Date of Award

2017

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Fitzgerald, Keith

Area of Concentration

Political Science

Abstract

The criminalization of the homeless in recent years has resulted in policies that make everyday, life-sustaining activities more difficult or illegal for the homeless and very poor. This paper explores the relationship between common descriptions of homelessness in the news and reader preference for the type of policy used to treat homelessness. Descriptions of homelessness in the news tested in this study treat homelessness differently based on its understood causes. Prior research suggests that when citizens believe in certain causes of homelessness, these causal beliefs are correlated with preference for more criminalizing or sympathetic policy options (Lee et al 1990). When homelessness is seen as an individual condition, caused by personal traits or behaviors, people are more likely to prefer criminalizing policy solutions. Alternatively, attributing homelessness to systemic and societal circumstances is correlated with a preference for non-criminalizing policies. However, there is insufficient research exploring the role that news media plays in informing citizens’ causal beliefs of homelessness, and therefore their policy preferences. News coverage of homelessness varies in both content and tone, however a trend toward blaming the homeless for their circumstances has pervaded articles in many media outlets (Schneider et al 2010). This paper uses primary source data to illuminate a direct causal relationship between narratives prevalent in news coverage and resulting policy preference in readers. Using completed survey data from 222 individuals in Sarasota, FL who were exposed to one of three different news articles, the study found that those who read the news very infrequently are more affected by the article they read. However, the survey results provide little evidence to support the hypothesis that reading a particular narrative of homelessness has a significant effect on policy opinions, prompting a reexamination of the factors that fuel criminalizing policy.

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