Why Americans hate welfare
Subtitle: race, media, and the politics of antipoverty policy
By: Martin Gilens
Series: Studies in communication, media, and public opinion
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 1999
Place of publication: Chicago
Language: eng
Number of pages: 296
Subjects: Public welfare in mass media; Public opinion; Public welfare; Racism in mass media; Mass media and public opinion; Racism
Description: Drawing on surveys of public attitudes and analyses of more than forty years of television and newsmagazine stories on poverty, Gilens demonstrates how public opposition to welfare is fed by a potent combination of racial stereotypes and misinformation about the true nature of America's poor.

But white Americans don't oppose welfare simply because they think it benefits blacks; rather, they think it benefits "undeserving" blacks who would rather live off the government than work, a perception powerfully fueled by the media's negative coverage of the black poor.

The public's views on welfare, Gilens shows, are a complex mixture of cynicism and compassion; misinformed and racially charged, they nevertheless reflect both a distrust of welfare recipients and a desire to do more to help the "deserving" poor.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [235]-279) and index.