Annihilation

Symbolic annihilation is used to highlight the erasure of peoples in popular communication. George Gerbner coined the term to describe the “absence” (1972, 44; Gerbner & Gross 1976), “condemnation,” or “trivialization” (Tuchman 1978, 17) of a particular group in the media. Generally applied to women and racial and sexual minorities, symbolic annihilation points to the