Week 6: Cold Truths about Class, Race and Health
I commend those who contributed to this week's discussion and for offering candid and thought provoking comments.
The Cold Truth(s) is...to a certain extent you are ALL correct. This issue, like many others you will be covering doesn't necessarily have a black and white explanation, which is why it's hard to pin-point what's going on, and even more difficult for journalists to cover.
Making direct links between poverty, class and race and any social ill (crime, ill health, drug addiction) is a dangerous declaration, but as future journalists, I challenge all of you to look at the big picture. What social, economic, cultural forces exist that might influence behavior? Education, emotional/mental state, feelings of helplessness/hopelessness, institutional discrimination and or racism, access to health care?
Let's take the issue of access to health care...in some Southern Arizona rural communities there are no maternity clinics. Why? The cost of malpractice insurance is too high for rural doctors, who see less patients and make less money. The bottom-line, the patient-to-income ratio does not make it cost-effective for O.B./Gyns to work in rural communities. This increases the chances of women having problems with delivering babies, unhealthy pregnancy, babies born with illness, etc. Two more facts: people who live in rural communities are on average poorer than those who live in urban areas; and in many rural agricultural areas, there exists a large percentage of minorities (i.e. migrant workers). In this case, is there a direct correlation between unhealthy babies and poverty and race/ethnicity? No, but circumstances disadvantage those who live in rural communities without adequate access to health care, making it more likely that women who live in some Southern Arizona communities have problem pregnancies, unhealthy babies, etc.
At the same time, the mythology (and often true) of U.S. culture is that anyone can pull himself/herself up by his/her bootstraps and forge a better (healthier, wealthier, happier) life. The problem arises when a significant number of people who want to make a better life for themselves cannot because of social, economic, and political realities. As journalists, your job is to put all of this into context...not an easy job.
As students of journalism, your job is to find the connections between a person's overall health and tuning in or in many cases out from news.
I commend those who contributed to this week's discussion and for offering candid and thought provoking comments.
The Cold Truth(s) is...to a certain extent you are ALL correct. This issue, like many others you will be covering doesn't necessarily have a black and white explanation, which is why it's hard to pin-point what's going on, and even more difficult for journalists to cover.
Making direct links between poverty, class and race and any social ill (crime, ill health, drug addiction) is a dangerous declaration, but as future journalists, I challenge all of you to look at the big picture. What social, economic, cultural forces exist that might influence behavior? Education, emotional/mental state, feelings of helplessness/hopelessness, institutional discrimination and or racism, access to health care?
Let's take the issue of access to health care...in some Southern Arizona rural communities there are no maternity clinics. Why? The cost of malpractice insurance is too high for rural doctors, who see less patients and make less money. The bottom-line, the patient-to-income ratio does not make it cost-effective for O.B./Gyns to work in rural communities. This increases the chances of women having problems with delivering babies, unhealthy pregnancy, babies born with illness, etc. Two more facts: people who live in rural communities are on average poorer than those who live in urban areas; and in many rural agricultural areas, there exists a large percentage of minorities (i.e. migrant workers). In this case, is there a direct correlation between unhealthy babies and poverty and race/ethnicity? No, but circumstances disadvantage those who live in rural communities without adequate access to health care, making it more likely that women who live in some Southern Arizona communities have problem pregnancies, unhealthy babies, etc.
At the same time, the mythology (and often true) of U.S. culture is that anyone can pull himself/herself up by his/her bootstraps and forge a better (healthier, wealthier, happier) life. The problem arises when a significant number of people who want to make a better life for themselves cannot because of social, economic, and political realities. As journalists, your job is to put all of this into context...not an easy job.
As students of journalism, your job is to find the connections between a person's overall health and tuning in or in many cases out from news.
posted by prof. cgb at 6:40 AM
0 comments
