Poverty

Who Benefits? How can poverty be better portrayed on TV

This conference will consider the portrayal of poverty on television; it is being held by the BBC, The Royal Television Society, NCVO and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

Who Benefits? will be chaired by BBC Breakfast presenter, Louise Minchin. We'll be looking at some of the reality TV and documentary programmes that have been made in poorer communities: what they are, how they are made, and why audiences watch them.

TV’s poverty dividend

Who benefits from TV’s glut of poverty programmes? Is it the TV companies or the films’ protagonists? And what of the charities that are frequently involved in the making of this tele­vision sub-genre, which has been dubbed “poverty porn”?

These were some of the questions discussed at a conference held at the end of November and organised by the RTS, BBC, Joseph Rowntree Foundation and National Council for Voluntary Organisations.