“Hidden” No More: Newspapers’ Framing of NASA Mathematician Katherine Johnson

Abstract

When analyzing the composition of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields, one can see the paucity of women and especially Black women in these areas. Generally when depicting people who excelled despite encountering substantial obstacles, news reports tend to celebrate the person’s success while often ignoring the structural reasons for the existing discrimination. Thus, this study analyzed media coverage of the 2020 death of legendary NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson to explore whether journalists emphasize race and sex as novelties compared to a person’s overall accomplishments, and whether journalists explored the structures underpinning the racism and sexism Johnson faced. In both standard news articles and opinion pieces, the theme of trailblazer or pioneer consistently appeared. Journalists took care to both highlight Johnson’s novelty as a woman in STEM, but also her significant contributions to the space program as a whole, which transcended her racial and gender identities. Additionally, fewer than half of the news items that contained direct quotations actually quoted women who were NOT Katherine Johnson. Many of the news items that quoted women contained comments from author Margot Lee Shetterly, whose book served as the basis for the movie Hidden Figures. News items also routinely treated the racial and gender discrimination Johnson faced as part of the past and not as a current issue. Racism and sexism existed, but there was not much explanation as to why it existed in its particular format, who benefited from the discriminatory apparatuses and who implemented and maintained those systems.