Media Portfolio Reflection

From movies to memes, over the past months, I have been curating 8 meaningful media portfolios to reflect upon how the foster care system, foster children, and former foster children are represented in the media. Different mediums reflected different ideas, thoughts, or arguments. One thing was consistent through all of this, no one, on any platform raved about the high quality of life as a foster child.

 I began with a series of video clips; a youtube advertisement, a movie, and the pilot of a TV show. While this was, in fact, an accident I found these sources to be the easiest to connect with. Especially the movie and TV show because these were actors trying to portray this group of people as accurately as possible.  Key characteristics that were conveyed in Instant Family and The Fosters were that the children were quiet, reserved, but also not very polite to the families that had taken them in. In both mediums, teenage foster children were being portrayed, therefore representing a moody teenager with heightened emotions because of such difficult circumstances. The youtube video was the most realistic portfolio that I put together because it was actual footage of foster kids interacting with adults. Since this video was for promotional purposes it displayed foster children as being sweet, extremely gracious and loving. Therefore, in my first three sources that I analyzed for this project, I was getting polarized generalizations of a specific group.

Next, I went on to analyze a news article and a hashtag on Instagram. The news article discussed the political side of the foster care issue. Specifically, the news article spoke about the desire to help foster children who had aged out of the system and were now left to their own devices. The article was in favor of more government funding for housing and was written in anticipation for the Trump Administration’s decision on the matter. This medium came from the point of view of a problem-solving community. In the media, there are groups, and committees, and individuals who are willing to put up a fight for the justice of foster children. The hashtag on Instagram represents something much different. #FosterCare was a collection of people expressing their thoughts and prayers for these children in need. However, on the social platform, there was an obvious lack of action being taken to seriously aid these children. As I expressed in that media portfolio, Instagram put a rose-colored lens on foster care, therefore did an injustice to representing foster children as a group.

Finally, I concluded my collection of media portfolios with a Goodreads book review, a tweet, and a meme. All of these mediums in one way or another represent pop culture, therefore, in my opinion, are really an appropriate representation of how society sees foster children. The Goodreads review was of a fictional novel, White Oleander by Janet Fitch, the takeaway from this portfolio was the confusion surrounding the foster care system. The brief description of the book provided by the site briefly touches on the fact that one of the main characters is in various different placements in the foster care system. However, the comment section on the Goodreads page exploded with questions asking for clarification of the main character’s status in her foster care situation. The tweet that I analyzed was an infographic that presented surreal statistics about the outcomes of kids who age out of the system. This medium was effective because it showed a cause and effect, the cause being the broken system and the effect being poverty, homelessness, and early pregnancies. A tweet, therefore, is a concise way to raise awareness in a comprehensive way. Lastly, I analyzed the most pop culture and societal outlook of how foster children are represented in the media: memes.  The meme that I specifically looked out depicted an older and withered woman who was meant to portray a foster parent. The image was captioned, “Who Says Fostering Is Stressful? I’m 30 And Feeling Great!” This is poking humor at the generalized stereotype that foster children are crazy and chaotic. This source was not my favorite because I think that it was the most hampering on the reputation of foster children. I felt that it did the biggest injustice to the foster care community.

As a whole, I feel that the foster care system is represented in a holistic sense throughout different mediums on the media. A youtube video, a movie, a T.V show, a news article, a hashtag, a Goodreads review, a tweet, and a meme all showed different perspectives that exist about foster children in the media. The biggest takeaway, for me, was the impact that point of view has on the different perceptions that are introduced through the different lenses of the media. Reflecting, I’ve realized that in order to accurately assess an issue, multiple platforms must be analyzed in order to form an educated opinion.

Foster Care in Meme Culture

https://www.stillorphans.com/2018/06/28/fostering-memes-for-tough-days/

While researching foster care memes, overwhelmingly, I was barraged by jokes and witty comments that correlated more with foster parents than foster children. However, this is still a very good representation of how foster children are seen through the eyes of the media.
Rambunctious, overwhelming and tiring are all words that come to mind when seeing the picture of the old and wrinkled women. This is an attempt at a portrayal that foster parents are usually run down an withered by the crazy children they open their homes to. This manifests the fears that many parents have when considering to house a foster child, the ambiguity of what child will be placed with you is quite daunting for many families.
Meme culture is meant to be widely generalized and at times offensive. When looking up foster care memes it seems that the most predominant are hampering on the humor of wild foster children. This generally destructs the reputation of foster children and adds to the stigma worn by many of these kids seeking a home.
Although memes are meant to be offensively humorous, it speaks true to a stigma that prohibits many families from fostering, therefore, prohibits many children from finding a place to call home.

Foster Children on Twitter

https://twitter.com/hashtag/fostercare?lang=en

More and more social media has become the place where people receive their news about what’s going on in the world. So, it is important for accounts like Human Rights on Twitter to convey information in an effective and concise way. Infographics are a great way to get information across for people who just like to read the headlines.

