| Chapter 1: | Background and Significance of the Study |
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The analysis will identify whether or not the media are, intentionally or inadvertently, promoting a picture of the homeless as otherwise ordinary people whose problems can be “fixed” by a meal and some overnight shelter.
Project Overview
The research methods used were interviewing and analysis of the interview narrative. While content analysis was used, it was not employed as a research method, but as a technique used to quantify the characteristics of the media reports on homelessness and the homeless as found. This permitted a summarization of the media reports and provides an analytic approach to the media reports which constitute the data in this portion of the study (Appendix A).
Forty-one (41) people were interviewed for the main project. These comprised a national homeless advocate, a writer nationally acclaimed for his writings on poverty and America’s changing approach over the years to dealing with poverty, an international journalist who heads a Christian news service, two print reporters, five broadcast journalists and thirty-one (31) homeless individuals. The interviews were conducted primarily in February and March 2004. The questions asked of the homeless are presented in Appendix B; their interviews appear in Appendix C.
An ethnographic study (Appendix D) was used for a pilot study conducted in February and March of 2002. The pilot study is an important part of this research. It is a snapshot of who the homeless actually are, as opposed to who the media claim they are.
In addition to the ethnographic observation, 12 individuals were interviewed for the pilot study (Appendix E).
Shelter activity logs (included in Appendix F) are also an important part of this research because they provide an additional picture that shows who the homeless actually are, as opposed to who they are portrayed to be. Briefly put, the activity logs often, but not always, are negative. These provide snapshots of life, reflecting the daily activities of homeless people housed at Joy Junction.