Poverty 2010
It’s 2010 the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion, “The fight against poverty and social exclusion is one of the EU’s central objectives and our shared approach has been an important tool to guide and support action in the Member States,” said Social Affairs Commissioner, Vladimir Pidla. “The European Year will take this even further, by raising awareness of the way poverty continues to blight the daily lives of so many Europeans.” (Press release, Europa) Let’s hope the funding is spent in a productive way so the campaign reaches the specific goals and targets which actually make an impact on peoples lives.
We kicked off 2010 with the London’s biggest public transport fare hike in history, brought in by the Mayor’s office. This action does nothing to combat poverty, decreasing the ability for low income families to manouvre around London and access the opportunities on offer.
“Underground fares will rise by an average 3.9 per cent from January, while bus fares will go up by 12.7 per cent. Boris Johnson, the mayor, said the increases were comparable to similar-sized increases in 2005 and 2006 under Ken Livingstone, his predecessor. However, since inflation is far lower than in the previous years, the coming increase is significantly higher in real terms and the largest since Transport for London took over responsibility for London’s transport network in 2000.”
(Robert Wright, Big fare rises unveiled for London, Financial Times, 10/15/09)
The richer portions of our society will not be affected by the rise but the poor portions will definitely feel the affects of the rise in their daily lives.
And finally I’d like to relay some facts taken from the Shelter website.
• 1.6 million children in Britain live in housing that is overcrowded, temporary, or run-down.
• Over 1 million children live in overcrowded housing.
• More than 90,000 homeless children in England are living in temporary accommodation.
• 4 million children in the United Kingdom live in poverty after their housing costs have been paid.
We need to take these facts very seriously because the children are our future so together through our actions assist in providing a better life for them.
It’s good to see the EU coming together to try and eradicate poverty but until the Government and society address issues that effect peoples day to day lives such as transport, housing, education and other basic needs, we can’t expect to see the inequality gap close.
Reality TV shoot – caption competition #5
The Public Relations Guru
Being in a Reality TV programme can be psychologically damaging. To make sure you can financially benefit from your exploitation it is a good idea to have a public relations agent. He will look over product endorsement contracts for you and make sure when your private life is exposed in the press it is on the front page.
The PR consultant will oversee your career
What do you think he is advising the contestant??
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Follow the link if you would like to know more about our Poverty and Participation in the Media project
Reality TV shoot – caption competition #1
Reality TV shoot – caption competition #2
Reality TV shoot – caption competition #3
Reality TV shoot – caption competition #4
The Victim Contestant
In this picture the contestant is trying hard to win and keep his dignity. He is thinking about the fame and fortune that will follow. How the woman at the check out is going to say something like “‘Ere weren’t you on telly last night?”
How am I doing?
What else is he thinking? Any ideas?
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Follow the link if you would like to know more about our Poverty and Participation in the Media project
Reality TV shoot – caption competition #1
Reality TV shoot – caption competition #2
Reality TV shoot – caption competition #3
Reality TV shoot – caption competition #3
Studio Audience
The nice people at the Television company invite their friends and family to be in the studio audience. Being in a TV audience is very easy but these days you need to know how to Whoop! like an American, which some English people find hard to do. You can practice this at home before you go “on set”.
Two reality TV fans in the audience
Can you think what they are saying?
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Follow the link if you would like to know more about our Poverty and Participation in the Media project
Reality TV shoot – caption competition #1
Reality TV shoot – caption competition #2
Reality TV shoot – caption competition #3
Reality TV shoot – caption competition #2
The Director
In this scene the director is very animated and holds his hands up to form a frame so he can see what the image will look like on television.
Give me victim- Thats good-ACTION!
Before he shouts “Action!” he gives words of encouragement to the contestants. Can you think of what he is saying?
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Follow the link if you would like to know more about our Poverty and Participation in the Media project
Reality TV shoot – caption competition #1
Reality TV shoot – caption competition #2
Reality TV shoot – caption competition #3
Reality TV shoot – caption competition #1
Reality TV- Poverty and the Media
People in the early twenty first century thought nothing of watching the insane for entertainment. It was seen as quite normal. People used to joke that it was often hard to decide who was the madder, the actors, the crew or the viewers. There are stories of the celebs leaving the asylum and the wrong people being kept inside.
Have a look at this “behind the scenes” image of a reality TV studio shoot and if you have any idea for a caption add it below.
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Follow the link if you would like to know more about our Poverty and Participation in the Media project
Reality TV shoot – caption competition #1
Reality TV shoot – caption competition #2
Reality TV shoot – caption competition #3
Poverty and Participation in the Media is now available to buy on DVD
Poverty and Partcipation in the Media is now available to buy on DVD from the Spectacle Catalogue page.
Poverty and Participation in the Media is a participatory media project examining how the media treats poverty and those affected. Looking at opportunity and exclusion; representation, stigmatisation and stereotyping. With the wealth gap on the increase and virtual segregation of the classes creating urban ghettos – Does the media bridge or increase the divide?
The Spectacle Catalogue page contains videos produced by Spectacle, Despite TV and others and all the titles are available to buy on both video and DVD.
More children living in persistent poverty in Northern Ireland than Great Britain
More children living in persistent poverty in Northern Ireland than Great Britain
A report published today (12 November 2009), on child poverty in Northern Ireland, found that more families in Northern Ireland experience persistent poverty than in Great Britain.
What can we do to tackle child poverty in Northern Ireland by Goretti Horgan from the University of Ulster and Marina Monteith from Save the Children (Northern Ireland) explores the challenges faced by the Northern Ireland Assembly in meeting its target of eradicating child poverty. It found that persistent poverty in Northern Ireland (21% before housing costs) is more than double that in Great Britain (9% before housing costs).
