Spectacle to interview maker of Rich Kid Poor Kid

Posted on March 23, 2009 by admin

Tomorrow Spectacle will be holding a question and answer session with Zac Beattie of Close-up Films, maker of Rich Kid Poor Kid and local residents from the area where the film was made . This is to enable him to answer some the of the criticisms of the program that were raised in our poverty and the media workshops. We would like people to suggest any questions the would like us to ask him.

Please leave any questions in the comment section of the blog or email us at info@spectacle.co.ukFor more clips from our Poverty and The Media project please visit our Archive

To find out more information about our Poverty and The Media project please visit our Project Page

From Shameless to Little Britain, does drama negatively stereotype the poor?

Posted on March 2, 2009 by sinbin

Below is an article describing a study of ‘Little Britain’ that was carried out by the London School of Economics. Do you agree or disagree with this report.

A study by a London School of Economics academic said many of the show’s characters – from teenage mum Vicky Pollard to proud gay Daffyd – are stereotypes based on people’s dislike of others of a different class, sexuality, race or gender.

Researcher Deborah Finding branded the show as “the comedy equivalent of junk food”.

“It is clear that when ‘we’, the audience, are invited to laugh at ‘them’, the characters – we are laughing not only at the figures on screen but at entire groups of people whom they come to represent,” she said.

“Little Britain does far more to promote racism, sexism, homophobia, ageism and classism than it does to satirise them – though it does do that from time to time.

“To claim that it is ironic is to miss the point that comedy constructed about the other – that which is different from us – involves the mocking of minority groups in a way that winds the clock back to the pre-alternative days of (controversial British comedian) Bernard Manning.”

In her study, Ms Finding analysed the show’s characters and found that their physical traits were used to project fears about homosexuals, the working class and minority groups.

She said that in laughing at Vicky Pollard – a fat, chain-smoking, single mother – audiences were expressing their fears and hatred of the working class.

Viewers saw Vicky, with her “stereotypical body”, as having the features of all working-class single mums, “feckless, stupid and promiscuous”, Ms Finding said.

“Even Daffyd, the self-proclaimed only gay in the village, is a character who connects the idea of being homosexual with being ridiculous and therefore relies on mainstream fears about gayness, despite the fact that Daffyd is the creation of comedian Matt Lucas – who is himself gay,” she said.

For more clips from our Poverty and The Media project please visit our Archive

To find out more information about our Poverty and The Media project please visit our Project Page

Spectacle to re-interview residents of The Tower

Posted on February 9, 2009 by clockword

Spectacle are planning to return to the infamous Tower on the Pepys Estate, as featured in the BBC documentary The Tower, to find out from residents what they thought of the programs representation of where they lived. We will be visiting the community centre on Monday night (9/02/09) so please come along and share your opinion with us.

Have you ever lived on the Pepys Estate?

What would you like to ask the makers of The Tower?

Do you think the The Tower is a good representation of the Pepys Estate?

For more clips from our Poverty and The Media project please visit our Archive

To find out more information about our Poverty and The Media project please visit our Project Page

Depictions of Poverty: what happens when the film makers leave?

Posted on February 4, 2009 by admin

Rich Kid, Poor Kid, The Secret Millionaire, The Tower and Repossession, Repossession, Repossession are all programs that centre around ‘poor’ areas and attempt to explore social inequality through individual stories.

What happens to the individuals or areas in these programs when the film makers leave?

What are the consequences of putting peoples personal circumstances on television?

For more clips from our Poverty and The Media project please visit our Archive

To find out more information about our Poverty and The Media project please visit our Project Page

Poverty and the Media Films Feedback

Posted on January 26, 2009 by sinbin

Below is some feedback from two events in London and Glasgow where clips of Spectacle’s Poverty and the Media Project were shown

Faces of Poverty: How do Images tell the Stories?: London
Spectacle film was really positive- people’s own voices and own directing etc. The film showed people who are knowledgeable commenting on things that mattered to them.
Alison Whyte: Mark Easton said he’s interviewed 100s of people like those in spectacle film. These people are not empowered like those on spectacle. There can be really bad examples of editing and stigmatising.

Glasgow
Tuesday 4 November 2008

Anne Marie-Smith: ‘Spiritual Poverty’ – very dangerous, causes lows and depression; Heart warming to hear this phrase on the Spectacle DVD
Problem of stereotypes. Judging people, by their image (e.g. gold chain, lipstick, nice clothes etc.)

http://www.socialevils.org.uk/2008/04/09/poverty-and-inequality/

Glenn Jenkins response to Secret Millionaire

Posted on January 26, 2009 by admin

Below is a short extract from one of Spectacle’s Poverty and the Media workshops on the Marsh Farm Estate. In this clip Glenn Jenkins, long-term community activist and part of Marsh Farm Out Reach, talks about the way television programs, such as Secret Millionaire, Big Brother and Jeremy Kyle, treat poorer people.

