The mass media shapes the way people think about each other and the nature of our society. The media provide coverage that is often distorted and misleading towards the poor. The poor and their problems are hidden from most Americans and the attention that they do get offers a series of contradictory and portrayal. The poor are faceless, they are reduced to a number when the yearly Census Bureau is released. The media will portray a person associated with welfare cheat, drug addicts, and greedy panhandlers almost always urban and black. Than they compare these images with a middle class person who are tax evaders, celebrities, wealthy businessmen who are mostly white. When the media tells a story about the poor it is usually through a middle class point of view which makes them seem that they are an inconvenience and an irritation. The media always thinks that the poor people have themselves to blame, that they are they're own faults for being the way they are. This is what William Ryan has called "blaming the victim. The world according to the news media is divided between the "underclass" and everyone else. The information provided form the news media is usually for the upper and middle class, for example the news relating to stock exchange. Not everyone owns them. The Times magazine once concluded that " we are all middle class", " and we all share the same concerns" but this is so untrue. The wealthy worry about investments but the others worry about jobs. Americans can't think straight when it comes to class because the mass media is neither objective, balanced, independent or neutral. We have to know who we are because we have the ability to change if we want to.
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