The main of the paper is to discuss the media representation of a contemporary social issue that is relevant under the current scenario of society. The current social issues that are relevant, include issues related to home, issues related to health, and issues related to homelessness. It is a fact that media should be considered as the central actors in the social construction of social problems. The capacity of media publicity does have the ability to shape whether people perceive an issue as worthy of public discussion and potential policy action. It is based on the discussion presented in the media which makes an issue significantly notable to the common crowd. Therefore, it could be realized that media are a crucial ground where social issues advocates direct their efforts to impact public understanding of prospective social problems (Sammut et al., 2015). Out of the three social issues that have been highlighted, the issue in which the maximum light will be thrown is homelessness. Before jumping into further discussion, it also needs to be stated that there has been the emergence of new forms of digital and social media. Also, this emergence has developed new concerns about media-related social problems which are very much relevant in the current society.
In the beginning, it gets important to state that homelessness is a human rights issue. Now, It Is Important To Understand Reason Behind Homelessness Getting Considered As Contemporary Social Issue It Has Already Been Identified That Homeless Individual tend to face countless barriers in relevance to obtaining and retaining employment. As a matter of fact, most of the homeless individuals are not facilitated with basic education and skills training, based on the fact that they had disrupted or incomplete schooling. Adding to that, these homeless individuals generally lack community and family acquaintances. Therefore, there are zero chances of those individuals to get help in finding employment. Apart from that, they also lack the connections that will enable them with advice on work-related concerns (Hodgetts, Hodgetts and Radley 2006). These are the reasons which could be connected to the reason behind the increase in homeless individuals in the United Kingdom.
There is a significant number of studies that collectively claim that media has been grossly misrepresenting homelessness to the common mass. It has already been identified that 76% of homeless characters are represented as devising their very own downfalls. The media fails to focus on the real cause and they tend to deviate from the topic in most of their representations (Gerrard and Farrugia 2015). Apart from significantly focusing on the actual prominent reasons behind homelessness, it has been identified that television writers merely dispensed detrimental traits to their homeless characters. However, it has already been identified that the real causes behind homelessness are both systematic and multi-faceted.
Based on the above discussion it could be realized that underreporting is unquestionably the leading issue in relevance to media representation of a contemporary social issue like homelessness. There are several inaccuracies as well, which could be identified based on several pieces of research. To be specific, it needs to be stated that around 85% of media articles that talk about homelessness tend to oversimplify issues related to housing instability. It has also been identified that gentrification is getting identified as the key issue by less than 7% of such articles. At times, they are not even considered a problem. Interestingly, it could be observed in modern television programming, that around 50% of the discussions of homelessness appear as single mentions (GRIFFITH 2022). There are very limited programs that revisit such contemporary social issues.
Apart from all these, while talking about the primary reason for individual homelessness, one particular aspect gets tremendously highlighted every now and then. It could be seen that most of the time the news media argues tremendously to substance abuse as the most crucial underlying issue for the homeless. It gets depicted that the primary reason behind homeless is substance abuse and every other factor is not even relevant (Mallett, Rosenthal and Keys 2005). As a matter of fact, the tactic that has been identified as not only erroneous but also at the same time, it could be seen that they are frequently implemented in order to fuel criminalization laws (Forte 2002). The key takeaway from this discussion is that there is a significant need for accurate and timely homeless news reporting. Adding to that, it could also be realized that there is a significant need for insight from individuals who are suggestively familiar with the topic, which includes people who were formerly homeless and individuals who are currently homeless.
