References
Butt, D. (2006). Class analysis, culture and inequality in the information society. International Journal of
Media & Cultural Politics, 2. doi: 10.1386/macp.2.1.5/1
Danny Butt’s article attempts to reevaluate Marxist viewpoints in order to make them serviceable in today’s economy. He begins by acknowledging the flaws in Marxist theory: he notes that sweeping generalizations and sexism exist within the theory while ideas of colonization and the growing middle class do not. While Butt concedes that these facts are problematic, he does not deem it necessary to disregard Marxist or class theory entirely. Butt (2006) argues that class analysis still has value in that “relational class schemes are one of the few sociological tools that describe how socio-economic positions interact” (p. 10).
Clawson, R. A., & Trice, R. (2000). Poverty as we know it. Public Opinion Quarterly, 64(1), 53-64. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.hamline.edu:2052/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=3395519&site=ehost-live
This article evaluates US American media portrayals of poverty between January 1993 and December 1998. The study focuses on five news magazines: Business Week, Newsweek, New York Times Magazine, Time, and U.S. News & World Report. The findings of this study include that children and women are overrepresented in poverty-related stories and that poverty is very racially coded by the media. The news magazines in this study tended not to portray sympathetic images of poverty (e.g. the elderly poor.)
Cloud, D.L. (2002). Rhetoric and economics:Or, how rhetoricians can get a little class. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 88 (3) 342-62.
This article is a book review that considers writers after the fall of the “miracle economy” (342). Each of the books Cloud reviews aim to explore connections between public discourse and economics. The authors reviewed are generally concerned with the ways in which economic interests inform rhetorical action, and Cloud comments upon how nearly each author comes to understanding this topic.
Gans, H. J. (1995). The war against the poor: The underclass and antipoverty policy. New York: BasicBooks.
In this book, Gans argues that labeling has a negative connotation and that the labeling of the poor causes negative associations with poverty. He argues that terms such as vagrants and paupers have now morphed into terms of dangerous and undeserving. These labels are reinforced by the media frames that helped to create them.
Gould, C., Stern, D. C., & Adams, T. D. (1981). TV's DISTORTED VISION OF POVERTY. Communication Quarterly, 29(4), 309-314. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.hamline.edu:2052/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=18586110&site=ehost- live
This study evaluated one week of prime time television during 1980. Researchers found that often the poor were romanticized on television programs (e.g. the glamorization of rural working people.) Alternatively, affluent people and families were often depicted as being distraught due to financial worries and woes. Furthermore, solutions to complex societal problems surrounding poverty were oversimplified by these television programs. Altogether, these portrayals seemed to send the message that the impoverished should not strive toward wealth but rather learn to live happily with what they have.
Jeppesen, S. (2009). From the "war on poverty" to the "war on the poor": Knowledge, power, and subject positions in anti-poverty discourses. Canadian Journal of Communication, 34(3), 487- 508. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.hamline.edu:2052/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=44505742&site=ehost- live
This article reviews articles on the websites of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) and The Toronto Star. The author evaluates terms produced by both primary sources (e.g. the “deserving poor’) and evaluates the media sources’ positing of poverty issues as election issues.
Kensicki, L. J. (2004). No cure for what ails us: The media-constructed disconnect between societal problems and possible solutions. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 81(1), 53-73. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.hamline.edu:2052/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=13854504&site=ehost- live
This study tests several hypotheses regarding media coverage of the causes and effects poverty. The study’s news sources are the New York Times and the Albuquerque Journal from 1995-2000. Researchers found that the causes of poverty tended to be represented as neutral, rather than governmental or industrial. Furthermore, the effects of poverty tended to be represented in negative terms rather than in terms of national or local societal change/solutions. The article suggests that the neutral frames within which poverty is portrayed cause apathy among the readership.
Nash, K. (2008). Global citizenship as show business: the cultural politics of Make Poverty History. Culture Society March 2008 vol. 30 no. 2 167-181. doi: 10.1177/0163443707086859
This article evaluates a global political movement aimed to fight poverty. Nash evaluates the national messages that were meant to persuade citizens to feel a sense of global responsibility. The campaign did this without challenging capitalist ideals and by glorifying current Western political policies. This campaign was designed for mass media, and debuted during prime time BBC programming in 2005.
Sotirovic, M. (- 2001). - Media use and perceptions of welfare - Blackwell Publishing Ltd. doi:- 10.1111/j.1460-2466.2001.tb02905.x
This article evaluates how the media help shape the public perception of Welfare recipients. The authors of this study chose to consider eight major US newspapers during 1994. They found that representations of Welfare recipients were disproportionately portrayed by young, unwed mothers. The study found that those participants who watched television for entertainment were more likely to have misconceptions about the gender and race of a typical Welfare recipient. They also found that those participants who watched cable news were more likely to perceive Welfare recipients as young and to overestimate the US budget allotted for Welfare programs.
Wilson, C. C & Gutierrez, F. (1995). Race, multiculturalism and the media: From mass to class communication. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
The chapter in this book entitled “Race, Culture and Class Communication” presents the idea that media not only plays to but also reinforces a segmented society. Mass media reinforce perceived differences among socioeconomic class, race, age, and gender in order to reinforce its ability to market to these target audiences.
