Module 3 Reflections

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Attention is often associated with admiration or desire. We pay attention to people we admire because we desire to be like them. This perfectly explains why we follow supermodels on Instagram and not homeless people.  By that same token, people who are more or less satisfied with the material aspects of their life and have relatively few needs begin to crave meaning, which they usually find through attention; the more attention they receive, the more important they feel. There are two classes within the attention economy; stars, whom attention is paid, and fans, who pay attention. Children are the perhaps the most attentive group of people by far, and make up a large portion of the fan class. Young children are still in the process of defining who they are, and they need role models to help guide them. These role models are made easily accessible through the media (Lankshear & Knoble, 2001).

Unfortunately, there are some people who behave violently in order to receive attention. Most of us can name at least three mass shooters in the last decade who have taken the lives of many innocent people in order to bring attention to themselves or their causes. It is nearly impossible to turn on any news station without being bombarded with stories of violence, and if you change the channel, it is highly likely that you will find even more violence portrayed in television programs. So what came first; the chicken or the egg? Is the world truly a horrible place full of violent people who create violent content as an outlet of expression? Or are we being corrupted by the media, and becoming increasingly violent with continuous exposure to atrocities of all kinds?

Studies from the FBI have shown that media violence and actual reported crime have a negative relationship; While media violence has been rapidly increasing and escalating for the last twenty years, crime has been on a steady decline. Even children do not seem to be interested in imitating violence seen in the media. While sales of violent video games have continued to rise, youth violence has significantly decreased (Bartholow, 2014). In her chapter on media violence, Sternheimer (2013) addresses how exposure to violence in the media influences youth. One major concern is that children frequently exposed to media violence will begin to develop inaccurate, negative perceptions of the world, or “mean-world” syndrome, as identified by George Gerbner. However, media violence can have the opposite effect on children from impoverished, “dangerous” neighborhoods. They are not jaded by the depictions of violence in the media simply because it is unrealistic. Although in some cases, media violence can reinforce preexisting fears from prior real-life events (Sternheimer, 2013).

The problem appears to be not quite as simple as previously thought. Although, it is clear that the problem with media violence stems from attention. Maybe news sources portray the world as being more violent than it actually is because people are generally more afraid of being killed by another human than they are afraid of starving to death. When someone dies at the hands of another, they are victims, but when someone dies from extreme poverty, we do not tend to recognize them as victims at all.  FAIR’s study examined three major news sources over the course of three years, and only found 58 stories about poverty (deMause, 2007). We see more homeless people on the streets than violence, so why does poverty receive so little attention? For starters, we look away because poverty is unpleasant. There is nothing to be glamorized about not being able to shower for weeks. Also, poverty is so terrible that we cannot bear to imagine that it could happen to us. It feels much safer to blame poor people for their problems than blame circumstances that are out of our control. We also tend to assume that poverty is temporary, and that poor people will figure it out eventually (Ridgway, 2013).

As consumers, we have to power to decide what is important to us, and what deserves our attention. The media caters to us based on what we pay attention to. While it is sometimes amusing watching wealthy families act crazy and spend money, there are people in our neighborhoods who are suffering more than we can imagine. Once we show that we care, the media will follow.

 

Module 3

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Lankshear and Knobal talk about how the attention economy is a new kind of economy that is emerging with the rise of technology. Goldhaber says that “attention, unlike information, is inherently scarce,” this is true because there is information every where we look but our attention is something that has to be given to another person (p.2). Goldhaber talks about six points of relevance, one being how children these days are emerged all day in school and then when they are done they fully amerce themselves into technology, especially television. Also, there are going to be two types of people that are in the attention economy, the ‘stars’ and the ‘fans’. One in which has a lot of attention paid to them and the other that pays a lot of attention to others. The third point of relevance is that for a person to be able to be a part of the attention economy they must know how to pay and to receive attention. Another is that the attention economy has to create attention technology in which helps us get attention from others, such as the internet. The fifth is that we must have a private space away from the attention that we receive from others. Lastly, there is to gain attention we must have to have it be original and that you must come up with your own way of thinking. They look at several scholars ways of thinking when it comes to this ‘attention economy’ and they all have different ways of looking at it. It is important to see that attention is harder to get a hold of and keep from one person.

Talking about paying attention there is a huge problem that is happening with poverty and media literacy. We can see this poverty more than ever now with the media and how we can see how others are feeling through video, pictures and saying. Many times we do not think of those who are in need but this is a good way for us to see it and feel for these people. We were able to see a video of children who have lived in poverty for most if  not all of their lives. They talk about how they only have 50 cents for gas or they were born in a tent by a river. These really hit us hard because of how absolutely sad it is. According to DeMause, we will always have a poverty line and the line itself has not changed in almost four decades. Although, there is not much coverage on the poverty level in the media, it seems as though they do not want to put it out there to bring light to it. Almost as though it is a secret that this country has this problem. In DeMause’s article, he shares with us a study that had been done over a three year period to see just how many times a story would have the words “poverty,” “low income,” “homeless,” “welfare” or “food stamps.” It was a surprising discovery for me to see that in this study they only had heard 58 studies over that three year time. We see photos, such as the photo diary of all of the families who have some sort of help to get food but it also shows the kind of food that they will be eating. Some families had healthy choices while others had not such healthy choices.

In Kuper’s Poverty’s poor show in the media, he tries to tell us why it is that journalists do not cover the stories of the people that are struggling with poverty. He says that it is not that they do not want to cover these stories but more importantly they are not around these people enough to see the problem and interview people. Journalists are upper-middle class people who just so happen to interview and create stories of people who are in the same social class as them . I see a big problem with this because if all journalists are only covering stories about things that surround their lives, then what other stories are we missing out on? I think that more journalists should be going out and making the commitment to get stories from all different kinds of people.

Such as Ridgway says in his article 4 Problems with the Way the Media Depicts Poor People, he believes that the media has always ignored people in our society. Whether is be women, the LGBTQ community, colored people or the elderly. These groups however are being seen in more of the light now more that ever because of activist groups. One group though is still being left out of the media though, and that is the poor. We do not see them, almost as though they are invisible in the media. It is a group that is extremely sad to talk about, so people find it easier to just not talk about. The only time that we hear about them is when they are looked at as a statistic and not as the real people that they are. People always blame the poor as being poor because of the life choices that they have made. This is not always the case though since many people do hit the poverty level because of a tragic event or because they have been that way since they have been kids. People often do not see that this is not a temporary thing for many people. People that are below the poverty level often never leave that spot and are not just going to be able to pick back up and start making a lot of money.

