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Passing the Mic? An analysis of women of colour in the 2024 UK General Election coverage

The snap UK General Election took place on July 4, 2024. The Scottish media were concerned with the campaigns, the polls and the posturing – but our partners were taking a closer look into the representation of women of colour in election coverage. 

Pass the Mic Scotland and the University of Strathclyde previously collaborated with Engender as part of the Gender Equal Media Scotland (GEMS) project to analyse the representation of women of colour over the course of nine days of Scottish news media, during the Scottish Parliamentary elections in May 2021. This research found that only 2.1% of all people in the news were women of colour.

It was therefore important for the Equal Media and Culture Centre for Scotland to work with Pass the Mic Scotland and the University of Strathclyde again to analyse the election coverage around the UK General Election in 2024. Had anything changed? Did the difference between a Scottish and UK election mean a greater voice for women of colour? Project leads Talat Yaqoob (Pass the Mic Scotland) and Professor Karen Boyle (University of Strathclyde) led a team of researchers who analysed the Scottish media in the run up to, and for one week following, the UK General Election on July 4, 2024. 

Key findings from the research are that women of colour were more likely to occupy the functions of personal experience and popular opinion than other groups. Further, our partners found that just 0.9% of all people quoted in Scottish newspapers’ election coverage were found to be women of colour. In stark terms that means just 21 women of colour were quoted in 1114 newspaper stories. Of the women quoted, the majority were not based in Scotland. 

Talat Yaqoob, founder of Pass the Mic said: “It is disappointing but not surprising to see the gross under-representation of women of colour in election news. What is telling is that across experts, political representatives and general public interviews, the percentage of women of colour in this sample is actually even less than the population representation. Given the rise of populism, sexism and racism across politics, we should be hearing from women of colour more and its the responsibility of news platforms to make this happen. That is why the Pass the Mic directory exists - the experts are there; producers and editors just need to use it.” 

The statistics are damning. Women of colour are not being represented in the Scottish media when it comes to politics, and when they are, it is to provide personal experience and opinion rather than to act as journalist, anchor or expert. The good news is that Pass the Mic Scotland’s work building up a database of women of colour experts willing to speak to the media on a wide variety of subjects, and creating opportunities for training and publication, is paying off. A number of the women of colour asked for expert opinion have come through either Pass the Mic Scotland’s training schemes or via their database of experts. However, the fact remains that more needs to be done by media outlets to ensure that women of colour are represented in our media and given a platform. 

Professor Karen Boyle says: “Our findings show that Pass the Mic has been successful in developing talented commentators, but the news media in Scotland still has a lot of work to do to reach beyond the usual suspects to better reflect contemporary Scotland and engage communities directly impacted by the stories that make the news.”

So where do we go from here? Talat Yaqoob is committing to the long term, saying that “We are committed to doing media monitoring across key news events. Next will be the 2026 Scottish Parliament elections. With the level of influencing and partnership work we have done with Scottish news editors and producers, we hope we will see more of our experts represented in the news, and stories on politics which impact our lives.” 

Visit the Pass the Mic website to read three blogs detailing the findings and processes of the research: the key findings,  Mansplaining the election in Scotland? and how the data was measured.

Join our upcoming webinar with Pass the Mic and the University of Strathclyde, to hear more about the impact of Pass the Mic’s work, and the findings of our research.

Wednesday 11 December, 16:30 - 18:00 GMT, online. Visit the event page for full details and to register.