The Media Impact Project has completed a cultural audit of poverty narratives with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. A cultural audit is a method of gaining a deeper understanding of priority audiences by understanding the pop culture narratives they consume.
To examine how poverty and wealth are constructed in the pop culture narratives in which media consumers are immersed, we:
Read the Final Report We compared depictions of working-class versus middle- or upper-class characters on popular sitcoms. We also conducted a systematic content analysis to better understand the frequency and context of poverty-related depictions in:
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Research Reports
Interim Summary Report I’m Rare as Affordable Health Care...Or Going to Wealth from Welfare Your Choices are Only as Good as Your Options Representations of Poverty in Modern Film and TV Content Hard to Make a Song ‘Bout Something Other than the Money A Cultural Audit on Popular Music and Poverty From Poverty to Final Boss Meritocracy, Greed, and Despair in Video Games Understanding Poverty Mindsets in America Nationally-Representative Audience Survey Rags-to-Riches, Welfare Queens, and Broken Families Media Representations of Poverty and Their Impact on Audiences Understanding Poverty in Mass Media Opinions and Insights Poverty and Wealth Narratives in Popular Culture Emerging Insights and Recommendations DECKS: Poverty Narratives in Television Poverty Narratives in Scripted Entertainment Poverty Narratives in Sitcoms Poverty Narratives in Music Lyrics |
Songs of Poverty, Prosperity & Opportunity
This Spotify playlist includes popular music from our study on poverty narratives in popular culture (contains explicit lyrics). |
The Lear Center’s Hollywood, Health & Society program hosted Money Matters, a virtual panel discussion exploring how entertainment storytellers can shift the narrative around poverty, prosperity, and opportunity. Lear Center Director of Research Erica Rosenthal shared findings from our research on poverty and wealth narratives in popular culture, along with Harmony Labs Director of Data Science Riki Conrey. Entertainment industry panelists included: Steven Canals (Pose), Linda Yvette Chavez and Marvin Lemus (Gentefied), Anthony Sparks (Queen Sugar), Erika Green Swafford (New Amsterdam), and moderator David Ambroz.
Watch Money Matters | Read about the webinar in Variety. |
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This clip compilation highlights TV references to Norma Rae, a 1979 film about a working-class organizer who fights against poverty and workplace injustice. The surprisingly frequent references to the decades-old film suggest a lack of cultural resources for depicting poverty-related collective actions. This compilation was produced by Project Associate Shawn Van Valkenburgh.
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The Norman Lear Center's Media Impact Project researches how entertainment and news influence our thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, knowledge and actions. We work with researchers, the film and TV industry, nonprofits, and news organizations, and share our research with the public. We are part of the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
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