Many die in Sub-Saharan Africa of malnutrition, diseases and illnesses. Countries in Asia and South America are not spared and the same can also be attributed to some parts of Eastern Europe. The plight of the poor in the global south (countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America) and in some parts of the global north (countries in Europe and North America with the exception of Mexico), are always publicized in sappy commercials asking, those with bigger wallets, to support a child with just one dollar a day. The plight of poverty stricken children is saddening, yes, but that doesn't make the news. Poverty does appear in national headlines in some particular instances.
Poverty makes the news when the issue is closer to home. The global north is more sympathetic to an issue when it's closer to home or at home. When poverty is closer to home, the issue seems real. We cannot distance ourselves from another's pain. It grabs the public's attention because it can severely impact adjacent poverty-free countries or regions. Americans are perpetually reminded of poverty-stricken Mexico. Gun control, illegal immigration and swine flu, tend to remind Americans that their borders aren't necessarily safe. The plights of several illegal immigrants make the American news because the issue is closer to home.
Poverty, not only makes the news when the crisis is closer to home, but when it occurs in unlikely areas. There are several poverty stricken areas in the United States. That never makes the news, but if places like Beverley Hills became a breeding ground for poverty, the very issue would make national headlines. Better yet, if the United Kingdom deteriorated to the social-economic conditions found in Malawi, the very issue would make the news. Nobody expects poverty to hit places that were once money-making machines, but everybody expects poverty in places where it perpetually resides. A better term for it all is sympathy fatigue. The public becomes tired of hearing the same stories about the same places that cannot restart their economic engine, cannot feed its starving population and cannot cure its population from fatal illnesses. However, the public is stunned when a prevalent economic machine crashes.
Poverty only makes the news when the poor rebel. Protests work, but it is efficient when manifestations become violent. To this day, the French will never forget the 2005 youth riots in the streets of Paris. Many first generations of poor French Africans and Arab youth, took the street to lament about social conditions in France. In a society that does not offer them job or opportunities because of their racial background, the youth took to the streets to voice their concerns. While damages were made, the message was received.
Other rebellions happened in Somalia. In a country that has no formal government, lacks UN assistance and its poverty level cannot be recorded, pirates took to the high seas to capture western merchandise. The acts were a response to the economic pressures Somalia faces in its fractured country. The concerns and the plights of the Somalis, reemerged as an international issue.
Poverty finally, only makes the news when stakes of the wealthiest organizations, people and interest groups are threatened. The genocide in Sudan has garnered attention in the international community. The crisis has been pinned as genocide by the United Nation Organization. For the UN, the genocide in Sudan is a humanitarian crisis but for many in the global north, it's bad for business. Therefore, companies lobby governments to take sides or to enter a country if their profits, some vital to a country's economy, dwindle. It may not be the case for Sudan, but it is not rare for a country to enter in another country ravaged by war, poverty and diseases to save their assets.
Even if the correlation between business, profiting and opportunism is clear, the news doesn't discuss it. It will discuss the poverty issues within the country in question. It will discuss the lives lost. But the very issue would not have made the news if it did not compromise trades in the global north.
Poverty makes the news when it occurs closer to home: when it occurs in the least expect places, there are strong manifestations and when the global north's interest are compromised. Hence, what we don't know, see or feel, doesn't hurt us!