Women of color have historically been active players in social movements in the United States (U.S.). Because of this, women of color are oftentimes the targets of negative media representation or absent from any form of representation entirely. My research examines how these women of color, student activists perceive their own activism in relation to the mass media representation, in this case the Daily Illini (DI). There is a hidden power in media, which gives media a privileged position in discourse. From preliminary research, I learned that the DI uses its privilege in a biased way: in reporting on student activism, they favor administration and faculty over the students. Studying how women of color internalize this marginalization afflicted on them by the DI???s media representation will reveal how influential and powerful this media outlet is or is not to Black women student activists, a group that is commonly oppressed on multiple levels. The results of this work will demonstrate the variability in power relations and influence between the DI and the subjects of its columns.unpublishe