Another thing that we must ‘pay attention’ to in the media is the rate of crime and violence due to the media. We often see movies, television shows and even video games that are very violent. People have always blamed these things as the reason why some people are violent and do things that they should not be doing. In the text, Sternheimer looks at the crime rate of juveniles and to our surprise there has been no new crime waves since the 1980s. It seems as though this means that since these violent media outlets that there has not been a crime wave even though movies, television shows and video games are getting more and more violent. I do believe that these things can not be good for our youth or any one for that matter but I do not think it has the major affect that people think that they do.

Module 3

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One quote from Lankshear and Knobel’s Attention Economy in particular resonated with me.  I had the hardest time absorbing the information from this article, but I felt that it warranted a mention in my summary. According to the text, “Goldhaber envisages two ‘classes’ within the attention economy. These are ‘Stars,’ who have large amounts of attention paid to them, and ‘Fans’ who pay their attention to Stars” (Lankshear and Knobel, 2001, pg. 3.) The essence of Goldhaber’s argument is that there are few people who receive a great deal of attention from many who are happy to give that attention. This can lead those outliers, such as the homeless, to be completely ignored. Even though this article is about the economy, I couldn’t help but relate this argument back to my experiences within the United States educational system over the last twenty-seven years. Growing up, it always seemed as though there were a few “Star” students in every class. In my case, I went to a small private school for elementary and middle school, so these students were the same in every class. They excelled in every subject, were athletic, and beloved by all of the teachers. They received the most attention and praise. The rest of us “Fans” worshiped them because of this. We were taught to look to them as an example and essentially to compare ourselves to them. Yet because of this, I often felt that everyone else’s accomplishments fell through the cracks. Sure there were mentions of other successes, but it seemed as though they were always in comparison to one of the star student’s achievements. I am curious, did any one else experience this growing up?

 

I thought I understood what the newscaster’s meant when they throw around the term poverty in the media. I assumed, as I think that  most members of our society who fall within the middle class bracket do, that the term poverty spoke only of those individuals who live their days devoid of the basic human rights. Author Shannon Ridgway demonstrates in her article 4 Problems with the Way Media Depicts Poor People, why,  before this course, I made this assumption.  Ridgway argues that although the media does feature a few segments now and then about those who are impoverished, “media representation isn’t enough; diverse and accurate media representation is essential.” (Ridgway, 2013, pg. 1.) In making this comment, Ridgway urges us to consider when taking in media messages, the following facts: the poor are invisible, the poor are often described only in terms of statistics, it is assumed or shown that the poor are poor due to their own life choices, or that they are not poor but simply “down on their luck.” (Ridgway, 2013, pg. 1-4.)  After analyzing the subsequent information provided to us in the Paying Attention: Poverty and Media Literacy  subsection of this week’s readings, I feel as though my eyes have been opened and my attention has been brought towards an entirely different form of poverty that exists within the confines of our own society.  I was shocked to learn that there are many families, working families, who live well below the poverty line. This was not news to me, however, I was saddened to learn just how many people in the United States live below the poverty line.

 

I found the video titled Child Poverty- In Their Own Words, to be truly heartbreaking. How did you react upon seeing this clip? I cried. Incidentally, the filmmakers knew exactly what they were doing in adding the young boy singing a blues song about struggling to survive. It plays on one’s emotions and set the emotional tone for the entire clip.  As a parent, it shook me to the core listening to the stories that some of those kids had to tell. I believe that it is the goal of most individuals who are lucky enough to call themselves parents to provide their children with the basic human necessities. By necessities, I mean food, shelter, education, and love.  I can only imagine how difficult it may be, for both the parents and the children, when the caregiver struggles to provide one or all of these things.  I wish that I was able to speak to those children directly, to hear more of their stories and wish the best for them as they continue to grow. I was elated to see that organizations, such as The Children’s Defense Fund, exist and work towards building a brighter future for these kids through eradicating poverty altogether. Their website layout  was superb. They provided a full range of statistics about poverty, firsthand accounts of poverty experienced by children, as well as visual aids such as graphics and photographs.

 

One graph in particular stood out to me. I have provided the aforementioned graph below this text.  In this visual aid, it shows where, in comparison to other nations, the United States ranks in child poverty. I was appalled to see that we are ranked SECOND in all of the industrialized nations. Yes, second. Likewise, Global Disparity: A Food Diary, provides an excellent visual comparison depicting global food shortage. I have a background in Food Science, so I was not at all shocked to see how much junk food was consumed in the average American household. We have set up our society so that it is cheaper for a struggling family to buy a bottle of soda than a bottle of water, McDonald’s than salad fixings, and chips rather than fruit. Yet, I have never, ever heard this information given on the news. Food deserts exist in low income areas and though there have been groups dedicated to bringing healthier meals to these individuals, it is still a problem that is somewhat unique to America as displayed by this visual food diary.  I am glad that, as I grow to become more media literate,  all of these things have been brought to my attention.

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The information provided to us about violence and the media was not at all what I expected. What did you assume the text and video was going to say going into this subsection? I anticipated more information centered around how the media is feeding into our violent culture, influencing children, and causing a more violent society than ever before. For this is what they insinuate on the news. I was completely shocked to read in Chapter 5: From Screen to Crime Scene that “as media culture has expanded, we have seen dramatic declines in rates of crime and violence in the United States.” (Sternheimer, 2013, pg. 104.)  Furthermore, Bruce D. Bartholow, reiterates in the video Effects of Media Violence on Mind, Brain, and Behavior, the fact that violence has always existed as a form of entertainment, from the roman coliseum, to the first American film.  In this video Bartholow provides background information about the history of violence as well as presenting his research results from studies focused on predicting aggression. I thought the experiment they did measuring aggressive thoughts and feelings by assessing whether subjects chose violent words after playing video games was completely fascinating.  The results produced evidence that subjects were feeling more aggressive immediately after playing the video games, but after a certain period of time, that aggression faded away. Do you know anyone who plays video games on a regular basis? Do you find that they are more aggressive after playing them? 

