Module 3: Readings
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.
