Do you know that 4 in 5 people in the world are living on less than $10 a day? (Shah, 2013) If that many people are living in poverty, are there any measures taken by societies and governments to embrace and integrate them into the society? I personally feel that the poor are not fully integrated into the society. There are many factors that influence the acceptance of the poor in our society, but I am going to talk about how it is affected by the media and societal values.
There is a lack of media coverage on poverty. How often do you see documentaries or television series about the poor? I believe not too often. In America’s media, the poor are almost always never mentioned. Have you ever seen a show that depicts lives of the poor in America?
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“Poverty, a growing issue both in the United States and abroad, constitutes less than 0.02 percent of lead media coverage. One of the reasons this happens is that journalists like happy endings. Systematic poverty in the world does not have a tidy resolution. Journalists also want to write about actions and change, and changes in the state of global poverty are not happening rapidly enough. Another issue is that of censorship. Reporting in impoverished countries is not always easy because governments may choose to withhold certain information from the public. Journalists from countries with free presses struggle to access details about developing countries.” (Roth, …show more content…
A campaign “Singaporeans Against Poverty” was launched in October 2013 to help raise awareness about the poor in Singapore. “Public service advertisements include videos showing everyday citizens making decisions about what to eat, what to wear, and how to spend money, with the tagline: "105,000 low-income families would gladly swap their problems with yours." There is a webpage with facts about income inequality and a planned online educational game. The campaign also urges the public to participate in its $5 challenge, which is based on the statistic that some 387,000 Singaporeans only have about $5 a day to spend on food and transport per family member. Radio personalities have been enlisted to join the campaign and make on-air appeals for listeners to do the same.” (Benner,