Reporting on Race, Gender and Culture / Media & Diversity

Definitions Handout
COMPLETE YOUR OWN SHEET & DO NOT SHARE ARTICLES WITH OTHERS. You CANNOT COMPLETE THIS WITHOUT
RESEARCHING THE UNDERLINED TERMS AS THEY APPLY TO MEDIA / COMMUNICATION.

Your individual Name Kevin Moore

Panel Adoption

1. How are major issues about this group FRAMED in the media? Attach a news clip that serves
as an example demonstrating commonly used media short-hand, or FRAMING. According to Sara
Tiegreen, who is a clinical psychologist at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Durham, NC, she describes
framing as when journalists are constantly deciding which facts to include or emphasize and what really is
the issue when reporting a story. She talked about how news frames can be classified as predominantly
episodic or thematic. Episodic frames focus on the immediate event or incident that occurred but give little
or no information about underlying issues. Thematic frames look at the big picture focusing on statistical
information for example. The article Adoption social worker: I hate telling people we don't have a child for
them, is an example of thematic framing because the article is focusing on the big picture of the young
children who need to be adopted.
http://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/social-life-blog/2016/jan/20/adoption-social-work-childmunby

2. In what ways is this group MARGINALIZED in the media ? Attach news clip demonstrating an
example.
The definition of marginalized according to business dictionary is the process where someone or something
is pushed to the edge of a group and accorded as less important. In the article, The Adoption Paradox it
describes that students who are adopted tend to have more attention and behavior problems then those
students who arent adopted. Students who are adopted are marginalized because society doesnt focus on
those students who have those similar problems and arent adopted. People tend to have the assumption that
students who are adopted tend to have separation issuses.
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/10/the-adoption-paradox/409495/
3. READ CAREFULLY: Who are the OPPOSITIONAL voices/groups within {WHO ARE MEMBERS OF}
this culture? Be specific. Attach clip.
According to Dictionary.com, oppositional is, the act of opposing, or the state of being opposed by way of
comparison or contrast.
Anti-adoption activist, Jessica DelBalzo said that adoption felt like a tragic loss for both the mother and the
child.
http://babyscoopera.com/adoption-articles/the-case-against-adoption-research-and-alternatives-forconcerned-citizens/

4. READ CAREFULLY: Mainstream society views this group from its perspective. However, there
are insider perspectives that challenge/question that mainstream perspective - and therefore
DECONSTRUCT it? Attach clip.
According to Dictionary.com, to deconstruct means to break down into constituent parts; dissect;
dismantle.
http://www.today.com/parents/family-all-my-own-why-adopting-foster-care-easier-it-t34871
In the article, Curious about adopting from foster care? Here's what it's really like, Emma Davis talks
about how a family was grateful on their new adoption of their daughter. Davis also talked about how more
than half of Americans still wrongly believe that children in the foster care system are juvenile delinquents,
the study also revealed. In fact, children enter foster care because of abuse, neglect and/or abandonment at
the hands of their biological family.

5. List three ARCHETYPES or characterizations the media uses asshorthand to depict people in
this culture (at least one of them positive). Be specific. Attach clip demonstrating one.
According to Google, archetype is a very typical example of a certain person or thing.
1. Foster
2. Taking in
3. Taking over
http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/16/opinion/soronen-foster-children/
In the article, We are abandoning children in foster care Children who are being help up for
adoption are referred to as children in foster care or foster care kids.