The common mass deserves to be enlightened with the truth of the individuals who are homeless and are living without the walls. However, the truth once presented can be extremely uncomfortable based on the uncertainties that it brings to an individual’s life. Due to this uncertainty of the occurrence, homelessness becomes a significantly pressing matter that tends to distress every individual all around the world. It is also important to mention that very viewers and the readers deserve to be enlightened with the legit full story. In simple terms, it could be said that the presence of sensational journalism and also at the same time yellow journalism makes the actual truth impossible to decipher. There is a basic difference between these two types of journalism. It could be realized that in sensationalism there is an ounce of truth someplace down below under the hype blown out of proportion. Whereas on the other hand, it could be seen that in yellow journalism the presence of truth is absolutely zero, most of the time the whole story is entirely made up (Su, Li and Wang 2019). Also it needs to be stated that in relevance to the above-mentioned certain techniques could be connected. Those techniques tends to include factors such as exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, or sensationalism. Therefore, in order to get the full story, it gets extremely important to get a firsthand note of the experience of the individuals that has still been struggling in the dark shadows. The fact that needs to be realized by the media is that misinterpretation of such social issues amplifies detrimental inaccuracies which have the ability to pointlessly infuriate readers (Campbell 2017). Once the crowd gets agitated, it forces the entire crowd to rally against the very individuals they should support.
There is a huge need for input from persons who are intimately familiar with the subject, such as those who were once homeless and those who are now homeless. This will help them with a better understanding of the entire issue. As the issues have been identified and the way in which it gets represented by the media has already been presented. Now, it is important to enable the readers with the understanding of the ways in which this contemporary social issue could be tackled. To begin with, the specific two things that do have the ability to bring significant changes in the world in relevance to the social issue of homelessness. The two factors that have been identified are the change of perception and also at the same time factor is education. Based on this observation, it could be comprehended that one specific thing is housing that will help in completely eradicating the social issues. Without the presence of proper housing, there will continuously be a vagrant individual suffering in silence in the background.
On a concluding note, it could be stated that the paper has been able to provide a thorough discussion in connection to the media representation of a contemporary social issue that is relevant under the current scenario of society. The contemporary social issue that has been specifically mentioned in this paper is homelessness. The ways in which the concept of homelessness gets presented through the various media platforms have been discussed and the fallacies in them have also been identified. Along with it, the actual pieces of evidence have also been provided which will help the readers with a thorough understanding of the issue that has been discussed in the paper. Lastly, the paper has also talked about the ways in which the identified issues could be tackled and make this society a better place to live. All the claims that have been made in this paper have been backed with the relevant source of information which again has been taken from reliable sources of information. Therefore, it could be easily stated that this paper is a dependable source of information that could be utilized in further studies of a similar domain.
Reference
Campbell, W.J., 2017. Yellow Journalism: Why So Maligned and Misunderstood?. In Sensationalism (pp. 3-18). Routledge.
Forte, J.A., 2002. Not in my social world: A cultural analysis of media representations, contested spaces, and sympathy for the homeless. J. Soc. & Soc. Welfare, 29, p.131.
Gerrard, J. and Farrugia, D., 2015. The ‘lamentable sight’of homelessness and the society of the spectacle. Urban Studies, 52(12), pp.2219-2233.
GRIFFITH, C., 2022. Study Proves Media Grossly Misrepresents Homelessness. [online] Invisible People. Available at: <https://invisiblepeople.tv/study-proves-media-grossly-misrepresents-homelessness/> [Accessed 24 March 2022].
Hodgetts, D., Hodgetts, A. and Radley, A., 2006. Life in the shadow of the media: Imaging street homelessness in London. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 9(4), pp.497-516.
Mallett, S., Rosenthal, D. and Keys, D., 2005. Young people, drug use and family conflict: Pathways into homelessness. Journal of adolescence, 28(2), pp.185-199.
Sammut, G.E., Andreouli, E.E., Gaskell, G.E. and Valsiner, J.E., 2015. The Cambridge handbook of social representations. Cambridge University Press.
Su, J., Li, X. and Wang, L., 2019. The Study of a Journalism Which Is almost 99% Fake. Lingue Culture Mediazioni-Languages Cultures Mediation (LCM Journal), 5(2), pp.115-137
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