Module 3: Final Thoughts

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As I begin my discussion of Module 3: Attention, I cannot refrain from touching on the recent atrocities that have captivated media attention on a global scale.  On June 9th, 22 year old singer and former The Voice contestant, Christina Grimmie was shot dead by a deranged fan while signing autographs and posing for pictures.  On June 12th in the same city of Orlando, Florida at Pulse nightclub, the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history occurred.   50 people were killed and 53 suffered severe injuries.  The gunman, Omar Mateen claimed allegiance to ISIS and appeared to have homophobic malice.  Footage of grief-stricken parents and bodies being carried out of the club flooded the airwaves.  These brutalities have ignited an outcry with our country collectively seeking answers.  The tragedy not only lies within these heinous acts themselves, but within the young lives that will never see another day.  To quote Bruce D. Barthalow, “Mass violence is arguably one of the most difficult phenomena to explain, let alone predict”  (YouTube, 2013).  Recent media coverage has now forced our attention on examining critical issues such as gun control, gay rights, politics, and the overall welfare of this country.  As we remember those who have fallen, we must ask ourselves, from where did this intolerance spring?  In times of national distress, does the media operate under an information driven economy or an attention economy?  And finally, does the representation mirror the reflection?

According to Michael Goldhaber, as we continue to evolve, we move toward an increasingly attention-based economy.  Although he argues “attention, unlike information, is inherently scarce” (Lankshear, 2001).   The reason, he explains is because “‘each of us has only so much of it to give and [attention] can only come from us-not machines, computers or anywhere else’” (Lankshear, 2001).  Goldhaber believes that since we all possess an innate need for attention, an attention driven economy is what we all ultimately crave.  Richard Lanham agrees that we have an abundance of information and “‘are drowning in it’”.   He provides a spectrum of the varying degrees of attention saying “no attention gives you ‘raw data’; some attention gives you ‘massaged data’; lots of attention gives you ‘useful information’; maximal attention gives you ‘wisdom’” (Lankshear, 2001).  I believe while the media aims to make the audience feel heard, attention can still be lost in the flood of information.  Attention must be paid in order to successfully thrive in this society, one that requires informed attitudes and change.

The controversial issue of media violence versus real violence appeals to the following core issues we have been studying: visibility, representation, and attention.  In Chapter 5 of our text, Sternheimer discusses the common belief that school shootings are a direct result of media depictions found in television, movies, and most graphically, in video games.   For a time, she too subscribed to this notion as it was heavily supported by the news media; until arriving at the realization that little evidence actually backed these claims.  In fact, studies have shown “violence has declined as media culture has expanded” (Sterheimer, 2015, p. 104).  While there is great concern over juvenile crime rates, it is interesting to note that “adults are far more likely to commit violent crimes” (Sternheimer, 2015, p. 104).  Statistics prove juvenile crime rates have actually declined.  Why then are we as a society frantic about the criminal culture among our youth?  The answer Sterheimer argues is quite simple- juvenile violence “constitute[s] a large portion of crime news” (Sterheimer, 2015, p. 107).  It is a media representation that fails to accurately reflect the societal reality.  I agree with Sternheimer’s constructivist view on the matter and believe that in order to understand juvenile violence, we must not make the media a scapegoat; but rather examine violence itself and the root causes.  One of the most apparent causes of youth violence is not their action movie intake but a factor far more pressing, poverty.

There are approximately 72 million people under the age of 18 in the U.S.  31.8 million live in low-income families and 15.8 million are born into poor families (Jiang, 2015, p.1).  Part of the reason those statistics are so staggering is because due to media representation, we are completely unaware of the poverty crisis plaguing the United States.  The media’s attention to the poor population is just that, poor.  To quote Simon Kuper, “I’ve read columns by prisoners and by people with terminal cancer but I’ve never seen one by someone living on benefits” (Kuper, 2013, p.1).  “American media has a history of ignoring the marginalized in our society” and the poor are no exception (Ridgeway, 2013, p. 1).  Shannon Ridgeway goes on to explain the 4 major issues with the media’s depiction of the poor: 1. The poor are invisible, 2. The poor are seen as statistics, 3. They are poor due to bad life decisions, 4. The poor are riding a temporary stretch of bad luck.  In “The Poor Will Be With Us: Just not on the TV news,” it takes a candid look on how the poor demographic have been represented by news media.  DeMause and Rendall explain that when issues of poverty are broached, they are “discussed solely by experts, with no poor people appearing on-screen at all” (DeMause, 2007, p. 4).  To echo my fellow group member, Adilene Sanchez, I, too found the video, The Child Poverty-In Their Own Words to be incredibly poignant as well.  I felt the raw testimonies of children affected by poverty reinforced the idea of “the medium as the message.”  I believe in this instance, seeing actual poverty-stricken children discussing the luxury of food, it was a successful message.  Unfortunately, we are not exposed to these accurate representations with regularity.  How does my understanding of representation help me to understand the value of attention?  It has become increasingly apparent that discerning reflection and representation requires the utmost attention and with that, a deeper understanding of media literacy.

 

 

Module 3 Reflections

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In reading through the article, “Do We Have Your Attention?” by Lankshear, C and Knobel, M (2001); it brought to my attention (no pun intended) how critically important attention is for learning environments. Structures that once kept students attentive to teachers such as tests, and texts are being challenged both directly, and indirectly. Due to popular culture media the importance of “paying attention” in school has been disregarded. During my experiences through school as a student I have always fought for my teacher’s attention, especially in my younger days from K-12. After reading this article and participating in “Making Ideology Visible” voice thread I can’t help but notice the change of children’s sense of entitlement. Nowadays it seems the tables have turned and it is the teacher who must earn or deserve the attention of his/her students. According to Lankshear and Knobel (2001), “Rather than focusing on how to gain and maintain attention, Lanham is concerned with how to facilitate or enable attention to data by developing new human attention structures for attending to the flood of information-as-data we face constantly” (para. 24). Given the choice between Goldhaber’s and Lanham’s conception of attention I would choose Lanham’s perception. I enjoy his conception of attention because he accounts for the engagement of post literacy, the person, and the structure of attention.

