Module 3 Readings!

This article really addresses the economic inequalities that our nation is facing today. However, instead of speaking about why or how the issue of poverty is still so prevalent in our society, or even the hardships that lower income people are facing. Instead the article talks about the lack of representation of “poor people” in media. Simon Kuper, author of the article, writes “One in seven Americans live below the official poverty line…yet we still look away.” This quote prompt the question why is it that we as a society are more interested in watching the upper “one percent” compared to the 2.5 billion other people who are struggling? I think that it is directly linked to their lack of representation in the media. The media chooses what they are going to show and report on. Similar to what we saw when “channel surfing” there is a clear indication who is most likely to be represented. When I did this experiment it was clear at the end that white males were shown more than any other minority group. Kuper writes, “2.5 billion people on less than $2 a day – are considered even more boring, due to the triple whammy of being non-white, non-Anglophone and poor.” This quote is drawing attention to the fact that poor individual don’t draw in viewers for various news networks and ultimately the viewer’s make the networks their money, so they will show what the viewers want to see. Kuper did a good job at placing the accountability back into the hands of the reporters, they often interview people like themselves, and although many journalist are considered liberals many of those who are their higher ups are not. This article really goes into how the media, more specifically, journalists are at fault for not reporting a lot of the issues that we are facing as a society. This furthers the idea that the ruling class are controls what we see and influence what we are interested in. I agree with the author when he said that they could represent the poor individuals as people who are fighting to “beat the odds” instead of only portraying them as victims, but instead we as a society have chosen to ignore them. This has to change because we are missing out on so much that is going on in our world today economically.

 

Similar to Kuper’s article author Shannon Ridgway wrote about the problems with the way that the media is representing the poor. Similar to the theme of the class last week Ridgway discusses representation. There is a lack of representation in regards to the poor and underprivileged in our society; this is an issue because with the underrepresentation of these people we are deciding to make them invisible. She writes how we use different forms of media to escape from our everyday realities. This is a very true statement for me, when I turn on the TV I’m looking to see something positive, nothing too strenuous, as I am looking to forget about the stresses of the day. Unfortunately, when we do this we are ignoring much of the population. This connects to Kuper’s article, when he discusses the fact that the stories about those living in poor conditions don’t bring in the audience, because people aren’t looking to see reality on TV. The lack of representation in the media also leads to a lack of empathy for most other people. Ridgway writes, “We need to see this and hear about it, so that we can keep our humanity intact and maintain our ability to have empathy and compassion for others.” Without seeing the issues that many people are facing we just don’t care, it’s an out of sight out of mind type of idea. Ridgway continues on to say that the media also uses numbers as a way to almost dehumanize people. Most times we hear about people living in poverty they are described as numbers. For example, over 40 million people are living at or below the poverty line. Now although this may be factual information it is making humans into statistics, this furthers the issue of the media using tactics to dehumanize them. If we continue to not represent them we are continuing the idea that their struggles don’t matter, therefore they don’t matter. One thing that really stood out to me in this article was the 3rd point she made. ; The idea that those who are poor are poor due to their own choices. She emphasizes that even when people who are poor or in poverty are shown their stories are told without any context to back it up. This perpetuates the idea that they are poor because of their own choices. A family could be struggling due to a sick family member, or have a history of mental illness. Although these issues are very real they are often ignored. This makes it easier for many to assume that they are poor because of their choices, this relates back to the issue of empathy, and many people not being empathetic in regards to others struggles. “…If they just pulled themselves up by their bootstraps, they could find a decent job, get an education, and escape poverty once and for all.” Many people believe that if those who are poor could just do these things they would be fine. This idea comes from the inequality that people are facing racially, economically and educationally. People who think this way often have the resources to do so. They have the privilege to go to school have things paid for or not have to worry about a job, and then assume everyone has equal access to these resources. This article was really impactful and went into detail about just how flawed the Medias representation of the poor and those living in poverty is, and the effects that it has on our society as a whole.

 

The third article that really spoke about the underrepresentation of the poor in media was written by Neil deMause and Steven Rendall. They start off by talking about how the media and what it shows can really impact public opinion. For example, after the natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina, 52% of poll respondents said that income inequality was a serious problem. However in the year before only 38% said it was a problem. This is due to the fact that so many news stories and outlets were covering the damage of Katrina, making it obvious to the viewers. This shows that the exposure or lack of exposure of an issue can really shift public opinion on the issue. The authors write, “Poverty and inequality receive astonishingly little coverage on nightly network newscasts.” They go on to discuss how on there almost double the amount of coverage for celebrity news than that were discussing poverty. This is due to the fact that people are more interested in seeing the upper 1%, as that is what they have been conditioned to like.  This article relates to Kuper’s article as well, as they discuss the fact that those we are non-white have even less representation than those who are white and poor. Kuper refers to this as a “triple whammy.” The article goes on to discuss the fact that even when poverty is being discussed the media turns to “experts” never really getting any point of view from those who are actually facing struggles. These first three articles really show the lack of representation and the consequences we face as a result. The consequences are anything from a lack of empathy and dehumanization, to the misinformation that is circulating. These articles addressed poverty and the role the media plays in covering these stories.

 

The next two articles were really directed at children and families and the struggles that the families are facing both in our society and worldwide. These articles really related to the video where the children were talking about poverty from their own points of view. Often, as I have previously talked about we have experts, or those who are not in poverty, discussing the struggles people are facing, instead of actually having those in the situation speak on the issues. Global Food Disparity: A Photo Diary and Basic Facts about Low-Income Children: Children under 18 years do a good job of providing perspective. The global food diary documents different families from around the world. Under the picture you see how much money the family is able to spend on food weekly and what they buy with that money. Some pictures were very shocking. It is clear that those with more money spend it on more junk food, instead of focusing on fruits and vegetables, or things need to sustain one. Those with more money, like the Italian family, had a surplus of breads. The American family had a large variety of junk food, whereas the families who had far less to spend on food had a lot more vegetable and less food all together. The American family had $341 to spend on food to support a 4 person family. Compared to the Bhutan family who only had $5 to spend on a family of 11. This article goes to show you just how much can change when you are so limited on funds, and the visuals made a real impact.

The article Basic Facts about Low-Income Children: Children under 18 years, written by Yang Jiang and contributors, again focuses on children. This article went into detail about the characteristics that contribute to a family being poor, or living in poverty. The article begins by stating that children account for 33% of all people who are in poverty. This is a huge chunk of the population, and before this section I was embarrassingly unaware of what an issue children and poverty is. The article breaks down regions, race, sex, family education/income, and several other factors that contribute to poverty. I didn’t like the fact that a lot of this article was numbers, this is due to the previous article we read that address the issue of using numbers to dehumanize people. I think that the numbers were impactful and showed just how much of an issue we are facing, but I felt that we were using numbers to not address the actual people who are suffering.