Foreword
The news media in the United States are supposed to play an essential role in our democracy by helping us monitor the world around us, bringing us the stories that happen beyond the range of our own senses. Too often, however, the media are distracted from important stories by politicians, business people and others who are particularly adept at gaining the attention of the media.
The homeless people in our society are not very good at getting news coverage. They end up on the front pages of newspapers and on newscasts most often when they are involved in a violent crime, either as criminals or as victims. One result is that most Americans understand very little about the homeless and the condition of being homeless.
Indeed, too many of us look at the homeless as being just unlucky. Some of us can imagine ourselves homeless if we were to miss a couple of paychecks. As a result, many of us tend to avert our gaze when we encounter the homeless on the street or we dig up a small handout to assuage our conscience. But for most people who are homeless, the problems are deeper than a missed paycheck or a bit of bad luck. Many people among the homeless are mentally ill or they abuse drugs and alcohol. And some are vicious predators who prey on other homeless people. A token handout given on a street corner will provide precious little real help to any of these homeless people. The needs are much deeper.
Few people in the United States understand the homeless and the condition of being homeless better than Dr. Jeremy Reynalds. Once homeless himself, Dr. Reynalds for years has run a faith-based homeless shelter that he founded to provide real help to homeless people who are serious about getting back into mainstream society. Dr. Reynalds literally lives with the homeless, day in and day out, as he runs his shelter and lives on the grounds of the shelter. Now Dr. Reynalds has examined the homeless and the media and their interaction very carefully in a new academic study.
Dr. Reynalds’ study of a huge sample of news stories from major media across the country demonstrates that news media coverage of the issue of homelessness is largely superficial, hardly the kind of coverage that will help the average American understand the plight of the homeless.