Rich and Poor Divide: How Portrayals of the Poor and Poverty in News Media Perpetuate Stigma and Inequality

Discourses about people who are rich and those who are poor are pervasive in our society. Online news media is one of the ways in which these power dominated messages are disseminated. Forty online news articles from four major news outlets in Canada were examined using Critical Discourse Analysis. Questions about how the language used in these news articles perpetuates stigma for people who are poor were explored. The findings show that most news articles use some form of stigmatizing language that has a detrimental impact on how people living in poverty are perceived. Negative stereotypes were pervasive, especially in the more conservative leaning news organizations. Ways of changing this language, and methods for reducing stigma are investigated.