Honors Theses

Author

Erin M. Smith

Date of Award

2005

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Department

Journalism

First Advisor

Joseph Atkins

Relational Format

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

The American news media are the cultural shapers of today’s society. Their many stories create a visual sense of reality for the consuming public, and many media critics have begun to call foul for their many misrepresentations of minorities, in particular their over-representation of black poverty. These representations have been shown to have substantial influence on the public’s perception of poverty, which may shape the attitudes and beliefs toward certain policy implementation. To test the validity of such claims, a quantitative instrument was distributed over the course of two days at the University of Mississippi. Also, the survey was designed to measure if students believe what the news media portray regarding race is reflective of reality and whether certain media cause higher distorted poverty perceptions among participants. Generally, the respondents reflected the apparent distortions of poverty projected by the news media. Furthermore, no statistically significant relationship between certain news media consumption and their perceptions of poverty was observed; however, those who consumed online news media sources reported the highest poverty distortion. Moreover, those distortion scores were related to what welfare policy reforms, either individualistic or egalitarian, they would implement to the current welfare system. The students who had a less accurate view of poverty were less likely to support the addition of more social programs to aid poor and were more likely to support more rigorous IV guidelines as to who can qualify for federal assistance. Also, the respondents were divided on whether or not the news media portrayed an accurate racial picture of America; however, the white respondents noticed race being mentioned by the new media more often than the non-whites. Subsequently, the respondents who believed the news media mentioned race often or too often more than likely had higher distorted perceptions of poverty. Distorted perceptions of poverty do influence opinions on policy implementation. Although, a specific medium cannot be held responsible for causing higher distortions of poverty in the sample, the news media have a certain responsibility to provide America with accurate information, especially dealing with poverty.

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