Hurricane Katrina, a tragedy amongst the many that have occurred in our country have had an impact on us greatly. However, we cannot begin to imagine how much of an impact it had on the poor who lived and suffered through such event. According to deMause and Rendall (2007), “ The rare cases when the poor were allowed to describe for themselves the causes of and cures for poverty were all from stories about the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, with NBC in particular (12/19/05, 1/12/06) presenting residents who charged that developers were putting off the reconstruction of their neighborhood in order to make a land grab, and that the city was denying the restoration of services to poor neighborhoods” (p. 6). This is a great example on how the media does not reflect the poor but represents it through their value of perception. Hurricane Katrina was making headlines through different forms of media. Whether it was through music like the rapper lil’Wayne or through sports when the New Orleans Saints were close to winning and did win in 2009; four years after the tragic. If it wasn’t for such tragic their voices would have never been heard. The fact that we choose to indulge in reality shows where the wives are complaining about their boob size, a catty comment someone said, who has more money, and the better husband is sickening. I think the poor is not seen or represented accurately because we do not want to accept reality that yes people do live terribly poor lives. Nobody likes to face hard cold facts, they like to live in an imaginary world and pretend or be ignorant that poverty does not exists. At least media has lead it to believe this way, by producing unrealistic shows for their power in money consumption. People can’t handle to see, listen a depressing realistic life of a poor student, child, parent etc. Why is that? Is it easier to be sad than happy? Or is it that we use these “realistic” shows as an escape from our own monotonous lives? According to Kuper (2013), “Most people profiled in the media – artists, athletes and many politicians – are millionares” (p. 3). “When we make an entire community invisible in media, what we’re implying is that they do not exist – not in any meaningful way at least”­ (Ridgway, 2013, The Poor As Invisible, para. 6). I can’t help but refer back to what was stated in the article by Lankshear and Knobel, (2001), “Why are we here, and how do we know that we are somehow worthwhile? If a person feels utterly ignored by those around her, she is unlikely to feel that her life has much meaning to them. Since all meaning is ultimately conferred by society, one must have the attention of others if there is to be any chance that one’s life is meaningful” (para. 7).

Learning about all the statistical numbers of the children who are suffering from poverty is heart breaking. Like Edelman stated, “expanding investments and existing policies we can improve economic standing by 97% at a cost of 77.2 billion dollars” (2015). Do you know how much America spends on military expenses? I’ll just say we rank number 1. She also states it is an internal failure and I could not agree more. If we compare poverty around the world, the United States is one of the top countries who has a great number of poverty existence.

Sternheimer is not shy to state all the ridiculous tabloid titles that lead misinterpretations about real life relfections vs representations being made by the media. In this chapter she focuses on reasons why certain people commit crimes. Sternheimer believes real life situations are over looked and that media violence is something worth looking at to better understand our cultural fascination with violence, but not as the primary cause of violence (Sternheimer, 2013). This is why she took the consideration to interview teenage boys, who either experienced violence by committing it or were victims. I believe media violence affects everyone differently. From my perspective where I have never experienced any type of crime I can perceive what the media is representing as violence scary, gruesome, and very much close to reality. However, someone who has experienced violence in more than one way can see that the media misrepresents what violence really is. Which I don’t know what is scarier at that point. We cannot just blame the poor, or media as factors to such actions. I mean wealthy white males commit crimes too. For example, a recent issue about a white male by the name of Brock Turner was sentenced to six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman. He was a former Stanford swimmer, from a wealthy family. What made that story just even more appalling was his father, who had the audacity to offer an impossibly offensive defense of his son! I mean like father like son. What type of parenting skills? I do not want to know his view on women. “When middle-classed white youths commit acts of violence, we seem to be at a loss for explanations beyond media violence” (Sternheimer, 2013, p. 109). Media violence is not the only cause to why adolescents commit violence. Violent media can be one factor of crimes, but there are other factors like living in poverty, gang associated, high crime rate communities and in this case bad parenting skills.

Module 3

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I have to say I think I had the hardest time thus far in the class connecting to the reading in this module. Not because the material is less important or less impactful, but it just seemed more difficult for me to relate to and therefore understand. I almost feel guilty for that, the readings about poverty had a common thread; that we don’t pay attention to what we don’t’ experience. Although at work, I assist people who are considered low income, some of whom are homeless, I have not personally experienced it. I also struggled with the reading from Sternheimer’s book and the Bruce Bartholow video. While I read and watched them (with some teary eyes) and know the knowledge is important, I cannot write about it this week. I have been sitting at my computer trying to find a way to do so, but the tragedy in Orlando has me not wanting to allow my brain to think about violence any more for a while.

Lankshear and Knobel did an excellent job of explaining the views of Goldhaber in regards to attention economy while expressing their own. In their paper “Do We Have Your Attention?” They clearly stated that “the goal of attention economy is to get enough attention or as much as possible”(Lankshear & Knobel, 2010, p. 4). There were six pieces of relevance to concerns of Lankshear and Knobel; first, in economically advanced societies, school and media are where young people spend a “huge proportion of waking hours.” Second, the three classes within attention economy are the stars, fans, and losers. No one cares about the losers. Third, knowing how to pay and receive attention allows for participation. Fourth, attention technology is a large market. Internet is the best example. Fifth, those who are attention wealthy express themselves fully. Sixth, endless originality is the basis of attention economy (Lankshear & Knobel, 2010, p. 3-5). This list concerns me because I immediately think of kids constantly trying to change themselves to remain relevant in media or wealthy in attention.

The articles about poverty shared many astonishing statistics, which I am choosing not to cover in this blog. They are very important numbers, but I find a few of the quotes more impactful in communicating the way poverty is depicted. In “The Poor Will Always Be With Us,” the authors state, “exceptions aside, the poor seldom even appear on the evening news. When they do, they are relegated mostly to platitudes about their hardships” (deMause & Rendall, 2007, p. 2). This in my opinion lends to the “pity worship” the media tends to show certain groups. I found the photo diary by Asinus Asinum Fricat so interesting. The concept of looking at how much families spend per week on food in different countries was enough. However, adding the different family sizes into the equation was what really made it!

Simon Kuper’s article “Poverty’s Poor Show in the Media” included one quote that stuck out to me. We are always talking about the left wing and right wing media biases, especially in election times like now. Kuper says, “we tend to interview people like us. There are right wing media and left wing media, but all are controlled by the well fed” (2013). Isn’t that what it really all comes down to? Money. Comfort controls a lot of what we do too. Many of us who have not experienced poverty are so far separated from that life that we are afraid to get close. That certainly is true for media too.

