This
USA Today article published on the 10th anniversary of House passage of the welfare bill is a CLASSIC example of media creating and perpetuating public perception on poverty. Most readers will “file” this story as soon as they see the word welfare in the title – because they already know this story. (Like, you know, it’s all about “lazy dependent people and failed government programs”, basically.) The “real people” faces at the beginning of the article are likely to confirm these readers‘ beliefs. The reporter starts the article with the example of one welfare recipient some might consider a failure, followed by another former recipient presented as a success. Many readers will see the first – Michelle – as having made some poor choices; they’ll see her failure to stay in one job as some failing of her own. The second example – Mary – confirms the readers’ belief that “anyone can make it if they just work hard enough”. These conclusions are consistent with the dominant frames about personal responsibility – frames that fail to help people understand the systemic and economic issues involved: For example, “Poverty is an individual – not a systemic – problem”; and ”People are poor because of bad choices, moral weakness, or character flaws.“ This article doesn’t in any way move the debate forward. The
priming survey research suggests that an article like this one hardens existing attitudes, attitudes that make it much more difficult to develop support for a progressive agenda of poverty-alleviating/economy strengthening policy proposals. Of course, it’s possible to talk about low-wage work in ways that build support for policy solutions. Still, having the national newspaper presents the story this way is… not so helpful. Unfortunately, we can expect a lot more of these articles as the August 22nd bill-signing anniversary approaches. It’s our job to change the channel: the articles should tell the story of the economy and jobs, the way the system of low-wage work fails our nation, our communities, and low-wage workers.