The UK seems more advanced than the US in some respects..."poverty porn" [View all]

[HiPointDem]

Another example of how poverty in contemporary
Scotland is portrayed is provided by the four-part
BBC reality television programme The Scheme,
the first two parts of which were broadcast in
May 2010. In this example the community of a
deprived housing scheme, Onthank in Kilmarnock,
was presented as entertainment for public
consumption....programme makers created a modern day
equivalent of the carnival ‘freak show’...the offering
up of poverty and of ‘poor people’ for public
entertainment...

The programme formats...are supplemented by a whole host of
‘make-over’ and ‘self-improvement’ shows, as well
as other programmes which offer the wealthy
a chance to express their benefactor role or
philanthropism by dispensing money to good
causes (Secret Millionaire) and the like, or to live
among poor people to ‘experience what poverty is
really like’ (How the Other Half Live).

Together with the other poverty
porn formats highlighted here, it does however
illustrate the importance of media discourse in
the constructing particular groups as ‘problem’, as
well as contributing to tutelage for those deemed
in need of such – part of a burgeoning skills/
confidence/ ‘wellbeing’ market under New Labour,
evidenced by the likes of ‘parenting qualifications’.
In turn, the messages that we as viewers receive
are that, for the most part, working-class people
lack aspiration, are lazy, waste national resources
and tax-payers’ money – an especially heinous
crime when there is an economic crisis and when
the middle classes are doing their bit, losing out
on child benefit, for instance; they do not have
the character to lead a morally upright and crime-
free life and lack the wherewithal to improve
their condition without being ‘nudged’ in the
right direction. But we are also asked to concur
on who is designated ‘deserving’ or not.

The BBC TV series Saints and Scroungers
(in 2009) is one such programme centred on the ‘deserving’ and
‘undeserving’ poor. As its web pages inform us:
“Dominic Littlewood follows fraud officers as
they bust the benefits thieves stealing millions
of pounds every year, while charities and
councils track down people who actually deserve
government help”. The programme reminds us that
‘we’ law abiding taxpayers are being ‘robbed’ by
the ‘scroungers’; we acquire the impression that it
is easy to obtain welfare benefits (as evidenced by
supposed prevalence of ‘scroungers’ – whereas in
2008/09 £12.7bn of means-tested benefits and £5bn
of tax credits went unclaimed...

The cameras pay attention to the possessions
of those experiencing severe poverty (on
The Scheme for example) and through the camera’s
gaze on the plasma TVs and other goods, use of
alcohol and tobacco we learn that many of those
in poverty are ‘flawed consumers’ and that, as
these are ‘non-essentials’, the benefits which
claimants receive must be ‘too much’. Once more
the question of the ‘fairness of it all’ is raised,
...the ‘binary divide’ between ‘us’ and ‘them’ is
reinforced. In the context of increasing economic
and social insecurity, flawed consumption and
this seemingly pathological behaviour mobilises
support for a harsher and more punitive welfarism.
Furthermore, these messages also work as a
warning – inculcating fear that personal ‘failure’
will lead to the flawed and deviant lifestyle of ‘the
poor’... Poverty porn provides, or helps to provide, the justification for the
‘remaking’ of welfare along US-style ‘workfare’
models. It fits with the common-place anti-
welfarism in the tabloid press.

http://www.midpsy.org/poverty%20porn%20tv.pdf