In her article titled “4 Problems with the Way Media Depicts Poor People, Shannon Ridgeway lists the problems with examples easy to connect to. The first, “the poor as invisible” defines escapism as “takes us away from the realities of our daily, monotonous lives, and enables us to live temporarily in a world wherein our own problems don’t exist.” In a world of Kardashians and housewives, I think it has been made way to easy for us to practice escapism. Our problems are still there when the show is over and may get worse if we continue to ignore. Second, “the poor as statistics” I noticed this point was made several times “when we hear about the poor on television or read about them in the news, typically they’re described in the form of hard facts and poverty rates, rather than human beings.” I often think about this at work when I’m helping someone and wonder what happened to get them to where they are. Third, “the poor as poor due to their own life choices” the media tends not to cover the outside factors leading to poverty. I’ve noticed media likes to cover the people taking advantage of the system, but not the story of those who legitimately need that system to survive. Lastly, “the poor as the temporarily down on their luck” this point discusses shows about coupon clipping and other money saving tips for a certain “class” of people. “Television tends to focus on the working-to-middle class recently poor and ignore the poor and homeless all together.” This was most drastically seen during the recession. (Ridgway, 2009, p. 1-3)

The most stand out moment in this module, in my opinion was watching Marian Wright Edelman’s 2015 Poverty Report for all of two minutes and thirty one seconds. When she said “out greatest threat to national security does not come from an external enemy, it comes from the internal failure to build a strong citizen area,” I got chills. It is so true. We are building the future for our children and our children’s children and that is something that deserves focus.

Module 3 Reflection

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I never thought of attention being scarce but comparing it to information I now realize that is the case. I also never considered the existence of an attention economy, which is something I had never heard or thought of before reading this article. The article brings out “The idea of an attention economy is premised on the fact that the human capacity to produce material things outstrips the net capacity to consume the things that are produced‐such are the irrational contingencies of distribution”. This is further explained by Goldhabers six points of relevance. First, in an economically advanced society youth are ether consumed by school or by media. He feels that this has started a Cultural Revolution making people feel that getting attention is a fine thing. Second, there are two classes: stars and fans. Stars get the attention, and fans give the attention. Third, being in an attention economy requires that you know how to pay and receive attention. You must also be able to discern between real and illusionary attention. Fourth, the attention economy is creating large new markets. These are markets for technology that allows you to get more attention. Fifth, the attention economy requires a new different type of privacy. You must be “out there” privacy earns a new meaning in this sort of context. Lastly, attention is “indexical to originality” meaning you can’t simply repeat what someone else did. This implies that there is endless originality or at least that is what people are trying to create. In the article we learn that Lanham has similar views as Goldhaber. Lanham “insists that we cannot continue to apply concepts, laws, practices and the like that were developed to deal with the economic world of goods to the emerging economic world of information. Entertaining and exploring the notion of an emerging economy of attention looks like a step in the right direction”. Others in the article agree and expand on what Goldhaber and Lanham have describes as the attention economy. Along with this new attention economy comes other concepts such as contact displaying, meme-ing, scenariating, attention transacting, culture jamming, transferring, framing, and encapsulating. I loved the last sentence of the article really summing up an important point, “If we continue to believe that formal education has something to do with helping prepare (young) people for the world they will enter, it will be worth exploring further conceptions and implications of the economics of attention, and relating them to our conceptions and practices of literacy education within formal settings”. From this article I gained a new perspective on attention and how it relates to both media and our lives.

One thing that I learned for this reading is even though here in America there is a huge problem with poverty and inequality there is little media coverage on the issue. There is however a slight increase of coverage when a catastrophic event happens such as hurricane Katrina. I found it baffling to see that in a case study that ”In a handful of stories—primarily on CBS— poverty issues were discussed solely by experts, with no poor people appearing on-screen at all.” How can such a large issue be ignored? How can the people not be heard? It was also interesting that when these poor people were asked to speak they were told to tell a “generic story of suffering” right before they would transition to a specialist or rep to ask for their viewpoint or what policy was getting put in place. I found it disappointing to find out that “One thing that is clear from coverage is that if you’re poor and want to get on the nightly news, it helps to be either elderly or in the armed forces.” I find this completely bias. It’s sad to see that in this day and age that to have network news coverage of the nationwide problem of poverty be scarce unless you are elderly, military or a major disaster has happened. News coverage tend to increase on this matter around holidays which I find hurtful. It would be like telling your mother you love her, but only on Mothers Day.

While looking at the pictures from this article I couldn’t help but feel slightly ashamed. I just got home from having dinner with my family out at a restaurant where we all had a great meal, that was not exactly cheap. I feel that living in America and the financial status that I live, I don’t think twice to stop and go get a Starbucks or go out to dinner. When I saw the picture of the “ Aboubakar family of Breidjing Camp” I couldn’t help but feel sad. You see that they have little food for their family. Looks like mostly grains and possibly beans. I can’t imagine living on that diet. But when you look at the picture closely you see the boy on the far right still smiling. It’s probably all he has know, and he seems content with it. As much sadness that I felt, I also felt a great sense of appreciation for living in this country and having the food and resources that I have.

In reading the article about children and poverty is so saddening that they have no control and have to live in these sometimes difficult circumstances. I grew up with a single mother and we did not receive any child support from my father. I remember as a young child always being concerned about money myself. I knew that every time we went to the store it was for necessities, it is hard being a child and wanting certain things but ether being scared to ask for something or guilty for actually getting it. It was interesting to see how things such as race, ethnicity, employment, education, family structure, and region effected the percentage of children considered to be low income and poor. I was also surprised that it has slightly increased in recent years. It seems like people are really trying to make changes and help others but this has actually become more of an issue. It is also sad that there is a higher percentage for those that are younger, it is completely out of the control of a three year old. Although seeing these statistics made me feel sad and empathetic towards the people in these situations, it is important for us to learn about.

“For the most part, the poor in America’s media are invisible. And why? Because no one wants to see that or hear about it.” I have to agree in this day and age people in general on a daily bases likes to see our society in a brighter light. The media in general knows that people like to a have a warm and fuzzy feeling. When the article discussed that families can be trapped in a poverty cycle and mental illness can be a factor that contributes to poverty hit a heart string for me. My aunt’s father went through a rough time and suffered from mental illness which contributed to his homelessness. Outside factors of poverty are not always discussed. It angers me to think that people think that people feel that homeless or people living in poverty should just “pulled themselves up by their bootstraps, they could find a decent job, get an education, and escape poverty once and for all – as if it’s that easy.” Society needs to become more aware of what really is going on behind the scenes and the issues that go along with all of it. The media in general need to paint a clearer picture for people to understand.

