New studies are backing up a basic assumption about wealth and health and in the United States: It matters where you live. Geography contributes to social mobility, health disparities and the income divide. Policymakers and politicians are taking note, but with such a complex topic, how can journalists make a difference? Here are some tips, resources and examples to guide your reporting.
Three recent reports help explain the numbers and show where the discrepancies lie.
- A special report in the April issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association addresses income, life expectancy and geography. Economists at Stanford University, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology worked with the U.S. Treasury and Social Security Administration to examine 1.4 billion tax records and death records from 1999 to 2014. They studied life expectancy related to household income, gender and geographic area, and found – not surprisingly – that higher income was associated with greater longevity. More notably, however, they showed life expectancy for low-income people varied substantially across location. Geographic differences also significantly correlated with health behaviors such as smoking.
- In March, the Brookings Institution released a detailed report on concentrated poverty in the wake of the Great Recession. It noted that poverty spread beyond typical urban and rural locations and seeped into suburbs, which are now home to the largest and fastest-growing poor populations in the United States. The report discussed the ways poor neighborhoods deal with poorer physical and mental health outcomes, higher school dropout rates and lower economic and social mobility. Using Census Bureau data, Brookings highlighted cities with changing poverty concentrations between 2010 and 2014 and noted the metro areas with the densest poverty numbers during those years.
- In February, the Economic Innovation Group released its 2016 Distressed Communities Index, analyzing community well-being across the United States as well as regional, state and city data about spatial inequality. Most importantly, researchers found that despite the economic recovery, the most distressed ZIP codes were still experiencing a financial downturn. The “distressed community index” weighed seven metrics — housing vacancy rates, the number of adults working, poverty rate, median income, the number of people with high school degrees, change in employment and rate of business formation. More than 50 percent of those in the most distressed ZIP codes live in the South and in rural places, the index showed.
Recent news examples
- Flint, Mich.: Nearly every national news outlet has covered the lead-contamination water crisis in this Detroit suburb. It is a stark example of the link between health and geography, with the city having been declared a federal state of emergency. Reporters have picked up on the idea that residents, especially children, have no say in where their water comes from and how it is treated before reaching their homes.
- Place Matters: A series by Georgia Health News examines the ties between location and health care challenges. The stories are a collaboration between the news outlet, health and medical journalism graduate students, and the Ford Foundation.
- Geography of Poverty: This four-part MSNBC series includes a visually compelling design that allowing readers to follow reporters’ tracks and images on an interactive map, graphs and video. Funded by the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, Pulitzer Center and Magnum Foundation, the project gives a glance into poverty in four regions — the South, Southwest, Northwest and Northeast.
- Ghost Factories: This USA Today series won several investigative awards for its coverage of areas contaminated by old lead smelting sites nationwide. Reporter Alison Young examined data and documents, and even hand-tested areas — sometimes stopping to talk to parents in neighborhoods about the unsafe lead levels in their yards and handing out flyers about keeping their children safe. Some parents cried. They couldn’t afford to move away, but they couldn’t imagine not allowing their kids to play outside.
Questions for reporters to consider
- Where are the income disparities in your coverage area?
- How do location differences affect access to care and quality of care?
- Historically, what areas were located near old factories or chemically-polluting industries? (Some reporters use old fire maps to track this.) Who lives there now?
- Does your local health department have any statistics or initiatives regarding geography and health disparities?
- How are state and local governments addressing health disparities in your area, if at all?
- What areas in your community have older homes and potential lead-based paint concerns? Have local officials received any federal grant money (usually Community Development Block Grant funds) to refurbish these homes?
- Do any advocacy groups — particularly environmental justice nonprofits — have newsworthy events to cover or anniversary stories to tell?
- Are any community programs (such as Meals on Wheels or others) targeted toward particular neighborhoods in your coverage area? Have the coordinators/volunteers seen any changes or trends?
- What else do you know about public services in your area (water/sewer/trash/recycling) and how the offerings are contracted, managed or chosen? Could any aspect in the decision-making process be a public health concern?
Tips to keep in mind
Geography might come into play in health stories when you might not expect it.
Take Flint and lead-based paint, for example. Housing and home locations can be major factors when it comes to environmental health. In Georgia, for example, many lower-income neighborhoods are built on the former grounds of old smelting factories, industries and dumps. Environmental justice often ties hand-in-hand with location, and if there is an active justice group in your area, that could offer resources for strong emotional, anecdotal coverage.
Also, keep geography in mind when you consider stories about transportation, housing and health. You never know when a medical study may look at an overall outcome but ignore location — or when a ZIP code change can make a difference.
Good resources: Ideas and data
- Brookings Institution report on concentrated poverty
- Confronting Suburban Poverty in America
- Income segregation maps by the Stanford Center on Poverty & Inequality
- Economic Innovation Group’s 2016 Distressed Communities Index
- Changing geography of Hispanic children and families report by the National Research center on Hispanic Children & Families
Carolyn Crist is a freelance journalist based in Georgia. A graduate of the University of Georgia College of Journalism and Mass Communication, she writes the Covering Poverty weekly newsletter, highlighting news stories, tutorials and resources that journalists can use to cover poverty in their beats, including health, housing, education, politics and race. You can follow her on Twitter @cristcarolyn and @coveringpoverty.