Runnymede study blasts media depiction of white working class

Posted on January 26, 2009 by admin

According to a newly published study by the Runnymede Trust, Who Cares about the White Working Class?, poverty is the biggest cause of discrimination against white working class people not race.

The report states “The white working classes are discriminated against on a range of different fronts, including their accent, their style, the food they eat, the clothes they wear, the social spaces they frequent, the post-code of their homes, possibly even their names. But they are not discriminated against because they are white,”.

The Guardian writes the report attacks middle class media commentators for simultaneously defending white working class interests against the false attack of politically correct multiculturalism whilst they simultaneously deride and ridicule the feckless and undeserving poor, who have squandered the opportunities offered by the welfare state.

The BBC’s The White Season and Channel 4’s Immigration-The Inconvenient Truth, come in for particular criticism. Of these programs the report says “The interests of the white working class are habitually pitched against those of minority ethnic groups and immigrants, while larger social and economic structures are left out of the debate altogether.”

Are the media really concerned with the white working class or are they just jumping on the scapegoating bandwagon?

Why do the media focus on race instead of class?

Knocking Jeremy from his Pedestal

Posted on January 21, 2009 by Sharpie

Guardian Journalist, Andrew Sparrow, has hit out at the Jeremy Kyle Show’s aggressive and self-righteous exploitation of guest’s varying manifestations of poverty.

The article, which uses research from Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s ‘Public Interest in Poverty Issues‘ project, considers the report’s assertions that the show is:

‘presenting the less well-off as “undeserving” objects of derision’

‘while the Jeremy Kyle Show presents itself as a programme about relationships, “it could be viewed as a rather brutal form of entertainment that is based on derision of the lower-working-class population”.’

‘A spokesman for the Jeremy Kyle show responded, “It is unfortunate that this report presents a one-dimensional view of our programme. The Jeremy Kyle Show does not seek to ‘deride’ any particular social class or portray any group of people as ‘undeserving objects’. On the contrary, it focuses on real people with real problems addressing conflict in their lives, problems which reflect genuine issues within society, and seeks to help them achieve a resolution. We do this both within the programmes and with the support of an aftercare team comprised of qualified mental health nurses and a psychotherapist.”‘

It seems interesting to me that a report that engaged experts from so many fields would come to such a conclusive, singular conclusion without it being warranted.

Does the fact that guests aren’t actively steered towards their appearance and actions prior to the the show prove the producers good intent…

and the presence of professional care following the show demonstrate that that Jeremy’s dressing down of guests, before a studio and large television audience, is a nothing more than Tough Love?

Jeremy Kyle Show ‘undermines anti-poverty efforts’, says thinktank
-Andrew Sparrow, Guardian.co.uk,Wednesday 10 September 2008

Repossession, Repossession, Repossession

Posted on January 12, 2009 by admin

ITV’s new program Repossession, Repossession, Repossession focuses appropriately on people whose lives have been turned upside down by debt in the most dramatic fashion by the loss of their homes.

Following the lives of a family, a glamour model, a gambler and most interestingly Jamie an ambulance driver, it attempts to explain how these people got into a mountains of debt. Although the program lays some blame on banks and financial instituitions, it still focuses on individuals ‘spending sprees’ as the real reason their homes repossesed.

As Gary Hoffman, group vice-chairman of Barclays, rather checkily explains: “People binge eat, they binge drink, sometimes they spend, sometimes they binge borrow and what I encourage, what Barclays encourage, is for customers to talk to us when they have a problem.”

This from a man whose bank has lent millions pounds to those on low-comes and made a large fortune out credit card repayments.

The biggest question in this program should not be why are people are spending so much more than they earn? Or have people become too greedy? But why are public sectors workers like Jamie, who carry out essential services such as driving ambulances, earning so little they rely on debt to get by?

When will there be a program asking vice-chairs of Banks why they ran up so much debt they require billions of pounds of government bail outs?

The Spectacle Blog

Spectacle's blog on urbanism, human rights and social justice

Tag Archives: Poverty and the Media

Runnymede study blasts media depiction of white working class

Knocking Jeremy from his Pedestal

Repossession, Repossession, Repossession

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24569448-5005961,00.html