Homelessness: Media's Role in Blaming the Individual
Presentation Type
Poster/Portfolio
Presenter Major(s)
Sociology
Mentor Information
Jennifer Stewart
Department
Sociology
Location
Henry Hall Atrium 74
Start Date
11-4-2012 9:00 AM
Keywords
Media, Social Class
Abstract
With homelessness on the rise and shelters at full capacity, it is becoming long overdue to understand how people get into such poverty-stricken situations and why these outcomes are often misunderstood. Unfortunately, much of the information we receive comes from the media, an inconsistent source at best that manages to have a significant influence in conditioning people's beliefs. By incorporating the theory of intersectionality into a qualitative content analysis study of The New York Times, Washington Post, and Chicago Sun-Times, I'm interested in determining how newspapers use words and images to explain the causes of homelessness. Although newspapers do not represent the entire media, they play a significant role in promoting America's dominant ideology, and thus become a great place to start in unraveling all the misconstrued notions.
Homelessness: Media's Role in Blaming the Individual
Henry Hall Atrium 74
With homelessness on the rise and shelters at full capacity, it is becoming long overdue to understand how people get into such poverty-stricken situations and why these outcomes are often misunderstood. Unfortunately, much of the information we receive comes from the media, an inconsistent source at best that manages to have a significant influence in conditioning people's beliefs. By incorporating the theory of intersectionality into a qualitative content analysis study of The New York Times, Washington Post, and Chicago Sun-Times, I'm interested in determining how newspapers use words and images to explain the causes of homelessness. Although newspapers do not represent the entire media, they play a significant role in promoting America's dominant ideology, and thus become a great place to start in unraveling all the misconstrued notions.