54% of foster care children earn a Highschool diploma. 2% earn a Bachelor’s degree. 84% Become a parent. 51% are unemployed. 30% lack health insurance. And 25% of foster children who age out of the system are homeless. These are shocking statistics that represent foster children in the media in a desperate way.

The caption of the tweet of the infographic states, “How do you plan to combat these statistics?”  This puts the issue of children aging out at the same urgency status of a crisis. It is a clear struggle that the government does not know who to solve this issue and it is even clearer that the resources to do so simply are missing.

Twitter – in particular tweets like this – do a good job in appropriately addressing the issues that foster children face. Through informative platforms like this, people don’t need to look far to realize what is going on in the world surrounding them. It is refreshing to see the lengths in which the issue of aging out reaches, hopefully this has later implications of people taking action in combating these statistics.

White Oleander by Janet Fitch “Goodreads”

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32234.White_Oleander

White Oleander by Janet Fitch earned a 3.95 out of 5 stars on “Goodreads”. Averaged over 283,605 ratings that are accompanied by 6,675 reviews. The brief summary of the fiction novel outlines the stories main characters, Ingrid, an imprisoned poet and her daughter, Astrid, a foster child. The novel followes each on their own self reflective journeys.

“Goodreads” is an online forum meant to help people decide what to read next and find out what their friends are reading. You can search and browse books of different categories or find a new novel through what awards it has recently acquired. “Goodreads” basically is a hotlist for books.

While White Oleander did receive a respectable rating on “Goodreads” there is also lots of buzz surrounding the book in the comments and commonly asked questions section of the page. The comments section of the page dives into the linguistics of the novel. Commenting on the novel’s poetry like fluidity. Commonly asked questions on the “Goodreads” page shows people’s curiosity when it comes to the foster child in the story, Astrid. Some search for clarification on whether Ingrid left Astrid for a selfish reason, others have lingering thoughts regarding some events that took place in foster homes that Astrid was placed in. This suggests that the novel presented Astrid’s situation as a chaotic one. It could be concluded this stems from an fragmented tone Astrid experiences in the foster care system.

Therefore, people’s questions that are presented on, “Goodreads” is starting a conversation as to what adds to Astrid’s stressful life. This forum leaves room for speculation and conversation when discussing the implications of the foster care on the character and the fiction novel, White Oleander.

#FosterCare

https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/fostercare/

The hashtag, #fostercare currently has 464K posts associated with it. All happy endings. On Instagram, it is not surprising that people often post the “highlight reel” of their lives. The most picture perfect moments, that in reality, usually decimal to the moments’ people like to keep hidden from the limelight.

To me, it was surprising that this range true when it came to a social issue. Rather than sharing the hard truths about the cracks in the system, #fostercare is a sequence of happy pictures of blended families who reached their happily ever afters. While I’m sure some digging would result in finding posts that speak the truth, glazing over a sea of happy faces that are associated with so many sad stories is a little unsettleing. It is true, celebrating happy endings is a wonderful thing. However, balance is necessary and overdue. Sometimes people can feel inspired by these heart warming stories, afterall, happiness is infectious.

It is natural for people to get uncomfortable when confronted with sad truths. This could explain the lack of sharing tragic circumstances that thousands of kids face every day. Perhaps Instagram just isn’t the place to display or discuss topics that are hard to grapple with. If you are looking for stories of babies being taken into custody by two loving parents, the #fostercare on Instagram is the place to look. However, if you are truly interested in the implications of the foster care system on an aging adolescent, facing years of ambiguous independence and uncertainty, Instagram is the wrong forum to be searching.

“Trump Administration Reviewing Plan for Housing Support to Any Youth Aging Out of Foster Care”

In early March of 2019, Secretary Ben Carson, part of Housing and Urban Development met with the Fostering Stable Housing Opportunities Coalition, youth-led program “ACTION” and National Center for Housing and Child Welfare. Secretary Ben Carson worked closely with these organizations to plan out a voucher system with the mission of preventing foster kids from ending up on the streets. This $20 million is meant to aid transitioning foster youths in high stakes situations. A system, where around 20,000 to 25,000 kids ages 18-21 are left unaided each year. Through the Tenant Protection Fund, the Family Self-Sufficiency program is aimed to help public housing residents. By giving them a cushion that lasts for three years. The hopes of HUD is that these young adults will focus less on mere survival and more on increasing their income and not relying on too heavily on government aid.

The Trump Administration is reviewing this plan to help support youths at risk of aging out of the foster care system. Too often, kids attempt to live after exiting foster care, but fail because they lack the basic necessity of a roof over their heads. Youths who age out at 18 are often trying to get a job, go to school, and survive. Consequently, these kids are falling through the cracks of society.

