“The Effects of Poverty on Infant’s Development.” Livestrong.com, July. Web. 18 Februrary 2011.
I just read an article on the Livestrong website that takes a very general look at how poverty affects and infant’s development. To find the bias in this article I think it might be important to look at what the website in general supports. The website seems to promote health and fitness for children and adults. It includes topics such as, eating healthy, ways to stay fit, how to keep track of dieting and fitness. It also includes a section on how to stay connected with the community and explains more about the Lance Armstrong Foundation. I believe the information on this website to be honest because it is based on the Lance Armstrong Foundation and because it seems to “genuinely care”, if you know what I mean. I don’t believe any kind of website that has raised so much money for cancer research would pull information out of no-good sources and wants a healthier community. The author, Lily Medina, has had some background in education, health, fitness, writing and parenting. I think that the information in her article might be partial to information that readers could find on the rest of the website. Not that this was intentional but it covers a lot of the same information found in other article headlines that are listed to the right of the page I was reading. Medina’s article may have been chosen because it correlated so well with what the website is trying to promote and also because it would keep a reader browsing longer if they realized related information was found just a few clicks away. The website is also covered with advertisements so the information would have to appeal to the companies that are sponsoring it.
I noticed that much of what Medina says leads back to mentioning how the parents are responsible for their baby’s development which makes sense since a baby is very vulnerable and relies entirely on its parents. She doesn’t say that it’s necessarily the parents fault but she mentions a lot of the stereotypes I find while researching this topic. She states that delayed infants in low income families are at greater risk of experiencing injury and illness because of accidents, abuse or neglect. These factors, according to Medina, are caused by stress, physical labor and drug and alcohol abuse. She also says that lower intelligence might be affected by the absence of the father, a mother’s depression or uneducated parents. I understand the reasons behind these stereotypes and research seems to support them but this aspect of the article stood out to me. I believe she probably mentions a parent’s role in this article because she is a mother herself so good parenting would be important to her. Medina also pulled out certain key words such as, malnutrition and mental health, to define and explain exactly why these words are important to a baby’s health. Her background in health and education probably played a role in deciding to focus on these words.
In general this article did not openly try to persuade and gave very general information about the topic. It does bring up some good topics though that would be useful to pinpoint and research further. Plus, it is in a place where other closely related articles can be found.
I just read an article on the Livestrong website that takes a very general look at how poverty affects and infant’s development. To find the bias in this article I think it might be important to look at what the website in general supports. The website seems to promote health and fitness for children and adults. It includes topics such as, eating healthy, ways to stay fit, how to keep track of dieting and fitness. It also includes a section on how to stay connected with the community and explains more about the Lance Armstrong Foundation. I believe the information on this website to be honest because it is based on the Lance Armstrong Foundation and because it seems to “genuinely care”, if you know what I mean. I don’t believe any kind of website that has raised so much money for cancer research would pull information out of no-good sources and wants a healthier community. The author, Lily Medina, has had some background in education, health, fitness, writing and parenting. I think that the information in her article might be partial to information that readers could find on the rest of the website. Not that this was intentional but it covers a lot of the same information found in other article headlines that are listed to the right of the page I was reading. Medina’s article may have been chosen because it correlated so well with what the website is trying to promote and also because it would keep a reader browsing longer if they realized related information was found just a few clicks away. The website is also covered with advertisements so the information would have to appeal to the companies that are sponsoring it.
I noticed that much of what Medina says leads back to mentioning how the parents are responsible for their baby’s development which makes sense since a baby is very vulnerable and relies entirely on its parents. She doesn’t say that it’s necessarily the parents fault but she mentions a lot of the stereotypes I find while researching this topic. She states that delayed infants in low income families are at greater risk of experiencing injury and illness because of accidents, abuse or neglect. These factors, according to Medina, are caused by stress, physical labor and drug and alcohol abuse. She also says that lower intelligence might be affected by the absence of the father, a mother’s depression or uneducated parents. I understand the reasons behind these stereotypes and research seems to support them but this aspect of the article stood out to me. I believe she probably mentions a parent’s role in this article because she is a mother herself so good parenting would be important to her. Medina also pulled out certain key words such as, malnutrition and mental health, to define and explain exactly why these words are important to a baby’s health. Her background in health and education probably played a role in deciding to focus on these words.
In general this article did not openly try to persuade and gave very general information about the topic. It does bring up some good topics though that would be useful to pinpoint and research further. Plus, it is in a place where other closely related articles can be found.
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