Symbolic Annihilation is the absence of representation in the media. Tuchman divided the concept into three aspects: omission, trivialisation, and condemnation.

Television shows such as Friends, Cheers, Frasier, Seinfeldand almost all sitcoms from the black and white age of television had practically no diversity whatsoever. They omitted all the diversity from their world, whether it was by design or on purpose.

The images may trivialize:One example is the Garret Morris Saturday Night Live skit, depicted a Latino Baseball player who only spoke in broken English. It gave a perception for a long time that Latin baseball players could not speak English or were unintelligent.

Those are two examples of symbolic annihilation.