Pre-Assessment Excercise

Edison Enciso

Professor Bailey

English 120-016

2 Set 2014

Pre-Assessment Exercise

Summary/Respond to the article “Changing the Face of Poverty: Nonprofits and the Problem of Representation”

There are many non-profit organizations that look for economic help to finance different humanitarian programs, and they use distinct types of publicity. In “Changing the Face of Poverty: Nonprofits and the Problem of Representation,” writer Diana George particularly focus on problems of the representation of poverty in publicity videos that nonprofit Habitat for Humanity make to get its goal that is “to eliminate poverty housing from the globe” (45). Although she does not criticize the work of the nonprofit, she finds serious problems in how Habitat gives us the representation of poverty in videos. One principal problem is to be able to identify suitable applicants for home that are confused for the visual content of publicity videos; for example, when writer asked  Kim Puuri, a member of the affiliate’s Homeowner Selection Committee, about the video, Kim said “when I saw those pictures I usually think of Africa or a third world country and NOT the U.S…People viewing the videos and pictures see the condition of the people and feel that their own condition may not be that bad and feel they probably wouldn’t qualify”(50).  Finally, Diana finds in the representation of poverty is that the messages focus poverty “as an individual problem that can be dealt with by volunteers on an individual basis,” when the description of poverty has too other characteristics that are not represented in the images of the nonprofit’s publicity videos (50).

Although many organizations or companies use extreme situation in their visual publicity to attract attention of people, it can create confusion if the goal of publicity is not well directed. When we see publicity of the consequences of smoking cigarette, and the images show us sick people that are in extreme situation, this type of publicity attract our attention. However the aim of this publicity is to create awareness that if we smoke, we might die because of that. Instead, Habitat for Humanity has as objective to eliminate poverty housing, but the images in their videos of as Habitat represent the poverty go against its main goal, because many poor people are not adequately represented in the publicity videos creating confusion to applicant potential in order to get a house.

The writer, in her article, shows us the messages of how Habitat for Humanity represents the poverty through images in which it is the model of poor family that needs a home. Representing “poverty as an individual problem that can be addressed on an individual basis”, Habitat for Humanity appeals to a nation that believes anyone can achieve economic security with just right attitude and set of circumstances (45). The poverty a global problem where not only depend on the attitude of the people, if not it also depends on the situation economic, politic and social of country.

In conclusion, although I agree with the social work that this organization do, I disagree of how the representation of poverty is shown in the publicity videos and the message that they have.