Invisible Ink: Media Representation of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

It is Asian Pacific Heritage Month and Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP) is proud to release Invisible Ink: Media Representation of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Invisible Ink explores news media coverage of AAPIs through a pre-pandemic snapshot. It seeks to answer:

• How often are AAPIs included in, or the focus of, stories related to economic inequality, and how are they portrayed?
• When such articles cite statistical data, are AAPIs included or intentionally omitted?
• How are AAPIs portrayed when featured in news articles and what are common themes?
• Do these news articles perpetuate the model minority narrative or do they illustrate diverse experiences of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders?

Invisible Ink finds that news coverage of Asian Americans was so sparse, it was as if it was written in invisible ink. Given the power of the media to shape the perceptions and decisions of philanthropy, policy makers, and other key decision makers, it is critical for news media to accurately and robustly include AAPI people in the course of covering the full spectrum of issues, including economic inequality. Coverage reinforced underlying themes of the model minority myth and news coverage focused on Pacific Islanders was virtually non-existent.

Click here to view the report.

Source: Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy