Discussion of the Term “Culture of Poverty”

As we all know, culture of poverty is a concept in sociology that supports the idea of a cycle of poverty. But instead of focusing on the culture of poverty people should look at racial segregation as a core indicator for understanding long term inequality. While reading Gilens’ article, it becomes obvious that we lack of adequate media coverage of issues dealing with poverty and over representations of racialized poverty in the US. The rate of poverty in the United States continues to increase drastically. And while the rich individuals continue to increase their wealth, the poor and middle income families reached the lowest level of their poverty since 1995. As statistics shows, “some 46.2 million Americans were classified as living in poverty” (Democracy Now, 2012). Trends in poverty and inequality remain similar and today the issues of inequality are still ignored in the media, even if the problems go worse and the rate of poverty continues to increase drastically. As known, media operates through five filters, such as ownership, advertising, the media elite, flack and the common enemy. The thing is that every industry, governments, big corporations and institutions want to increase their profits but poverty just leads to misery and hardship near advertising. The issues of poverty are overlooked in the media and often mainstream media sources provide very little coverage to poverty, inequality and working class because “media organizations chose not to cover poverty because it was potentially uncomfortable to advertisers seeking to reach a wealthy consumer audience” (Medina, 2013). Additionally, “poverty coverage is seen as non-lucrative, time-consuming and involves high levels of commitment” (Medina, 2013). But no matter what the barriers were mentioned in the articles and videos, it is crucially important to remove social barriers on the individualized level. Often personal decisions and changes on private level may help to reduce global poverty and eliminate the stigma about inequality that exists in society today. 

References:

Democracy Now (2012). As U.S. Inequality Widens, Cornel West and Tavis Smiley Launch Poverty Tour 2.0. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD9McjnZe-g

Medina, D.A. (2013). About 15% of Americans live in poverty, so why is no one talking about it? Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/05/american-media-ignores-poverty-issues

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016.

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

freeessays.club (2016) The terms offer and acceptance [Online].
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"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]
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