Comprehensive and interdisciplinary, this collection explores the complex, and often problematic, ways in which the news media shapes perceptions of poverty.
Editor Sandra L. Borden and a diverse collection of scholars and journalists question exactly how the news media can reinforce (or undermine) poverty and privilege. This book is divided into five parts that examine philosophical principles for reporting on poverty, the history and nature of poverty coverage, problematic representations of people experiencing poverty, poverty coverage as part of reporting on public policy and positive possibilities for poverty coverage. Each section provides an introduction to the topic, as well as a broad selection of essays illuminating key issues and a Q&A with a relevant journalist. Topics covered include news coverage of corporate philanthropy, structural bias in reporting, representations of the working poor, the moral demands of vulnerability and agency, community empowerment and citizen media. The book’s broad focus considers media and poverty at both the local and global levels with contributors from 16 countries.
This is an ideal reference for students and scholars of media, communication and journalism who are studying topics involving the media and social justice, as well as journalists, activists and policy makers working in these areas.
Foreword
Edward Wasserman
Introduction: The Problem of Poverty in the News Media
Sandra L. Borden
Part I Principles: Ethical Frameworks for Covering Poverty
1. Communitarian Ethics and Poverty Coverage
Clifford G. Christians
2. The Capability Approach and Media Coverage of Poverty
Gottfried Schweiger
3. Extreme Poverty as Human Rights Violation: Moral Duties and Public Engagement in the Global North
Vincent Fang
4. Precarious Photojournalism: The Ethics and Aesthetics of the Unrepresentable
Sieglinde Lemke
5. Shared Vulnerability as a Virtuous Framework for Poverty Coverage
Sandra L. Borden
6. Solidarity in U.S. Journalism: Social Justice Implications of How Journalists Humanize People Experiencing Homelessness
Anita Varma
7. Social Empathy + Compassion: Building Blocks for Poverty Coverage
Ryan Thomas
8. Reporting on the Margins But Not Marginalizing with Dustin Dwyer
Dustin Dwyer and Sandra L. Borden
Part II Poverty: Socioeconomic Need and Its Causes in the News
9. A Very Poor Watchdog: How the Political Economy Continues to Define News Reporting of Poverty in the Digital Era
Jairo Lugo-Ocando
10. Framing Poverty: An Historical Overview of Ways of Seeing Poverty
Stuart Connor
11. The Social Construction of Poverty in India: Role of News Media
Ameeta Motwani
12. A History of Media Coverage of Poverty in the United States Since 1960
Melissa L. Newman and David R. Davies
13. Ruin Porn and Virtue Porn: Licensing How We Talk About Perceptions of Urban Decay
Fred Vultee
14. Neoliberal Poverty Discourses in Canadian Newspapers
Robert Harding
15. Coverage of Poverty in Business News: How Media Represent Public and Private Concern for People Living in Poverty
Andrea Pérez
16. Living in a Material World: Celebrity Media Culture and Neoliberal Ideology in the Digital Age
Jennifer Lewallen
17. Urban Inequality and Marginalization with Chris Michael
Chris Michael and Sandra L. Borden
Part III “Poor”: News Representations of People Experiencing Poverty
18. What about the Actors Involved in News about Poverty? Disrupting Determinist Accounts
Isabel Awad
19. The Picture of Poverty: Visual Images and Their Implications
Rosalee Clawson
20. Settler Colonial Representations of Indigenous Disadvantage
Lisa Waller and Kerry McCallum
21. Media Representations of Structural Factors Contributing to Women’s Poverty
Orly Benjamin
22. The Cultural Image of the Fat Poor in German News Media
Claudia Müller
23. Representations of the Working Poor
Christopher R. Martin
24. Representation, Poverty, and “Hillbilly Culture” in Appalachia
Michael Clay Carey
25. To Cover or Not to Cover? A Critical Discourse Analysis of Mainstream Media News Framing of Children in Kenyan Care Homes
A.L. Lando and Lydia Radoli
26. Not Sending Their Best: Media Framings of Immigrants as the “Parasitic Poor"
Jessica Autumn Brown
27. News at a Time of Economic Hardship with Judith Matloff
Judith Matloff and Sandra L. Borden
Part IV Policy: Indirect Coverage of Poverty as Part of Watchdog Journalism
28. Keep Calm and Carry On: Challenging a Discourse of Necessity and Forbearance in News Reporting of UK “Austerity” Policies
Jen Birks
29. Welfare in the Media: Issues of Coloniality and Symbolic Power in the Case of Metiria Turei
Ahnya Martin, Pita King and Darrin Hodgetts
30. Contesting the Narrative of Rootless Others
Elida Høeg
31. Not Just for Christmas: News Media Coverage of Homelessness
Eoin Devereux
32. Criminalization of Poverty: Fines, Fees, Money Bail, and Much More
Peter Edelman
33. From Community Empowerment to Infrastructure Reinforcement: Exploring the Shifting Media Narrative on Indigent Health Policy from Reagan to Obama
Danielle N. Gadson
34. Housing Policy in the News: In Praise of Markets, Problematizing Residents in Poverty
Leslie Martin
35. What Lessons May Be Drawn from Media Reactions to a Universal Basic Income?
Rajiv Prabkahar
36. Water Access and Solutions Journalism with Jiquanda Johnson
Jiquanda Johnson and Sandra L. Borden
Part V Positives: Promising Practices for Better Poverty Coverage
37. Amplifying the Deliberative Agency of Indigenous Communities in Philippine News Media
Athena Presto and Nicole Curato
38. Constructive Journalism and Poverty Reduction in China: The Targeted Poverty Alleviation Campaign
Yanquiu Zhang and Lanjuan Meng
39. Citizen Media as a Counter-Narrative: Slum Journalism and the Kibera News Network
Erica Hagen
40. Refugees, Media Representation and Counter-Narrative: An Analysis of TedxKakumaCamp
Andrew Skuse and Meredith Dowling
41. “Filling the Void”? Engagement between the Nonprofit Sector and Journalists in the Production of News about Poverty
Kerry Moore and Sian Morgan Lloyd
42. Longform Immersion: Situating Struggle as an In/Outsider
Cass Sever
43. Expanding Journalism Students' Empathy by Writing about the Working Poor
Chris Roberts
44. Focused on Results, Building Trust with Monica Morales
Monica Morales and Sandra L. Borden
Biography
Sandra L. Borden (Ph.D., Indiana University) is a professor in the School of Communication at Western Michigan University (United States). She directs the university’s Center for the Study of Ethics in Society and coaches its Association for Practical and Professional Ethics Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl team. Her work has appeared in several scholarly books and journals, including the Journal of Media Ethics, Journalism: Theory, Practice & Criticism and Communication Theory. Her books are the award-winning Journalism as Practice: MacIntyre, Virtue Ethics and the Press (2007; 2009), Ethics and Entertainment: Essays on Media Culture and Media Morality (co-edited with Howard Good, 2010), Making Hard Choices in Journalism Ethics (with David Boeyink, 2010) and Ethics and Error in Medicine (co-edited with Fritz Allhoff, 2019).
