View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

UK news media ignores the realities of poverty according to Joseph Rowntree study

Poverty and the effects of economic exclusion are largely ignored by the UK news media according to a new report by a major research charity.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation today releases a study showing that poverty is only a marginal issue in the news and that journalists rarely explore the causes or consequences..

The report, Media, Poverty and Public Opinion in the UK analysed more than 150 newspapers, 100 radio programmes, 75 television news programmes and other magazine and new media sources over the week beginning 30 July as well as other qualitative and quantitative research.

When the issue did appear in stories, the focus was on extreme cases that highlighted the ‘failings’of undeserved people, the report found.

Lead author John McKendrick said that the media “has the capacity to inform the public about the nature of poverty” but this possibility is not taken full advantage of as poverty is seldom described or explained.

‘Imaginative reporting may prompt people to reflect on their views, and begin to build public support for anti-poverty initiatives,’he said.

The report concludes that the media have the ‘scope to humanise and politicise poverty. However this poverty is rarely explicitly described or explained”.

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

The foundation has also released a guidebook for reporters written by former Daily Mirror political editor David Seymour, Reporting Poverty in the UK, jointly produced by the Society of Editors and the Media Trust. It attempts to show ‘the dilemmas faced when reporting on poverty”.

When poverty 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’wrote Seymour in the guidebook, adding that poverty is the ‘final stigma in Britain”.

The pamphlet illustrates the different approaches taken by a variety of journalists, lists poverty organisations’ contact numbers and dispels common misconceptions about social and economic exclusion.

Society of Editors executive director Bob Satchwell said: ‘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.’

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network