Several San Jose State community members say the way news publishers sensationalize public crises regarding houselessness in the media can shift public focus away from larger issues.
Instead of houseless individuals receiving help, many of them can be shunned away because of how the media portrays them for clickbait.
Sensationalism is an editorial tactic that attempts to attract an audience’s attention by exaggerating information at the expense of accuracy, according to a Nov. 12, 2021 article by Reporter Magazine, a student-run publication of the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Anthony Majano, senior sociology student and Student Homeless Alliance president, said news outlets should be providing facts and uplifting victims’ voices, but instead they are disconnected from reality.
Majano said the media blames victims and builds negative narratives to gain an audience.
“It's mainly because of money, it does sell sensation – sensationalizing some crisis, making it sound like it was caused by a specific target and making it seem like there are specific oppositions,” Majano said. “Creating this ‘bad guy,’ ‘good guy’ and ‘evil’ oftentimes does sell much more than just reporting facts as is.”
Majano said he believes that people in power, including landlords, have the capital to make the media say what they want to hear and as long as people are profiting from those situations.
He said there will unfortunately be no improvements in our wages or system in which we currently live.
Majano said he thinks that if the media continues to create negative narratives of unhoused people, society will start believing that they are abnormal and dangerous.
“If your experience is not aligned with that of what the public already believes of you, then it'll be ignored. You'll be treated as different, as an outcast,” he said. “People will be more hesitant to approach you because they already have such a negative viewpoint as to you and who you are as a person.”
Majano said houseless people constantly being dehumanized makes it more difficult for them to get back on their feet and reach out for help.
About 56% of participants get their information about houselessness in America from news outlets and local TV, according to a March 16, 2021 article by Invisible People, an American nonprofit organization that works with houseless people.
Other sources the participants get their information from included newspapers, online news, social media, politicians, national news and word-of-mouth.
Majano said it’s extremely difficult when houseless people have to face off against a multibillion-dollar media company that is telling its audience that it shouldn’t interact with them, that they’re not human beings.
Joe Biagini, SJSU radio, TV and film lecturer, said news organizations sensationalize crises because they are businesses that are seeking to gain profits.
“I think sometimes if they're sensationalizing, it’s because they're thinking more in terms of clicks and views, rather than thinking in terms of informing people of stuff they might want to know,” Biagini said.
He said the media has room for change and improvement, but also media consumers contribute to that issue and should take some responsibility in which stories they view.
“There's things they could always do better, as could we, as the viewing public, as far as the stories we're going to click on as far as not feeding the beast,” Biagini said.
He also said the news tends to focus on houseless individuals, rather than houselessness as a whole.
“A lot of the news stories focus on the people that are on the receiving end of these problems and issues, but then they become seen as the problem, which then results in all the nimbyism and all that stuff,” Biagini said.
NIMBY, or “Not in My Backyard,” is an acronym describing people who are opposed to cheaper housing developments near their homes, according to a Nov. 17 2021 article by Shelterforce, an independent publication that covers community development, affordable housing and neighborhood stabilization.
Jorge Prado, journalism and mass communications professor, said the more sensational news outlets portray something, the more viewers will be interested.
Prado said he recently came across a story about homelessness in San Francisco and noticed there were more Latino names mentioned than others.
He believes the media should be unbiased because it can misinterpret stigmas around certain groups of people.
“I mean, all groups commit crime,” Prado said. “All groups have formulas, all groups have mental health issues.”
He said he doesn’t want to believe that the media purposely does this to create narratives on people, but he’s aware that it does occur.
“As a business, you need to have that captured audience in order to get good ratings because good ratings means more money for the station,” Prado said.
