Making Structural Violence Visible: Assessing the Role of the US News Media in Communicating COVID-19-Related Racial/Health Disparities

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed stark racial and ethnic disparities in illness and death, exposing decades of neglect and discrimination. While the news media has played a crucial role in calling attention to these disparities, it is important to examine how this information has been conveyed. Drawing on structural violence and news framing analytical frameworks, we qualitatively analyzed early COVID-19 coverage of racial health disparities in two major US regional newspapers: Los Angeles Times (California) and Dallas Morning News (Texas), representing states led by different political parties. An inductive thematic analysis of 75 news articles revealed three key themes: (1) the urgency and demands for comprehensive COVID-19 data disaggregated by race to make visible the disproportionate impact on marginalized communities enabling timely interventions; (2) the pervasive web of structural inequities and systemic racism that functioned as underlying structural drivers of these disparities; and (3) the influence of state-level pandemic policies and the varied public responses shaped by differential access to privilege and race/ethnic identity. Overall, our analysis shows that, despite limited coverage of the COVID-19’s impact on racial minorities, both newspapers prioritized community concerns and lived experiences, departing from typical color-blind framing. These findings emphasize the potential of local journalism to amplify marginalized voices and address health crises in their communities (and beyond), while highlighting the persistent need to challenge the ideological foundations of structural racism.