Santiago de Chile: This past Tuesday during the IV seminar of Communication and Poverty it was revealed to the public the results of a survey about how the public perceives people with less resources because of the way the media represents them. This study was made by Ipsos public affaires and the Communication and poverty alliance in Chile and the results were bad. It showed how the media stigmatizes them and portraits them like criminals, lazy and a burden to society.

One of the initiatives to fight poverty was the release of a book called “Voices of women: Life stories in the first person” that narrates the life of people who struggles to survive and overcome adversity in a world where if you are poor you don´t get many chances and are discriminated. In this book they also make an analysis about traditional mass media and especially about the way they aboard this subjects.

This seminar was made so we can all search for what are social role is and journalists can make a change in their writing and not always show the dark side of this group of people, creating a bad reputation for them and making it harder to get out of their situation.

For example when something bad happens in the upper side and down town at the same time the media covers the one where poor people are involved and shows them like criminals, thief’s, drug dealers and people who can´t do anything by them selves and wait for the government or an other entity to solve all their problems.

The best way to fight poverty is to stop stereotyping them and putting them in a “bad box” where they are observed 24/7 by the public and can´t escape or clime to a better economical situation.

You can find out more about this seminar in many Chilean and Argentine sites. Journalism students of Universidad Diego Portales are posting this initiative so the next generation of communication professionals can change the way news are made.

www.comunicacio  nypobreza.cl www.sosperiodis  ta.com.ar/ www.periodismoc  iudadano.com www.udp.cl