The report points to four main reasons for higher persistent poverty in Northern Ireland:
· High levels of worklessness: 31 per cent of the working-age population is not in paid work,higher than any GB region and 6 per cent higher than the GB average.
· High rates of disability and limiting long-term illness, especially mental ill-health.
· Low wages: the median wage for men working full-time is 85 per cent of that for British men.
· Poor-quality part-time jobs and obstacles to mothers working.
The authors acknowledge that although there are some areas which need to be tackled that are beyond the Assembly’s control, there are issues over which the devolved administration has some influence. They recommend that the Assembly works on six key areas:
· Increasing the supply of well-paid, good quality jobs
· Supporting those already in work to increase their qualification levels
· Alleviating the worst impacts of poverty on children
· Addressing the lack of quality affordable childcare
· Increasing educational attainment
· Providing access to leisure and social activities for poorer young people
Julia Unwin, Chief Executive of the JRF, said: “The Assembly has already shown that it is possible to intervene to alleviate some of the worst aspects of poverty. Just as it provided the one-off fuel payment of £150 to families on benefit in winter 2008/09, it could make it easier for people to take ‘mini-jobs’, allowing those living on benefits to provide a little extra for their families. School budgets need to provide for all the costs of education including books, school trips and after-school activities. It must also address ways of giving poorer young people access to positive social and leisure activities.”
What can we do to tackle child poverty in Northern Ireland by Goretti Horgan from the University of Ulster and Marina Monteith from Save the Children (Northern Ireland), is available to download for free from the Joseph Rowntree website.
For more information view Spectacle’s Poverty and Participation in the Media project.
Notes:
Poverty is defined as a family income below 60% of the median income.
Persistent poverty defined as being in poverty for at least three out of four years (in this case 2003-2007).
Benefit Busters: Blaming the poor…..again
Channel 4’s new show ‘Benefit Busters’ seems to be a PR gem for a government overseeing the biggest economic crisis in the past 30 years. Once again the numerous reasons why unemployment is soaring and more and more people are finding themselves in the ranks of the long-term unemployed is ignored in favour of the old-iddium- ‘people are lazy’. The concept is simple, an outside team come into the local job centre and teach all the unemployed the reason they have no job is their negative attitude.
It would be funny, if it wasn’t so mind-numbingly unoriginal and tragic. That Channel 4 has managed to find a character that bares a striking resemblance to ‘league of gentlemen restart officer Pauline’ in the form of Hayley, is a small triumph but the truth is that a this is a bad tabloid headline come to life and its harmful. ‘No jobs, rubbish! a pep talk from Hayley and suddenly your dreams come true, Poundland has an opening. In agony after a terrible accident, don’t worry if your benefits are cut and your on the breadline you will soon forget about your troubles’. Not only does it patronise those millions of people looking for work in an ever squeezed market, it attacks the weakest in society, the sick and disabled who have the least chance of finding employment.
This is best illustrated by the episode where Kieron, a young man on disability allowance, has his benefits cut after he was found to be ‘faking’ a serious back injury by one of the pep talk team. Now call me cynical but I always thought you needed extensive medical training and a few years working with patients before you could decide whether someone was ill or not, a bad neck tie and lipstick just doesn’t seem like enough.
With virtually no questions asked of A4E, the private company involved in Benefit Busters or how much value for money we the tax payer are getting for this scheme, as opposed as to the old system, this is more like a informercial for A4E than a documentary. Given that it is claimed A4E receive up-to £I94 per client per week and they have a limited amount of success, even in the program several clients failed to stay in work, more stringent questions should have been asked about the methods of this company.
Is it right that Emma Harrison, the companies founder, has become a millionaire through other peoples unemployment? If you make money from people being out of work can you be trusted to find them a job? Is Hayley the person to rummage through peoples deep-seated psychological problems?
I just wonder what Channel 4 will sink to next- ‘The poor and disabled, how they bring it on themselves’.
For a further critique of Benefit Busters visit The Metro
To read criticism of Benefit Busters by a local charity visit Fife Today
For further information on our Poverty and the Media Project and to view our workshops please visit our Project Page.
‘How the other half live’ fails to tackle real issues
From the makers of ‘Secret Millionaire’, ‘How the other half live’ is Channel 4’s new program dealing with poverty in the UK. Each week a rich family looks at the life of a poor family and at the end of the program gives a certain amount of money or ’sponsorship’ to that family.
The makers of ‘How the other half live‘ may have had the best intentions in the world with this program, asking the viewer to explore the gap between rich and poor, highlighting the poverty that exists in UK and encouraging people to be as generous with those who need help in this country as they are with those abroad, but it is still, as Keith Watson put it in the Metro ‘patronising‘ and astonishingly contrived.
Instead of looking at the general picture of poverty in this country it focuses on a handful of ‘lucky’ people who are to become the benefactors of a handful of wealthy patrons. This view makes each episode an almost Dickensian style story of the hopeless poor being rescued by the good-hearted rich.
Having a nice easy solution at the end of each program, where a single familie’s problems are solved by a cheque book, actually masks the real issue of the thousands of other families who continue to live in poverty. It also fosters the idea that poverty is a personal issue to be solved by wealthy individuals rather than a societal issue to be dealt with by all.
What do you think?
Are these programs helping or hindering those in poverty?
What is wrong with rich people adopting poor families?
To find out about Spectacle’s Poverty and the media project please visit our Project Page
