[The Press and Media Coverage of Poverty]

Abstract

This paper aims out to examine the coverage of poverty by three mid-sized, daily newspapers across the country – The St. Paul (MN) Pioneer Press, The Memphis (TN) Commercial Appeal, and The Louisville (KY) Courier-Journal. In order to look at the coverage, I compiled a list of 30 terms related to poverty and issues facing the impoverished citizens of this country. These search terms were designed and developed in order to reveal several different types of stories . . . I used the search terms and these general requirements to guide my analysis of the stories from the three papers. The most fundamental feature I was looking for in the stories that I analyzed was did any of the newspapers, in general, or specifically offer more than a passing nod to the extremely important and relevant issues of poverty facing this country today? [From Introduction]