Today I came across an article in the Huffington Post called The South Is Essentially a Solid, Grim Block of Poverty. Since I was born and raised in Georgia, I almost took offense to the title alone! So putting hurt feelings aside, I read it. I have to admit that it was an excellent article, very informative, but how reliable are the sources? Well, the sources used in this article are the Census Bureau and the Department of Health and Human Services. When I visited both of the sites, the first thing that I noticed is that they are both government websites. Websites that end in .gov are federal government sites. All branches of the United States federal government use this domain. Information such as Census statistics, Congressional hearings, and Supreme Court rulings would be included in sites with this domain. This type of information is considered to be from a credible source. These sources are also considered to be unbiased. The second thing that I noticed about the sources from this article is that they are both authorities on the subject. Both sources track this type of information and keep up with year to year statistics. This is what they specialize in.
If this article were published on an unrestricted website, using unreliable sources, the impact on southern states could be harsh. New businesses probably would not want to move into an area that functions under the poverty line. They couldn't take the risk of their business not growing and making more money. Tourist certainly wouldn't come to an area like that. Those types of areas are known for higher crime rates. Because of this, money that cities usually make from the tourist industry would be none existent. This article could also be biased. It could possibly only approach the truly negative side of the story, which could hinder the cities overall growth.
References:
Bishaw, A. (2014, June). Changes in area with concentrated poverty 2000 to 2010. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/content/dam/census/library/publications/2014/acs-27.pdf
Gangloff, M. (2014, July 2). the south is essentially a solid, grim block of poverty. Retrieved from https://huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/02/poverty-increase-map_n_5548577.html?utm_hp_ref=business
Health and Human Services (2014). 2014 poverty guidelines. Retrieved from https://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/14poverty.cfm
Hi Laura,
ReplyDeleteGood for you for taking the initiative to read the article. I’m not from the south myself (I’m from New Jersey) but I have also been very interested in the lifestyle; the southern cooking, southern hospitality, and the warmth that the people down there seem to exuberate. The title seemed offensive to me as well. I believe that one of the most dangerous (if not the most dangerous) towns in the county is in New Jersey; it’s called Camden. It may be a couple hours away, but it is still a frightening though when you hear some of the stories. That was a good catch that you made about the “.gov”. I wish that our government would get more involved with fixing these statistics though.