Two new publications, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), have put a spotlight on how the media reports and depicts poverty and how this might be improved.
Reporting Poverty in the UK, jointly produced by the Society of Editors (SoE), Media Trust and the JRF, highlights the dilemmas faced when reporting on poverty. It shows the perspectives of a range of journalists, outlining their concerns and different approaches they have taken. It also provides a useful resource for the media by listing contact details for poverty organisations; by providing definitions and measurements of poverty; and detailing facts around popular misconceptions of poverty.
Guide author and journalist David Seymour describes poverty as the "final stigma in Britain" and laments the limited amount of coverage it receives. He adds that when it is covered, "the result is often negative, with little attempt to understand or explain what life is like for those on the bottom rung of the economic ladder."
SoE Executive Director Bob Satchwell says: "We want journalists to understand the facts and report them fairly and accurately. Issues such as poverty are frequently discussed in bland phrases or camouflaged by academic jargon. It is wrong both ethically and commercially not to report the lives of people living in poverty as sensitively as we would any other members of our communities."
A second report - The media, poverty and public opinion in the UK - examines depictions of poverty in the media, showing how these might influence public perceptions of poverty. Researchers used a range of different techniques including examining how the same story was covered in different outlets and reviewing a range of TV genres. They interviewed key media figures involved in producing poverty coverage and held focus groups to capture responses and interpretations from the public. In addition, they analysed representations of poverty across television, radio, print and online outlets for a week. The sample indicated that poverty was a marginal issue in mainstream UK media during that week. It had seldom explored the causes of poverty or showed the consequences of those experiencing it. People in poverty had featured in less than one in eight of the reports, while groups facing a higher risk of poverty, such as disabled people and women, were reported less frequently than those at a lower risk.
The study features examples of media output which show that probing investigations of poverty can provide material for original and memorable copy. Lead author John McKendrick says: "The media has the capacity to inform the public about the nature of poverty. However, this possibility is not taken full advantage of as poverty is seldom explicitly described or explained. Imaginative reporting may prompt people to reflect on their views, and begin to build public support for anti-poverty initiatives."