Barely a week after a stunning mention of “the p-word” on Meet the Press, a new study came out today showing that “poverty” got substantially more coverage this election season than at any time in recent memory.

Of course, much of that has to do with John Edwards’ candidacy, which kicked off in the embattled Ninth Ward of New Orleans and continued to stress poverty issues throughout. The crumbling economy and the sub-prime crisis also played a major part in the boost.

Some of the key findings from the Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity study:

• 2008 coverage of poverty as a topic in articles concerning the presidential campaigns was more than double that of 2004.
• The key drivers of the coverage in 2008 include John Edwards and the economy, but these were responsible for less than half the stories overall (44.8%).
• Both 2007 and 2008 were high points for coverage of poverty as an issue in politics.
• The upward trend looks to continue. In 2004, 1,013 news stories about poverty in the presidential campaign appeared in all U.S. newspapers and wires. Through the first ten months of this year, that number has already exploded to 2,565 news stories.
• Overall, coverage of poverty in politics increased 369 percent since 2003.

Having just spent some time talking about poverty framing at the Equity and Inclusion Campaign’s summit in New Orleans, I am curious that the study did not take into account that many progressives are stressing issues related to poverty without using the actual word, “poverty.” Rather, there is much more talk about “shared prosperity” and “expanded opportunity” that many argue gets at the same core issue without using the same frame.

Still, though, it is heartening to see the traditional media pay at least some attention to the nation’s struggling communities.

The Kern County, California, NBC station has a great piece on the report PolicyLink released yesterday about the connection between your food environment and your risk for diabetes and obesity. The report, Designed for Disease (pdf), was a joint project from PolicyLink, the California Center for Public Health Advocacy and UCLA’s Center for Health Policy Research.

To see how other media outlets like the LA Times, PRI’s Marketplace and the Sacramento Bee covered the study, click here.

A new study in the journal Health Affairs says black and Latino children are more than 12 times as likely as white children to live in “double jeopardy”—to be poor and to live in neighborhoods with limited opportunity. The study argues that public health policies should:

“improve access to opportunity-rich neighborhoods through enhanced housing mobility, and increase the opportunities for healthy living in disadvantaged neighborhoods.”

The article is included in the March/April 2008 issue that focuses on health disparities and is based on results from studies of neighborhood opportunity in 100 metropolitan areas.

Some facts from the article:

• Nearly 17 percent of African-American children and 20.5 percent of Latino children live in “double jeopardy,” compared to 1.4 percent of white children
• The typical poor white child lives in a neighborhood where the poverty rate is 13.6 percent; for the African-American and Latino child, the rate is nearly 30 and 26 percent respectively
• Differences between African-American and white children were most pronounced in Detroit, Memphis, New Orleans, Chicago, and Birmingham, Alabama
• Disparities between Latino and white children were most blatant in the communities of McEllen, El Paso, and San Antonio, Texas; and Los Angeles and Fresno, California

Problems and solutions to issues related to neighborhood opportunity and health were just some of the hot topics discussed at Regional Equity 08. We heard about the New Orleans Food and Farm Network and other efforts across the country that are helping low-income community residents find good food close to home. Can anyone recommend other articles or organizations focused on this work?