By Guest
Spectacle are an independent television production company. A recent project looked at how the media portrays people in poverty, working with individuals featured in documentaries like The Tower and Rich Kid Poor Kid. Claire Sharples, project coordinator, reflects on whether poverty can ever be properly portrayed on TV.
Poverty is a problem faced by both individuals and society. Society commentators are an exclusive group, selected via a hierarchy and instated within a system. How representative can their voice be of the individuals who, because of the restrictions of their experience, do not rise through this?
The stories that find their way into the mass media produce a profound impact on the public subconscious; all mediated by the editorial chain. The commissioning editors of both BBC and Channel 4 documentaries present similar priorities in their commissioning guidelines: Their requests come in loaded language – requesting proposals to match.
Hamish Mykura, Head of Documentaries for More 4 lists ‘harrowing’ ‘obsessed’ ‘extreme’ and ‘compelling’ in the descriptions of previous successes, the titles of which are equally charged: Eight Minutes to Disaster; Killer in a Small Town.
Alternatively, there is a focus on the ‘cheeky’ (BBC3), with BBC3 and 4 seeking ‘onscreen talent’ just as Channel 4 emphasises ‘presenter-led’ documentaries; encouraging programmes that focus less on content and more the ‘entertainment values in their DNA’ (BBC3).
None of these criteria are detrimental in themselves but with this blanket approach to issue-based programming, there is an obvious conflict of interests.
Mass appeal and commercial viability are not criteria that encourage varied and responsible programming. They actively encourage those looking for a commission to seek these reactions in an audience above all else.
Is it possible to draw a large audience to more thorough and balanced documentaries about poverty? Is it useful to try and explore poverty and connected themes on television or does the nature of the platform predetermine failure?
Poverty is a problem faced by individuals and society. Using individuals, who bring their own stories, as props on whom to hang a debate will always blur the two. To choose one or the other as the emphasis is the only reliable option. In the meantime film-makers owe it to their subjects and audience to present the whole story rather than imply only one side, through editorial omissions.
[...] blamed it not on the journalists themselves but the media as a whole, where a desire to shock and sensationalise can override all other considerations, as in the case of the Tower [...]