New Web site will help journalists cover poverty

A Web site to guide journalists through the often-difficult tasks of covering poverty and its ramifications has gone live. Created by the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia, the site has tutorials on covering aspects of poverty such as education, financial services, health, housing, politics and race, and incorporating poverty into coverage of those subjects, as well as general advice on covering poor people.

The Resources section of the site includes several "tip sheets" including top Web sites, books and policy organizations to consult; the "top 10 places to mine for story ideas in your community;" and the top four myths about poverty, one of which is that most poor people don't work. In fact, the site says, "The majority of people living in poverty actually have jobs. But you can work two minimum-wage jobs and still not make above poverty wage." A corollary myth, the site says, is that if someone has "full employment" he or she isn't poor. "The term 'full employment' erroneously suggests a kind of comfort. It tends to mask minimum wages and inadequate health care coverage."

The driving force behind the site is John Greenman, the college's Carter Professor of Journalism and an academic partner of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues. Greenman and the college's director of public service, Diane Murray, invite journalists to use the site and tell them what they think about it.