The Communication Environment of the Urban Poor / Brenda Dervin and Bradley Greenberg, S.

The purpose of this document is to review the growing body of literature focusing on poverty and communication, assess it, and posit directions for future work. In all, some 4000 different studies are examined to develop an overview of the communication environment of the urban poor. No more than 200 had some relevance to poverty-communication; only some 30 studies were directly related to the issue, and most of these were research products of the last four or five years. The work available provides an adequate baseline picture of the communication behaviors of the poor and shows surprising agreement on findings. In addition, this document includes original findings from a recent large-scale study of the communication behaviors of low-income black adults. The study, conducted by Greenberg, Dervin, and Bowes consisted of interviews with 366 low-income black adults in Cleveland. This study provides the most comprehensive evidence available on the use of information sources by the poor. The use of sources for information was approached from two perspectives. The first asked respondents what sources they had used for help or information in any area in the past. The second asked respondents to name potential sources in ten hypothetical problem areas. This review documents the fact that there is now a sizeable body of evidence available describing the communication behaviors of the poor, and demonstrates that these differ from those of the middle class. (Author/JM)

Microfiche. [Washington D.C.]: ERIC Clearinghouse microfiches : positive.