What the?

Ok.  So I have spent a lot of my time going through newspaper articles recently.  In an attempt to discover whether the same old frames are being used to portray the impoverished, I have come across lots of the same old stuff.  However, one new frame for understanding poverty I have found is, essentially, Poverty: A Weight-loss Solution.  Check it: http://ezproxy.hamline.edu:2221/hottopics/lnacademic/?  If you do not have time to check it, let me paraphrase.  A 29 year old Minneapolis woman decided to go on what she deemed a "poverty sympathy" diet.  The rules of her diet were that she was only allowed to consume as many calories as a person living in poverty in Africa.  She used her calorie tracker app on her iphone to keep her honest. 

HOW MESSED UP IS THIS?  I do not care if the woman managed to raise $500 to help build a well in Africa.  What this woman did is incredibly disrespectful and ultimately, unhealthy.  While this story still does fit into the same old romantic vision of the poor (poor people have it so good; they don't even have to try to be thin...) the blatant weight loss gimmick is both new and disturbing to me.  Come on, America; have we no shame?

Annotated Bibliography

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. 

Whose Reality, Exactly?

Bravo's Real Housewives series, which includes women living in DC, Atlanta, and Orange County, CA, is part of an interesting trend in reality television.  Reality television is not so much about anybody's actual reality as it is about providing an escape from the viewer's own.  And because increasingly the reality of many American consumers is a life of poverty, reality television has begun to provide a suitable alternative for the viewers. 

This particular series is dedicated to following the gala-filled lives of wealthy women (some of whom are actually stay at home wives and mothers.)  The producers use the familiar concept of the housewife to depict the unfamiliar concept of a highly expensive lifestyle.  The result is a program that asks viewers to momentarily forget their monetary troubles and join these women as they complete their daily tasks.  By choosing highly glamorous photoshoots and expensive shopping trips as these daily tasks, the producers create an escape from middle class drudgery for the typical American television viewer. 

This escapist reality programming is intruiging in that it explicitly provides an escape from financial woes by portraying incredibly wealthy families.  While I cannot currently determine whether this type of escape leads to consumer apaty, it is an interesting question to me.  Do these programs lull the masses, causing them to forget their own hard times by providing them with images of  well-to-do women?

Admittedly Boring 72 Hour Essay

Because I am both a full time student and a full time worker, television is not a huge part of my day.  I did not have to replace my television viewing with any other activities because I have already replaced my downtime with frantic studying time.  Although, as I moved to the television-free side of the break room (as per usual) to finish two physics problems, I did so knowing that I had to not only to finish my physics before I left work at 12:30 am, but also to fulfill my Mass Communication assignment.  Which was different.  I also found myself using a different elliptical at the gym Friday afternoon so as not to be tempted by the multiple TVs in the area.  Overall, for me avoidance was easy to the point of pre-existing habitual behavior.

Avoiding television did not affect my social life because I do not have one (again, simultaneous full time student/worker).  What down time I do have is always dedicated to homework.  However, I do think that if my fiancée and I lived in the same time zone, this may have been an issue.  He and I do tend to bond over movie nights and Dexter marathons, so I wonder how this experiment would have affected me outside of the school year.  However, because it is the school year, I have no social life.

One fun fact that I did learn from this is that the television in the Target break room is always on.  This is because there are always people working at Target.  While many sleep, overnight workers stock shelves and hard-core cleaning crews work their magic for insultingly low wages.  And the television is always on. 

Class War?

This morning as I was just finishing a lengthy physics assignment, I decided to take a break and see what was happening on the world of Facebook.  As I browsed through the late night posts of my friends, one in particular caught my eye.  The post was a response to the demonstrations in France, calling them stupid and violent. 

While I had to comment (these demonstrations have been largely peaceful!) I couldn't help but wonder, why this seemed so stupid to my US American friends.  Which got me thinking about the apathy of our nation.  Why is it that American workers don't organize when we've got something to say?...which then got me thinking about organized American workers.  What would that look like?  Oh yeah.  A union.

While the economy is in the news day in and day out, little is being framed from a worker's perspective.  Instead, we hear about big business bailouts and corporate takeovers.  What could this mean?  According to Normon Solomon, it means the US is in a class war.  Here's a link to his article on Alternet:

http://www.alternet.org/media/68903?page=1

The article, in my opinion, accurately describes how media sources frame economic issues in the US.  In short, the picture painted by the media do not often include unions or other worker's issues in their economic coverage because they oppose big business.  This, Solomon argues, is a sure sign that US Americans are fighting a class war, and big businesses have the media on their side. 

Another interesting point the author brings up is the cyclical nature of union representation in media.  As unions fail, they at the same time receive less media attention.  This lack of attention then leads US American workers to believe that unions are obsolete. 

While the article is short and a bit vague, it does point out some serious class issues in US American media.  It is interesting to consider that anti-union propaganda does not have to be as blatant as those union-bashing short films corporations show their workers in training.  In fact, anti-union sentiments seep into all US American media through the lack of representations of worker's issues. 

Middle Class Income vs Middle Class Wealth

CNN will be airing a special hosted by Soledad O'Brien on the 20th called "Almighty Debt."  One of the excerpts featured on their website is an interview with Julianne Malveaux.  Here's the link.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/09/23/inam.trailer.almighty.debt.cnn

Basically, the topic of discussion is the difference between middle class income and middle class wealth in US America today.  Malveaux explains that some families come from a wealthy background; they have a cushion for hard economic times such as these.  Other families, many African American families, have no such luxury.  Many people are earning middle class wages currently, but if they lose their jobs they are in trouble. 

This clip was interesting to me in a couple of ways.  The first is that it is a mainstream acknowledgement of the intersections of racism and classism in US America.  This interview highlighted one of the ways in which institutionalized racism exists in our nation.

This interview also seeks to dispel the myth of the American dream.  For some, there truly is no way to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps.  Even when we begin to make middle class wages we are not truly up.  I feel that acknowledging this is a big step. 

Dignity in Poverty

In browsing ABCs news webpage for possible topics, I came upon an article titled "Defining America's New Face of Poverty,"  written by Lyneka Little.  http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Savings/face-poverty-food-banks/story?id=11682134&page=1  The article acknowledges the steep growth of US American citizens living below the poverty line.  They highlight this shift by dramatizing the "fall of the middle class."  Little describes ways in which food pantries have had to respond to the shift; not only are these pantries facing difficulties in providing enough food, they are also working to provide a new sense of dignity to the food pantry experience.  Little describes one food pantry that will soon move to a larger space so that clients can have a more dignified shopping experience (i.e. there will not be a volunteer handing out food.)

To me, this is interesting in that it is only after once solidly middle class citizens began using these services that we begin to think about ways by which to make a visit to the food pantry  more dignified.  Another question I have is why is it that visiting a food pantry is undignified to begin with?  Finally, I find it odd that American poverty has a "new face;" why is it so important for us to make the distinction between those who have always been poor and those who have simply fallen upon hard times?