically alters readers’ perceptions towards such social groups, creating negative implicit attitudes (Arendt & Northup, 2015). Stereotyping in representation shows a limited range of characteristics that imply the subjects. Media representation operating on common racial assumption can be a powerful way of circulating limited narratives (Hall, 1997). Thus, it only reinforces the already existing stereotypical perceptions and contributes to the grouping of those who share the same thoughts.
Representation does not only produce identification, but also knowledge (Hall, 1997). Since the beginning of the pandemic, the news cycle has been engulfed with racially charged topics starting with discussions about the virus’ origin that relates specifically to cultural practice. Through the news people learn about the virus and the group of people that is attached to its emergence. ‘Detailed’ news reporting which focuses on the locality and progress of the virus inadvertently underlines the stereotypical knowledge about China and Chinese foodways, which, in a larger context, extrapolates the differences between the East and the West, the ‘deviant’ and the ‘normal’. Food constitutes the universal construction of symbolic classification (Strauss, 1970). The opposition between what is edible and what is not connotes the universal expression of dichotomy. Eating bats or wild animals is linked to the portrayal of exotic others, which is easily associated with destructive and perilous probability (for example, the outbreak of a deadly virus). The idea of certain culinary customs as strange or disgusting reflects normalized ideologies dominant in Western societies towards behaviors from other racial groups as foreseeable (Spoonley, 2019).
As the rise of Coronavirus brought along the rise of discrimination and xenophobia, news coverage also spiked with headlines about said subject matters, within which discriminated racial groups are abjectly presented as the oppressed. As racial issues need to be tackled, narratives are crucial in stimulating harmony within a community rather than instigating division between social groups. More often than not, news retains neutrality and lacks compassion. Thus, stories about victims and perpetrators duplicate the dichotomy of ‘us vs them’. Recent research about race and leadership conducted on 100 online and offline news outlets in 5 markets across 4 continents by researchers from Oxford University has shown that “whites are significantly overrepresented among top editors in all five countries, and non-whites significantly underrepresented. All or nearly all top editors in our sample in most of these countries are white.” (Nielsen et al, 2020, 4). Considering how leaders represent their field and how leaders hold the power to alter the voice of their channels, it may be suggested that racial equality among the editorial community can improve the narratives of news reporting about race.
In addition to news reporting, meme culture and internet humor quickly catch up with the dialogue. While humor delivers the comic relief needed in stressful times, racist jokes at the same time flood this media format. Coming back to the subject of foodways, consider for example the following memes collected from anonymous contributors from social media:
Figure 1 & 2: Chinese bat soup. Source: Facebook.
Negative impacts caused by racial jokes are often overlooked. Therefore humor should be taken seriously as a site of reproduction and circulation of racist narratives (Perez, 2017). Generalization of racial groups can also be eluded by comical representation: as seen from these examples, ‘Chinese’ and ‘Asian’ are interchangeable (Figure 1 - 4). Racist jokes are majorly dangerous because of the speed at which they spread through the internet. Social media offers multiple platforms for internet users to read, share, and produce jokes without concerns about consequences. While laughable things are not taken seriously, the implications behind those might easily resonate with unconscious racial bias. Hence, racist jokes can easily find their audiences and those who do not share the same sense of humour are dubbed overly sensitive and told that they can just ‘unfollow’ or scroll away from their content.
Figure 3 & 4: Asian diet. Source: Facebook.
To conclude, the media and its representation need to create an equitable landscape that allows unbiased, compassionate content, especially if the topic is race or race-related. In order to eliminate stereotypical and toxic representations, a more attentive and critical attitude from readers is needed on one hand. On the other hand, racial diversity and equality within the editorial community can bring substantial positive changes to news reporting. The COVID-19 pandemic may have altered the ways people stay connected and informed, but the ways people support each other should not be neglected.
References:
Arendt, Florian, & Northup, Temple. (2015). Effects of long-term exposure to news stereotypes on implicit and explicit attitudes. International Journal of Communication, 9(1), 2370-2390.
Hall, S. (1997). Representation: cultural representations and signifying practices. London: Sage.
Lévi-Strauss, C. (1970). The Raw and the Cooked: Introduction to a Science of Mythology. Trans. John and Doreen Weightman. New York: Harper and Row.
Pérez, R. (2017). Racism without Hatred? Racist Humor and the Myth of “Colorblindness.”. Sociological Perspectives, 60(5), 956–974. https://doi.org/10.1177/0731121417719699
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, Meera Selva, and Simge Andi (2020). Race and Leadership in the News Media 2020: Evidence from Five Markets. Reuters Institute's factsheet, published by Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Retrieved from: https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2020-07/Nielsen_et_al_Race_and_Leadership_FINAL.pdf
Spoonley P. (2019). Racism and Stereotypes. In: Ratuva S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Ethnicity. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0242-8_36-1