Watching the videos was hard, it really pulls your emotions out putting yourself in the shoes of these other children. I thought the song that the first boy was singing throughout the video was especially powerful and beautiful. Hearing the one girl talk about her mother working four jobs and never being home sort of reminded me of my mom. Although she didn’t work four jobs the job she had did demand extremely long hours and then with all the chores of the house she was always tired in the extra time she had for me. It is hard hearing the difficult situations these people have to go through, I can’t imagine going from a size five to size zero because of not having enough food to eat. In the second video I really liked how she said that child in poverty is one of the biggest problems from the future. It really is, these children are our future generations and they need to be healthy and nourished. I also loved when she said that our biggest threat is not an external enemy but an internal failure. It is such a different real perspective making us realize that as a nation we do have failures and we need accept them and make changes to correct them.

I like how this article supported the video children’s defense. I found it interesting that since “ Poor parents have fewer financial resources and often experience more stress, and as a result their young children are less likely to be read to, spend less time talking to adults, and hear many fewer words each week than children from more affluent families.” I can see how this can lead to a family poverty cycle that just never ends. Family and financial stress can mostly definitely affective cognitive development in a child. It not only can affect there minds but research has shown that “ Children in poor families are five times as likely to be in fair or poor health as children in non-poor families.” I was happy to read that “child poverty in the United States could be substantially reduced.” I believe we can do this with wage increases for those who can work. This would help the children who have provide supplemental income for their own families to be able to redirect their energy on education instead of supplementing their parents income. This would prevent robbing children of their youth and allowing children to “reach their full potential”.

Sources:

Child Poverty: In their own Words. (n.d.). Retrieved June 13, 2016, from https://youtu.be/MLrTZ5IG_Eg

DeMause, N., & Rendall, S. (n.d.). The Poor Will Always Be With Us Just not on the TV news [Editorial].

Ending Child Poverty Now. (n.d.). Retrieved June 14, 2016, from http://www.childrensdefense.org/library/PovertyReport/EndingChildPovertyNow.html

Fricat, A. (2008, May/June). Global Food Disparity: A Photo Diary. Retrieved June 13, 2016, from http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/05/26/522670/-Global-Food-Disparity-A-Photo-Diary

Jiang, Y., Ekono, M., & Skinner, C. (2015). Basic Facts about Low-Income Children: Children under 18 Years, 2013. New York: National Center for Children in Poverty, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University

Kuper, S. (2013, March/April). Poverty’s poor show in the media – FT.com. Retrieved June 13, 2016, from http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/6e8b7882-9672-11e2-9ab2-00144feabdc0.htm

Lankshear, C. and Knobel, M. (2001). Do we have your attention? New literacies, digital technologies and the education of adolescents. In D. Alvermann (Ed.), New Literacies and Digital Technologies: A Focus on Adolescent Learners. New York: Peter Lang (forthcoming

Marian Wright Edelman: 2015 Poverty Report. (n.d.). Retrieved June 14, 2016, from https://youtu.be/EL_hnQAzzww

Ridgway, S. (2013). 4 Problems with the Way the Media Depicts Poor People. Retrieved June 14, 2016, from http://everydayfeminism.com/2013/09/poor-people-in-the-media/

Module 3 Reflections

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Module 3 has deepened my understanding of how media is a representation of society, how senders and receivers of information use attention, and how attention, power, and visibility are all connected. Media is a representation, not a reflection, of society because, it sets agendas and chooses content to focus on. Agenda setting theory proposes that because media chooses what stories to share, and repeatedly share, that it sets societies agenda on what is viewed as important or newsworthy (Sternheimer, 2013). With this theory in mind, this weeks readings really hit home. Media is a representation of what is popular, gets good reviews, and keeps people’s attention. An example of how media is not a reflection of society is the lack of news coverage on America’s poverty issue. Huge television networks like ABC and NBC rarely ever do segments on the poor and if they do only show elderly or those in the armed forces (deMause and Randall, 2007). News stories on the poor categorize these people as “deserving poor” and do not focus on the structural issues in society that are causing this issue (deMause and Randall, 2007). Media across the board do not report factual or inciteful information on the poor and I ask my classmates why is that? Some reasons may be contributed by the fact that media owners want content that drive consumerism or portray their beliefs, values, and lifestyles (Kuper, 2013). I believe that stories on the poverty issue just do not sell to people seeking information. I wonder if, since society is socially constructed through life experiences, that we ourselves do not want to hear about these stories thus making them unpopular and unsuccessful in media. For stories on poverty to be successful then diverse and accurate stories are needed (Ridgway, 2013). The readings in this module made me realize how blind I am to the poverty issue as well. I argue that stories on poverty should shed light on structural issues that contribute to poverty, the real numbers of children and adults in poverty, and ways to reform these issues. Not only are stories of poverty are far and inbetween but the national poverty line is half of what a family in poverty actually needs to make just to get by (Jiang, Ekono, and Skinner, 2015). This shows that media is a representation and not a reflection because media creates mediated realities that do not capture the full picture of society.

 

In a world where access to information is literally at our fingertips, attention is becoming a finite resource. Attention, unlike information and data, is a scarce resource that media is fighting for (Lankshear and Knobel, 2001). I applied this critically in two ways first, being that as receivers of information we can only pay so much attention in a day. Youth pay most of their attention to school and leisurely activities like television (Lankshear and Knobel, 2001). In this aspect producers of media are fighting for consumers attention and the economy is switching from goods to information, intended to capture attention (Lankshear and Knobel, 2001). With so many products and media sources I see this as being true because when we pay attention to those sources they make money in various ways. Secondly, I now view attention similarly to the way I view visibility. I think that what media makers choose to pay attention to relates to agenda setting and power. An example of this is how media content focus on some stories while ignoring others. How do some terrorist ISIS attacks like those in Belgium get national news coverage but some in Turkey or Pakistan do not? Media content places values on stories and therefore consumers get mediated realities. In what other circumstances have media heavily focused on certain stories to maybe cast our attention? This idea closely connects with the readings on poverty and how media does not reflect society. With 31.8 million people living in low-income families and 15.8 million living in very poor families (Jiang et.al, 2015), how does this issue still get ignored on major news sources?

