According to a recent article in the Guardian, ‘only 176, or just over half a percent, of nearly 30,000 pupils who got three As at A Level last year were eligible for free school meals’.
If these statistics are correct, it indicates that the poorest in society are still not accessing higher level education. You cannot attend a good university, in most cases, if you do not have good A Levels.
What affect does this have on the media?
If you do not go to University, what chance do you have of working at the BBC or one of the mainstream newspapers? And if none of the poorest social groups work in the main stream media, what are the chances of a fair representation of this social group?
But this would be assuming that there is not only a link between education, that is higher education, and working in the media, but that this is an insurmountable obstacle.
Certainly I have seen little evidence that the media industry is dominated by graduates, or even by people with lots of A’s in their A Levels. In fact, I have seen few industries who care less about a person’s education than the media industry.
I see nothing that would stop someone living in poverty from doing some work experience, getting some contacts and finding even some work in the industry. Certainly they have the same opportunity as others. Whereas other industries, such as banking, would see those living in poverty suffer a distinct disadvantage, in the media industry a bit of hard work and initiative can overcome financial inequality.