Homelessness & Housing Security in U.S. Culture: How Popular Culture & News Depicts an American Challenge

About the Center for Media & Social Impact (CMSI)

The Center for Media & Social Impact (CMSI), based at American University’s School of Communication in Washington, D.C., is an innovation lab and research center that creates, studies, and showcases media for social impact. Focusing on independent, documentary and public media, the Center bridges boundaries between scholars, producers and communication practitioners across media production, media impact, public policy, and audience engagement. The Center produces resources for the field and academic research; convenes conferences and events; and works collaboratively to understand and design media that matter.

About the Report

This report was prepared and written by a team at the Center for Media & Social Impact. CMSI director Caty Borum Chattoo served as principal investigator. The report was written by David Conrad, CMSI postdoctoral researcher, and Lori Young, PhD candidate at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication, with the tremendous support of three American University (AU) School of Communication researchers: Aras Coskuntuncel, PhD candidate, Sarah Huckins, a graduate student, and Samantha Dols, a PhD candidate. This work was facilitated by the work and support of Varsha Ramani, CMSI communications and program manager. This work was funded by a grant from the Funders for Housing and Opportunity.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

How are issues of homelessness and housing security portrayed in the landscape of U.S. entertainment and news, if at all?
When issues related to homelessness and housing security are portrayed in U.S. pop culture and news, how are they framed?
Who is telling the stories (gender and race/ethnic diversity)? And how does this matter?

TWO LEVELS OF DISCOVERY

For this project, given the relative “invisibility” of housing-related issues in American media frames, we endeavored to reveal two levels of understanding:

Whether housing-related topics were covered at all
How housing-related topics were framed, when they were covered (i.e., who is represented, and who is invisible; who gets to speak, and who is silenced; what causes are identified and what solutions are offered)

WHILE MORE THAN 40% OF PEOPLE EXPERIENCING HOMELESSNESS IN THE U.S. ARE BLACK, AND 39% ARE WOMEN, THE SHOWRUNNERS WHO PRODUCED THE “MOST WATCHED” TV STORIES OF HOMELESSNESS WERE DISPROPORTIONATELY
WHITE (87%) AND MALE (76.1%).

Documentary
& Independent Media

Participatory
& Civic Media

Entertainment
& Popular Culture

Fair Use Library

Documentary
& Independent Media

Participatory
& Civic Media

Entertainment
& Popular Culture

Fair Use Library

HOMELESSNESS & HOUSING SECURITY
IN U.S. CULTURE:

HOW POPULAR CULTURE & NEWS DEPICT AN AMERICAN CHALLENGE

--NEARLY 90% OF ARTICLES-- ABOUT HOUSING STABILITY FOCUSED EXCLUSIVELY ON ONE OF THE THREE MAIN ISSUES (HOMELESSNESS, AFFORDABLE HOUSING, OR GENTRIFICATION).

--EVERY-- HOMELESS CHARACTER THAT WAS DEPICTED WERE SERIES REGULARS OR RECURRING CHARACTERS, AND --ALL BUT ONE-- OF THEM HAD MORE THAN TEN SPEAKING LINES.

MORE THAN --80%-- OF THE HOMELESS CHARACTERS WERE ONE- EPISODE ONLY CHARACTERS, AND --MORE THAN HALF-- OF THEM HAD LESS THAN 10 SPEAKING LINES.

WHILE MORE THAN --40%-- OF PEOPLE EXPERIENCING HOMELESSNESS IN THE U.S. ARE BLACK, AND --39%-- ARE WOMEN, THE SHOWRUNNERS WHO PRODUCED THE “MOST WATCHED” TV STORIES OF HOMELESSNESS WERE DISPROPORTIONATELY
WHITE --(87%)-- AND MALE --(76.1%)--.

HOMELESSNESS AND OTHER --HOUSING STABILITY RELATED ISSUES GARNERED LESS THAN 0.002% OF ATTENTION-- ON THE NEWS AGENDA IN 2018.

Table of Contents

About the Center for Media & Social Impact (CMSI)

About the Report

Read The Report

Overview

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

TWO LEVELS OF DISCOVERY

NEXT

Methodology

HOMELESSNESS & HOUSING SECURITYIN U.S. CULTURE:

HOW POPULAR CULTURE & NEWS DEPICT AN AMERICAN CHALLENGE

--NEARLY 90% OF ARTICLES-- ABOUT HOUSING STABILITY FOCUSED EXCLUSIVELY ON ONE OF THE THREE MAIN ISSUES (HOMELESSNESS, AFFORDABLE HOUSING, OR GENTRIFICATION).

--EVERY-- HOMELESS CHARACTER THAT WAS DEPICTED WERE SERIES REGULARS OR RECURRING CHARACTERS, AND --ALL BUT ONE-- OF THEM HAD MORE THAN TEN SPEAKING LINES.

MORE THAN --80%-- OF THE HOMELESS CHARACTERS WERE ONE- EPISODE ONLY CHARACTERS, AND --MORE THAN HALF-- OF THEM HAD LESS THAN 10 SPEAKING LINES.

WHILE MORE THAN --40%-- OF PEOPLE EXPERIENCING HOMELESSNESS IN THE U.S. ARE BLACK, AND --39%-- ARE WOMEN, THE SHOWRUNNERS WHO PRODUCED THE “MOST WATCHED” TV STORIES OF HOMELESSNESS WERE DISPROPORTIONATELY WHITE --(87%)-- AND MALE --(76.1%)--.

HOMELESSNESS AND OTHER --HOUSING STABILITY RELATED ISSUES GARNERED LESS THAN 0.002% OF ATTENTION-- ON THE NEWS AGENDA IN 2018.

Table of Contents

About the Center for Media & Social Impact (CMSI)

About the Report

Read The Report

Overview

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

TWO LEVELS OF DISCOVERY

NEXT

Methodology

Table of Contents

HOMELESSNESS & HOUSING SECURITY
IN U.S. CULTURE:

WHILE MORE THAN --40%-- OF PEOPLE EXPERIENCING HOMELESSNESS IN THE U.S. ARE BLACK, AND --39%-- ARE WOMEN, THE SHOWRUNNERS WHO PRODUCED THE “MOST WATCHED” TV STORIES OF HOMELESSNESS WERE DISPROPORTIONATELY
WHITE --(87%)-- AND MALE --(76.1%)--.