The lead story on the Yle website on Wednesday kicks off with the following headline: “Latest coronavirus news: 70 people are in quarantine from a Vantaa school, a record number of infections globally.”
It seems like a standard headline, but wait. For some reason, there is a picture of a black person wearing a facemask at the Helsinki Railway Station.
Is there a connection between the black person in the picture and the news? There is not even a caption for the picture, so no clues why Yle chose a black person to go with the story. You read on, but there is nothing that connects him to the news briefs.
At this point, you may ask why there is a black person in the story.
The answer? A good example of how media like Yle racializes news and in the process reinforces stereotypes about minorities like blacks.