Journalists are creating a sense of optimism, but more needs to be done, study finds.
Calgary newspaper readers are seeing pictures or reading about the problem of homelessness two days out of three says Barbara Schneider, a Communications Studies professor researching representations of homelessness in the news media.
In a content analysis of one years' worth of newspaper coverage on the topic of homelessness, Schneider compared newspaper coverage in the Calgary Herald and Vancouver Province. Results indicate tremendous differences in the reporting on the issue.
"In Calgary, readers are really bombarded with messages about homelessness," says Schneider. "Calgary articles show a greater preference for non-governmental solutions, indicating that there is a real sense of optimism that the community can do something about this problem. Calgary articles are also much more positive in tone and homeless people are much more likely to be described as deserving."
Twenty-four percent of news coverage about homelessness in the Calgary Herald conveyed a sense of urgency compared to just five percent of news articles in the Vancouver Province. In the Calgary Herald, there were almost twice as many articles about homelessness as in the Province, significantly more editorial coverage and more articles with images appearing on the front page.
"The high number of articles, images and messages indicate that this is an urgent problem," says Schneider. "Another key finding is that in Calgary, more women, young people, and families are described as being homeless, contributing to a sense that these people need and deserve help."
The study also examined coverage in the Globe and Mail. The coverage in this national paper describes homelessness as a local and individual problem, which is perhaps related to the fact that Canada has no national strategy for homelessness.
Schneider says understanding how news media is covering the issue and how audiences respond to news messages is critical to finding methods to actually solve the problem.
"News coverage is not just a representation of the circumstance, it instructs people about what attitudes they should have about homelessness and can also serve as a call to action," says Schneider.