This article analyzes the role of television in rural life, and the influence it has had on various social, economic and political processes that have been revolutionizing the landscape of village India in recent years. Data from ethnographic fieldwork in two remote villages in the mountains of Western Maharashtra (Danawli and Raj Puri) are presented in the context of development and social change. In particular, the article establishes the framework and rationale for an ethnographic approach to the research. It discusses the unique characteristics of television that make it an important agent of cultural change. Furthermore, the article analyzes various social processes that include consumerism, urban modeling, restructuring of human relationships, linguistic hegemony, migration and the emergence of an information underclass. Some villagers see these processes as positive, yet others view them as negative developments. The article concludes with a discussion of social change at both the structural as well as psychological levels and argues that the village audience is an active and vibrant participant in the use of media, which has ramifications for `development' both at the village level and beyond.
The Census Bureau has estimated the nation's annual poverty rate since 1963 using data from the Bureau's Current Population Survey (CPS) conducted in March of each year. Census deems a household “poor” if annual income falls below specified income thresholds. There are two problems with this methodology. First, the Current Population Survey dramatically undercounts household economic resources. Second, the fact that household income falls below a specific level reveals little about the nature of material deprivation within the household. This paper will take an alternative approach to assessing poverty: examining the material living conditions of low-income Americans. Using data from various government surveys this paper examines ownership of property and consumer durables; housing space, and housing conditions; food and nutriment consumption; and the height, thinness and obesity of low-income persons. Finally, we attempt an overall assessment of material deprivation based on material living conditions.poverty, living conditions, housing, hunger, income, malnutrition,
We highlight an understudied aspect of racism in television news, implicit racial cues found in the contradictions between visual and verbal messages. We compare three television news broadcasts from the first week after Hurricane Katrina to reexamine race and representation during the disaster. Drawing together insights from interdisciplinary studies of cognition and sociological theories of race and racism, we examine how different combinations of the race of reporters and news sources relate to the priming of implicit racism. We find racial cues that are consistent with stereotypes and myths about African Americans—even in broadcasts featuring black reporters—but which appear only in the context of color‐blind verbal narration. We conclude by drawing attention to the unexpected and seemingly unintended reproduction of racial ideology.
Aedes japonicus was first identified in the eastern United States during 1998 and has since spread to locations west of the Mississippi River. This species was found in Minnesota for the first time during 2007 at a tire recycling facility in Scott County and was identified during 2008 at 43 locations in 4 additional Minnesota counties south and east of the initial finding. These records document the presence of Ae. japonicus in 5 counties of southeastern Minnesota and indicate that the species overwinters locally.
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