Module 3
After the reading and videos, I came to the conclusion that we, as a society, turn our eyes to the poverty stricken, the low income, and poor families in our country as a whole. We tend to believe as if it’s not there and when we see it, we tend to whip it from our memory banks and we tend to focus our attention to those who seek it and who put themselves out there. While reading Attention Economy by Lankshear and Knobel, I learned that there are two classes in what they call the attention economy. There are those who are known as the stars or celebrities who have large chunks of attention towards them and the other class being fans which is us, who hand over our attention to the stars. I also learned that “attention involves an exchange.”(Lankshear and Knobel 2001). Reading about the Attention Economy, made me really think about attention. I never really thought that in order to get attention you have to be doing something in exchange for it. I interpreted this as like a comedy show. For instance, at a comedy show, we, the audience, expect an enjoyable time with many laughs, but if the comedian, who desires our attention, isn’t funny or has terrible jokes, our attention will soon be redirected to something else like our phones or each other. Goldhaber stated that it is difficult to get new attention ‘by repeating exactly what you or someone else has done before.’ That is why comedians have to come up with new set lists for each show or tour. I know I would not enjoy having to be the same comedian twice who served us the same jokes as before. It said to be the that attention economy is always changing and is based on our originality or attempt to it.
While watching the assigned video of Child Poverty and reading Basic Facts about Low-Income Children, I learned that many children are below the line. Meaning that they are either a low income family or a poor family. Most of the time, those who are under the line try to rise above it and those who are above the line try to not go below it. In the video, I saw the hurt in the Asiae Roberts eyes when he sang, “It’s been too hard living, but I’m afraid to die because I don’t know what’s up there beyond the sky.” It is heart breaking to hear a young man sing a song that he shouldn’t have to sing or even know that feeling of hurt. This video helped me go more into depth about how children cope or react to their unchosen lifestyle. They didn’t choose to be in a poverty stricken area or in a family who is below the line. It showed me that some children are forced to go days without eating and have to wait to eat at school the next day. It hurt me to see a young lady loose five dress sizes because she couldn’t afford to eat. For a sixteen year old kid to understand that he can’t eat or call anything his home is eye opening. One even said her life was chaotic and she couldn’t feel secure about anything. I learned that the necessity of food was all these children concerns and that’s a problem. I learned that 44 percent of all children live in low-income families and approximately 22 percent live in poor families. The parents education and employment, race/ethnicity, and other factors are connected with children encountering economic uncertainty. It was reinforced to me that when parents level of education is higher then the likelihood of a child living in a low-income or poor family is decreased.
While listening to the Press Briefing that Marian Wright Edelman provided, I learned that Dr. King knew what it took to end poverty and how America was going down the drain. We need to use our extensive resources so that all children will have the fundamental essentials of life. I also came to the agreement that it is a shame that so many of our children in the U.S., which has the largest economy, live in poverty. I also found it moving that if we as a country expand investments and programs that work, we can lower all child poverty by 60%. Lowering the poverty line for children and their families, allows them to feel secure and able to make their dreams come true. Children are our future and when they feel insecure or as if they can’t call something their own, we, as the world, are in trouble for a dull upcoming.
Continuing my reading with Simon Kuper and Sternheimer and connecting them to the word attention, I realized that when it comes to poverty it doesn’t make the media. Since poverty isn’t on the media, it doesn’t grab our attention. I agree that media tends to leave out the poor even though poverty is the most critical problem in growing countries. It has come to my knowledge that ‘One in seven Americans now lives below the official poverty line, ever more jobless people kill themselves…’ (Kruper 2013). People are killing themselves because they are poor. They feel as if there is no other way to become better in the world or provide or them and their families. This type of news never make media. The kind of new that airs are when the poor cause disturbance or start to riot, but when it came to an actor who didn’t want to pay taxes due to the increase, he got the media’s attention.
Many say that juveniles that are poverty stricken tend to drop out of school, join gangs, and/or end up in jail due to a violent or drug related crime. While reading Chapter 5, I learned that adults are more likely to do a violent crime than juveniles are and there is no youth crime wave at the moment. This chapter confirmed that although violence is linked to a variety of issues, poverty is the most important one.
While partaking in all the assigned readings, I feel like they all were connected. The poverty of our country is viewed as invisible to us. We look the other way whenever we see someone on the street begging or we change the channel when we see a sad story of a poor neighborhood. Poverty has never had the media attention and therefore has never had our attention. I also learned that not every person is the same. I grew up in a home who always went out to the “poor areas” and helped out. My parents taught me to love everyone regardless of there social economic status, race, sexual orientation, etc. Although media refuses to promote these stories, I believe the the light will be shown soon enough.
The link that is listed below is a short video of those who live above or below the line. It also explains their troubles and what the line is.
- Lankshear, C., and M. Knobel. “Attention Economy.” Everyday Literacies. N.p., 26 Jan. 2001. Web. 17 Apr. 2010.
- Childrensdefense. “Child Poverty: In Their Own Words.” YouTube. YouTube, 20 July 2015. Web. 12 June 2016. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLrTZ5IG_Eg>.
- DeMause, Neil, and Steve Rendall. “The Poor Will Always Be With Us.” Fair Study. Fair Study, 7 Sept. 2007. Web. 12 June 2016.
- Jiang, Yang, Mercedes Ekono, and Curtis Skinner. “Basic Facts About Low-Income Children.” New York: National Center for Children in Poverty, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University., Jan. 2015. Web. 12 June 2016.
- Childrensdefense. “Marian Wright Edelman: 2015 Poverty Report.” YouTube. YouTube, 30 Jan. 2015. Web. 12 June 2016. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL_hnQAzzww>.
- Sternheimer (2013). What’s dumbing down America: Media zombies or educational disparities? In Connecting social problems and popular culture: Why media is not the answer (2nd ed.). Boulder, CO: Westview Press (pp. -101-133)
- Kuper, Simon. “Poverty’s Poor Show in the Media – FT.com.” Financial Times. The Financial Times LTD, 29 Mar. 2013. Web. 12 June 2016. <http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/6e8b7882-9672-11e2-9ab2-00144feabdc0.html>.