Media also tends to pay attention to details that may not have causality in topics like poverty and violence. In poverty segments media focus on people as statistics, as making poor life choices, or as people who are just unlucky for the moment (Ridgway, 2013). None of these segments focus on the real threats to society that are causing such mass numbers of poverty. As stated by Marian Wright, the largest threats to American society are not external but internal structural issues that are plaguing society (Delman, 2015). Another example of how society and media frame issues and pay attention to the wrong details is when the connection between youth violence and violent media are made. Countless news reports and studies have created links between actual-real-life violence and media violence however these connections focus primarily on individuals behaviors and experiences rather than questioning social forces (Sternheimer, 2013). Studies and research are easily manipulated and bias meaning many studies can create desired results and with little question from consumers. The amount of research and news stories done on this topic has made people believe that it is common sense that violent media is connected to violence in the youth while ignoring all the raw data out there about actual crime numbers and average ages that violent crimes are conducted (Sternheimer, 2013). The research even contradicts itself stating that those with more access to violent media are more likely to be violent however the data shows that those in poverty are more likely to commit violent crimes (Sternheimer, 2013). I think an important question is why is so much research being done to create a link between violence and media and not more research done on what forces in society are making those in poverty have higher crime rates? And how do we shed light, or visibility, on those issues and fix them?
Module 3 has allowed me to make many connections between attention, visibility, and power in media. It makes me ask a lot of questions about the intentions media makers have, their influence on societal values, and how we can change the our realities are mediated. In one of the voice threads Dr. Kaia asked us if and when children should be taught to denaturalize normality. This reminded me of a previous question in a module stating that teaching media literacy at young ages may cause cynicism and skepticism. It has become more apparent that media education at young ages is necessary in not only deneutralizing normality, but changing media standards. I am curious to know what my group members think about this idea and hope to have some more in depth conversations about attention, visibility, and power and how it relates to media standards.

Module 3: Readings

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          The media seems to be blamed for quite an amount of societal issues. While, many writers blame the media for neglecting poverty and its existence. Sternheimer connects social problems and popular culture, and believes the media is to blame. Chapter 5, in the textbook compares media violence to real violence. Sternheimer believes there is a relationship to what kids are viewing on TV and the crime that’s being committed, and how these issues connect to poverty in our society.        Chapter  5 in the text examines how violence in the media is a distraction from the more complex  structural causes of violence. (Sternheimer, K. Pg,103) It seems that the media is a contributing factor to violence and harmful causes, more than it is protecting  and contributing to society being proactive. A theme in the majority of these readings focused on poverty being invisible and an issue that no one wants to contribute help towards. If media is a main source of information and a trend setter, why is it that they are adding to the problem when  they should be preaching to society to take action and help?

     Sternheimer links violence with a variety of societal issues, one being poverty. She reviewed several dozens of studies with a correlation to crime and poverty, and examined that a high percentage of crime was committed in those areas that were considered to be very poor. Poverty is a bigger issue that many could imagine, to Sternheimer’s point it’s contributing to the high rates of crime and violence. It is also affecting innocent lives, especially children. Children did not ask to be brought into this world and endure the pain and suffering that poverty can bring, yet they have no choice.

The video, Child Poverty: In their own Words, touched me deeply. It made me realize that at times we can take too much for granted. The things that are necessities to us may be a desire or luxury to another. Watching this video made me sad to think that children could be struggling that much. One girl who spoke said she lost so much weight, she went down 5 pant sizes because she would only eat at school. It makes me feel guilty throwing away my food when I haven’t finished it all, because someone else out there is beginning for that food.

This study, The Poor Will Always be with Us, discusses the absence of poverty in the news and other social media forms. Neil DeMause and Steve Rendell  state that poverty exist more than mentioned or recognized and that we fail to see the high percentage of people that suffer from poverty. (DeMause, N. & Rendell, S. 2007) In module 2 we agreed that the media and TV  stereotype and categorize cultures. In a Module 2 assignment,  we flipped through the TV channels and tallied different races, age groups, and disabilities or characters with no disabilities. It was evident that the majority of classmates responded with mid to late Caucasian males being the dominant and most recurring characters. We also noticed in this activity that rarely do they display characters with disabilities on movies and TV shows. In module two readings we read an article that focused on the lack of the LGBTQ community being represented. In this reading, deMause and Rendall stated that in 2006, a survey was conducted by Syracuse University and only 43% of the public commented that inequality and poverty are “somewhat of a problem.” (DeMause, N. & Rendell, S. Pg,1)  Again proving that people do not realize the serious issue of poverty and equality. They also commented that poor people don’t get any attention from the news or media. Do you agree that poverty is neglected by society? If so, is this issue because of the media?

“The last one blamed the “changing economy” for increased economic polarization, with no indication of what changes were made or who made them.” (DeMause, N. & Rendell, S. Pg,5) This quotes describes one of the issues we have been discussing this semester. That is, that the media fails to disclose all the information regarding a topic. We are informed of certain details, only bits and pieces of the story are provided.

Shannon Ridgeway believed that there were four problems with the way media depicted poor people. She believed that society dehumanized poor people and instead viewed them as statistics. She felt they were not noticed in society. She also stated that the third issue was that society would blame poor people and say it was their own poor life choices that caused them to be this way. Lastly, she stated that society viewed poverty as “luck”, that this time around they just had bad luck. In previous Module 3 readings, there is a recurrence of the idea that media neglects the poor people. Ridgeway writes about the issues with poor people being invisible and believed they should receive more attention. I thought it was very interesting that a lot of the comments and feelings Shannon Ridgeway expresses, I too expressed similar thoughts and concerns in the previous module we wrote. Shannon believed that the reason why poor people are not being given enough attention in the media is because people do not want to hear about it. In the previous module, I raised the question regarding the LGBTQ community and why they weren’t given enough attention in movies and TV shows. I then answered my own question to say that, this is because the majority of consumers do not want that. In my opinion, the majority of consumers would rather watch the “all american family” type movies instead of giving attention to why poor people are struggling and what we can do to contribute to this issue.

