Module 3 Readings
Before these readings I had never thought about how valuable society’s attention can be to media or when discussed by Goldhaber, he would call it “the money industry economy.” Due to the overwhelming about of information that our society gets easily lost in, attention from society is crucial in regards to media. Specifically, throughout Lankshear and Knobel’s article, “Attention Economy,” I learned about the importance of attention and the need for media to gain attention from its audience. Furthering this idea, Goldhaber writes:
“The energies set free by the success […] the money-industrial economy go more and more in the direction of obtaining attention. And that leads to growing competition for what is increasingly scarce, which is of attention. It sets up an unending scramble, a scramble that also increases the demands on each of us to pay what scarce attention we can” (Goldhaber 199, n.p.).
This quotes from Goldhaber is arguing that societies attention is limited because of the overwhelming amount of information available. From this I find that I am able to be in agreeance with Goldhaber, due to the fact that my attention is easily grabbed from things in media regarding beauty and/or animals; which, might not grab others attention. Thus, media has to attempt others attention, such as it did mine, through different topics and by possibly targeting specific gender, age, culture or ethnicity. A quote that stood out to me, such as that of Goldhaber, was from Adler’s reading. Adler stated that, “advertising is a domain of human practice with a strong stake in the economics of attention: the ‘first challenge for every advertiser is to capture and hold the attention of the intended audience’” (Adler 1997, p. 5). Overall, this quote assisted me in having a better understanding of Adler’s article because I was able to relate it to what Lankshear and Knobel were arguing throughout their article as well. Without societies attention, media will not be able to succeed nor profit from their advertisement. I find that this is why media advertisements use the techniques that were presented my Hausman, because those who are not media-literate are unaware to look deeper into the advertisement and see how the advertisement is lying to them.
When reading Neil deMause and Steve Rendell’s article, “The Poor Will Always Be with Us,” I was surprised to find out that, “According to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau data, 37 million Americans – one in eight – lived below the federal poverty line in 2005, defined as an annual income of $19,971 for a family of four.” This shocked me because with payments, taxes, etc., it seems nearly impossible to survive off of an annual income of less than $20,000, especially for a family of four. Further they mention that the news does not cover or bring attention to poverty stricken towns nor people, unless a natural disaster occurs, such as their example of Hurricane Katrina. They then go on to states that the news channels, ABC, CBS, and NBC only mentioned the poverty stricken towns affected by Hurricane Katrina a very select amount of times. DeMause and Rendell stated that, “during the more than three years studied, there were just 58 stories about poverty on the three network newscasts, including just 191 quoted sources.” This shows that media does not want to bring attention to the ugly truth of poverty within America. They also share that when those who are poverty stricken are brought to attention in the news, they are portrayed through someone whom is not nearly close to being considered poor. Thus, benefiting and bringing attention to those who brought the poverty to attention, rather than those who are suffering from the poverty. From this I began to go through the diary, “Global Food Disparity Photo Diary.” In the beginning of this article they discussed that, “if you look closely at the types of food being purchased you can see the difference between ‘eating to live’ and ‘living to eat’”. I thought this to be a great quote because some families are struggling to get enough food to survive, where other families have more than enough food. This diary enabled me to see the difference of those “eating to live” and those “living to eat”. This was extremely impactful to me because it showed the ugly truth of poverty stricken families compared to those whom are not.
From the previous articles, I then went on to read Shannon Ridgeway’s, “4 Problems with the Way the Media Depicts Poor People.” When discussing problem number one, Ridgeway uses the word, “escapism”, which is very real and something most people experience in their everyday life. Secondly, she addressing the problem of “the poor as statistics”, which she states are facts and/or rates that do not show them as human beings, but merely as statistics. She discussed that this problem makes people that do live in poverty feel as though they do not matter. The third problem she addresses is, “The Poor as Poor Due to Their Own Life Choices”, which is a false assumption. Some become stuck in a cycle of poverty stricken generations, due to the possibility of mental illness, medical costs, etc. the final problem that she discusses is “The Poor as Temporarily ‘Down on Their Luck’”, by this she means that people believe there is a way out of poverty because, going back to problem three, people believe being poor is a choice or just bad luck. Overall, this article saddened me because it brought my attention to the ugly truth of ignorant ways people view those who are poverty stricken.
Lastly, I read Sternheimer’s chapter 5. Specifically, I focused on her discussion on poverty, as it related to the readings and videos. Specifically, she brought to attention, “For most of those interviewed, poverty and neighborhood violence were overwhelming influences in their lives, shaping their interactions and their understanding of their futures” (Sternheimer, p.127). I find this to be true because dependent on where and whom you are raised from and with, greatly impacts who you are as a person and the future whom you will become. Sternheimer further gives statistics on how children are asked or even forced to become a part of a gang and how many children have been exposed to a shooting. From this, she discusses the struggle that these kids face because of where they live due to their impoverished family. This brought me back to the video, “Child Poverty” because those children suffered due to their family’s impoverishment.
In conclusion, I am now aware of how media greatly impacts people suffering from poverty. As Ridgeway stated, “poor people are invisible”, which is sadly true because society does not like to hear about poverty, thus, it is not brought to attention within media. Those who are media literate are able to see this sad truth, but those whom are not overlook poverty, which leaves it unaddressed and causes those affected by it to continue to suffer.