Although it is clear that this matter is a global crisis, the epidemic of foster youths aging out rarely makes it to the platform of large news corporations. While homelessness is an issue commonly discussed, the fact that in some states, 40% of homeless are foster youths who aged out, does not make the headlines. The Trump administration considering the necessary attention foster youths ageing out need is a step in the right direction. A belated, optimistic, call to action for foster kids to get the exposure and help they need.  

The Fosters Episode 1

The Fosters is an American TV show that airs on Free Form and Netflix. The show follows a fictional family as they face tumultuous struggles in their lives as a blended family. Lena and Stef are parents to one parital biological son (Stef’s son with her ex husband) and twins whom they have adopted. The series begins with Lena meeting Callie, a 16 year old foster kid who is currently in a juvenile delinquent facility. Callie, upon being released needs to be placed somewhere.

The first episode opens with a contrast of a juvenile delinquent facility and an angelic music recital. This could also be interpreted as the contrast between a foster child and a child that has a biological connection with his/her parent. At the juvenile delinquent facility, a frazzled social worker appears scrambling to inform Lena of the young woman she is about to meet. This character employs feelings of unorganized chaos which symbolises the lack of strategy that exists within the foster system. The social worker then references another foster child who had recently oded. The tone in which this is said in is fast and lacks conviction, conveying that this tragic event is an unfortunate normality in the foster care world. Callie, who becomes a central focus in the show, appears, beat up and disheveled.

It is clear that The Fosters portrays foster youths as a group in distress. The absence of biological parenting becomes a significant piece when navigating family roles in an unconventional household. What The Fosters concentrates on as well is the transition when kids are brought into someone’s home as teens. A new component of family preservation is also introduced. As foster children often move around so often seperation from their siblings in enevitvale and creates resistance from a family that they are placed with. Therefor, the struggle to connect grows larger.

Foster Care Portrayed in Movies

Over the weekend I watched the new movie, Instant Family. Directed by Sean Anders, and starring Mark Walhberg and Rose Bryn. The film portrays a couple who spontaneously decides to foster and then adopt three children. One fifteen year old, and her two younger siblings. This movie does theatrically display the traumatizing realities of the system’s inconsistencies. However, like in any Hollywood glamourized version of a story, unlike many other real familys, the family portrayed in Instant Family get their happy ending.

The movie does go over the hard hitting facts about the rarity of teenagers getting adopted. In one scene, a former foster child gets emotional after she recalls facing the nerve racking statistics of teenagers who age out of the system. Throughout the movie a recurring theme is the importance of adopting a teenageer out of the foster care system, because they are often the ones getting left behind. In my opinion this movie does a good job in appropriately illustrating the emotional effects that the foster care has on a maturing adolescent.  When a young couple is looking to adopt, a lot of the time it is because they are unable to conceive themselves, so, they are looking for a newborn. This leaves the most ineed group, teenagers, in the dark. I think that this movie destigmatizes foster teens. They’re societal bad wrap is referenced in the movie. Some parents looking to adopt want to avoid older kids because they may be emotionally stunted or coming with extra baggage. Instant Family normalizes and possibly even glamourizes this blended household.

Foster Children on Youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxwLgiwX1js

Foster Children are viewed through a number of different lenses through the media.  There are now new perspectives that introduces a new reality of what it means to be stigmatized with a label such as “foster kid”. The Foster Children’s Resource Center is a non profit organization that is one of a number of foundations whose mission is to give back to the community affiliated with The Assistance League of Los Angeles. The center reaches foster children from newborn to 21 years old in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita Valley. This establishment has been striving to make the lives of less fortunate children better for the past 30 years with the slogan, “Helping Children from Head to Toe”. Foster Children’s Resource Center primarily aids kids who have open cases and a referral from their social worker. Each child gets beautiful new clothes and resources to help ensure their success at home and at school.

They’re video is meant to attract people to come and volunteer at the center. The women who represent the center all rave of how the experience of meeting children with emotional and moving stories has impacted them. Foster Children’s Resource Center has seen children from when they were born to when they graduate school and delve into their careers as well adjusted adults. The volunteers in the video speak about how these children are so grateful to have an adult in their lives who really care for them. Most of the children are living at poverty level, have been taken out of their homes and placed with relatives they don’t really know. Most foster children don’t understand why they are separated from their parents. Some children are homeless, but regardless of their circumstances, they are all are frightened.

The main goal of the center is to give these children half an hour to separate from the ambiguity of their lives and feel special and valued. One woman recounts an experience where she gave a child a toothbrush and received the response: “I get my own? I’ve never had one before.” The way that foster children are represented in media, in this example, is as innocent children who have suffered greatly from abuse and neglect. The video’s key rehtorical device is pathos. The center puts on display how each child has an immense amount of gratitude for basic resources, that their circumstances have taken away from them. This is an emotional portrayal of of foster children. Foster Children’s Resource Center’s goal is to convince the public that this is a worthy cause to volunteer for, supporting the youth in these complicated times as they figure out the uncertainty of what is home to them.