England, N. Ireland, Scotland, Wales – Devolution and Disadvantage
Joseph Rowntree Foundation have released a series of reports to mark 10 years of devolution. The reports look at the impact of devolved policies and recognise a need for the Westminster to continue to reserve certain powers in order to improve conditions across the board but picks up on a failure to communicate feedback and learning between central and devolved government policies.
While concluding that much of the improvement in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales stems from UK policy, the reports acknowledge promising results from devolved policies, especially in the areas of social housing and elderly care. Athough their impact so far has been limited in size these results should improve as the administrations stabilise and imbed.
A less positive equalising factor was raised by report author Jim McCormick, who warns -
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.
Rowntree Report blows ‘lazy poor’ myth out of the water
A Guardian article that draws attention to the fact that the ”Majority of children living in poverty have at least one working parent” is based on the Rowntree Report ”Ending Child Poverty in a Changing Economy”. The report shows that over the past decade, the number of children with parents with ‘in-work poverty’ has grown as the majority of children in poverty have working parents. The current projections, however, show a partial reversal of this by 2010, with 54% of children in poverty being in non-working families. An overall projected fall in child poverty due to rises in benefits and tax credits means that the number of children in poverty with working parents is projected to fall by 20–30 per cent between 2006/7 and 2010/11. However, the number in poverty without working parents is projected to fall by only 5 to 10 per cent.