In a press briefing titled, Poverty in America, Marian Wright  stated that poverty is bigger than we think and solutions to end poverty already exist. It is up to us to act on this issue and solve the problem. Children are born into poverty, they did not ask for this and it isn’t fair that they would have to endure this issue. She also stated that reducing the percentage of poverty would actually benefit us in the long run on decreased taxes. (YouTube) If viewers knew they could potentially be saving themselves money on taxes, do you think we would receive a little more attention from them?

While most of Module 3 readings focused on poverty among humans, the article titled, The Attention Economy, focuses on a different type of poverty. This paper focuses on a new kind of economy that is emerging in our present day. An attention economy can be viewed as an economy where attention and information differ. Attention is provided by humans, whereas, information comes from online, computers, digital, and internet. “The idea of an attention economy is premised on the fact that the human capacity to  produce material things outstrips the net capacity to consume the things that are  produced.” (Goldhaber, 1997: n.p.) Attention can be viewed as a resource, because humans can only provide so much attention. Therefore, we could suggest that there is a scarce amount in this world.

It was asked “What significance do new literacy have for effective participation in an attention economy?” Based on this reading, I would have to say that new literacy provide new information, therefore, in an attention economy it is effective in that it expands our knowledge. When a human is provided with new information it expands our thinking and teaches us something new. This is effective so that way we won’t be dwelling on the same piece of information and technology. If that was the case, and we didn’t receive new literacy, how could we ever become innovative humans? “What information consumes is rather obvious. It consumes the attention of its recipients.” (Simon 1971: 40‐41) The more information we receive, the more we can expand our attention.

 

Module 3 Reflections

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After reading the pdf written by Lanshear and Knobel, Michael Goldhaber on the ‘Attention Economy‘. I would like to agree that our economy is focusing more on the attention aspect rather than the information. When I think of this idea, I think about all the companies and all their advertisements. The authors mentioned how information gets moved around the internet but so does attention. “Goldhaber identifies cyberspace as the being where the attention economy will come into its own”. I think of companies because when I go on the internet and go to google to search something up there is always some type of advertisement on whatever page I may be on. I may have read this article wrong and if so someone can explain it to me better! It was interesting to see how Goldhaber relates media like television and education as taking on the same role of gaining attention. ” Everyone who is seen on television models one common role, as do all teachers in schools, and that role is to be the object of a good deal of attention. Thus, without planning or intention, there has been a kind of revoultion, tellings us that getting attention is a fine thing. And for many of us, having the attention of other turns out to feel very good, soemthing we often want more of” (Goldhaber, 1998, p.3). A great example that was also mentioned was how we have celebrities known as “stars” and then we have the fans who pay attention to the celebrities. Since paying attention takes effort, the fans who give the attention to the stars are supplying most of the attention for the economy.

Looking at the the two videos in this module I think they both had different qualities, but both try to raise awareness on the topic of child property that it out there in our world. The video called Child Poverty: In their own Words  grabbed my attention from the start because the child starts singing about his experience and then as we go into the video we listen to him and other children talking about their life experiences with poverty. I think when the information comes from someone who has actually lived through something like poverty it grabs peoples attention and you can connect with them on an emotional level. They all mentioned the necessities needed in life that they lacked like food, water, shelter, and something to call their own. In the other video Marian Wright Edelman: 2015 Poverty Report gave more the facts about 2015 child poverty that is an ongoing problem. This grabs your attention in a different way bay giving you the facst and what we need to do as a country to make a change. The report given by Marian Wright will give solutions on how to adjust different policies, which could lead to a shrink of child poverty by 60%. Mariam Wright stated in her speech that, “ Our greatest threat to national security doe snot come from an external enemy, it comes from the internal failure to build a strong citizenry” (Wright, 2015, video). No one is causing us to have these problems but ourselves the more people that are aware this is a problem, will maybe be the same people who can make a difference to help children in poverty. Looking at the reading,  The Poor Will Always Be With Us: Just not on the TV news it gave some good data about groups of people who are being affect by poverty in our country. “According to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau data, 37 million Americans—one in eight—lived below the federal poverty line in 2005” (Neil, Rendall, 2007, p.1). I decided to go find more recent data but I only found data for 2014. According to the U.S census Bureau, “ In 2014, the official poverty rate was 14.8 percent. There were 46.7 million people in poverty. Neither the poverty rate nor the number of people in poverty were statistically different from the 2013 estimates”. The numbers have definitely jumped to a higher number since 2005 and I’m interested to know what it is now. I am guessing it is worse because I still do not think our main focus is to decrease child poverty but we are focused on other topics. Looking at media we never really hear anything about it too. Also looking at the other fact sheet, Basic Facts about Low-Income Children was also shocking, because a big chunk of the victims of poverty are children under the age of 18. There was even a graph that showed the line between near poor and poor and it is a lot! Different aspects play a role like, health insurance, home ownership, family structure, parents employment, parents education, and it’s interesting how the difference in poverty does vary depending on race. This relates back to parents employment and education. White was the least but still a big number, while black and hispanic were both around the same numbers along with American Indian. I think it is staying a problem and growing even more in numbers because our media does not bring awareness to what is going on in our backyard. This brings me to the article called, 4 Problems with the Way the Media Depicts Poor People by Shannon Ridgway.

Four of the problems she stated talked about invisibility, statistics, life choices, and luck. Since we are learning about media literacy I though the invisibility was the most important problem. “ We’d much rather watch a show about the rich, superficial housewives squabbling over trivial issues, or New Yorkers living in huge apartments that they somehow magically can afford, despite have jobs that pay moderate wage, or no jobs at all” (Ridgway, 2013). Like the author I’m the same way I like to watch these type of shows because as much as they are not educational, the drama grabs my attention. If we want to make a change we do need to try to have media raise awareness on things that are important so that more people can be informed on the problems we have like poverty. She also made a good point about not just showing statistics because then we just group poor people as statistics rather than human beings which I did not think about before this article. Media can play a big role with this because they can help give a stronger voice to the people. “Without the social context to understand why the poor live the way they do, we assume that they live that way because they choose to” (Ridgway, 2013). Like the video we watched with the children speaking about their experiences it gave a stronger connection and context behind the words of just children poverty. In the end all the readings and videos touched on the subject of poverty in America and we need to bring awareness to this problem with media, but as Ridgway mentioned we keep these things invisible because we do not want to hear about them.