Throughout the course of this class, my eyes were opened to many things involving those who are in the working poor category. I was able to see the true struggles of those who I personally work with and relate with, and also those who are much worse off and truly struggle. Through my classmates interviews, I was introduced to the positivity that those in that we consider “working poor”. I also developed a new insight to how interviews are held when you don’t know the subject, and when there is sensitive subject matter at hand. I personally find interviews very uncomfortable, but with such a topic on the line it was very influential on my feelings about reporting.
Some of the projects I found most interesting, were those that included the most difficult of situations. I learned about many of these once we went back and looked at the class as a whole and compiling our projects for a major dashboard. Andrew’s story about the piano player, Phillip. Not only did he provide an international face for the project, but also he was someone who did not work in food. I think in general, myself included, have a hard time imagining low wage workers that do not work in the food industry. Like most waiters and waitresses, the piano players at Willy D’s operate on minimum wage and tips. This story also provided an interesting insight on how music isn’t always about pleasing others, it’s about pleasing yourself and making others happy with what you do. Especially in a college town where Dickson Street is the heartbeat of many Saturday nights, having a profile of someone who interacts with students daily adds a whole new face to the bar scene. The other profile that intrigued me was the one with Sherrod. He worked at one location, and then was the victim of a closing restaurant and was moved to another one. I think that facet alone gives a tangible view of how inconsistent being a low wage worker truly is. Aubry Tucker discovered this fact long after the interview with him, and the accidental follow up kept me interested in the story. When dealing with people who are in such situations, it is rare that you run into them again, as many of them bounce around. But for Sherrod, he was around and able to share his story in a unique way to following up – reverse of how it usually works.
When it comes to defining working poor and deciding what to wording to use for this class, there are a lot of social and economic factors to take in. In my opinion, poor is a bit of a strong word. But in most cases, if someone has “x” attribute, they know about it. For example, an African-American person knows and realizes that they are African-American, so there’s no need to skirt around the term. I think this works the same way with Working Poor. They are working for what they have, and often times what they have is not enough, the dictionary definition of poor. I think for the purpose of News Ethics and titling the final project for this course, “poor” should not be used, rather something more along the lines of “low wage workers”, since that is the more political correct term.
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