EIU Media Relations

Poverty is Focus of EIU Communication Day Events

Cara Finnegan will speak about the role photographs play in illustrating poverty in America as part of the Eastern Illinois University Communication Studies Department’s annual Communication Day on Wednesday.

Communication Day activities are set for 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the third floor of the University Union to provide undergraduate communication students and the public an opportunity to enhance their perspectives on poverty aspects.

Each hour-long panel gives a detailed description of the importance of communicating toward and about poverty-stricken communities.

Finnegan, an associate professor of speech communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and author of the award-winning book “Picturing Poverty: Print Culture and FSA Photographs,” is to speak at 1 p.m.

Finnegan’s address will weave photos from the Depression and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to make a compelling, persuasive argument about the rhetorical functions of photographs in helping to understand poverty as it exists in America.