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H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H How life is on the


real benefits street I am an NUJ member (former BBC) and currently running the Poverty Media Unit for the national charity ‘Church Action on Poverty’. Rachel Broady’s article ‘From Cathy Come Home to Benefits Street’ and the NUJ guidelines you have printed on reporting poverty in the July/August edition of The Journalist tie in very much with our own work on challenging the negative stereotypes portrayed by some of the media. We welcome the guidelines you have given and we urge all


journalists and editors who are NUJ members to adopt them. For your information (and interest) we ran a campaign


alongside Channel 4’s second series of Benefits Street called Real Benefits Street (www.realbenefitsstreet.com), launching a website and You Tube channel to dispel the myths and negative stereotypes and give people living in poverty an opportunity to have their voice heard about their own experiences. Real Benefits Street also included a series of quizzes,


including one on ‘Media Myths’ and another on ‘Holes in the Safety Net’ (http://realbenefits-street.com/quiz/). We welcome working with journalists and editors who


adopt the NUJ guidelines when reporting on poverty, and who want to give people living in poverty a voice. Jackie Cox Poverty Media Unit Co-ordinator Church Action on Poverty


H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H


Don’t demonise the poor nor sanctify the feckless Ms Broady omits some views in her article regarding poverty and demonisation (From Cathy Come Home to Benefits Street, July/August). Poverty is no exculpation of decency.


Swathes of the working class manage to resist burning their offspring to death as the Philpotts did. Bevan said the greatest poverty of the workers in Britain was the poverty of their aspiration. Rachel ought to focus on an education system in which factory fodder no longer exist and 93 per cent cannot afford Eton or Harrow. Reality TV has given us a bear pit with which to cheer and jeer designated


24 | theJournalist


chavs. “Benefits Street” and its ilk are cheap to film, hence their popularity among the Tarquinocracy of producers. The rise of social media gave many of the voiceless a voice, and they use it. The beatification of Jade Goody can be seen as both example and warning. I assure Rachel I am more au fait with eating in soup kitchens in Britain than she is.


It is laudable not to demonise the poor but one ought not to sanctify the feckless. It is as far from Mayfair to Bermondsey as it is from Bedford- Styvesant to West 67th Street Ciaran Goggins Belfast


Where was the NUJ on the anti austerity march? The #EndAusterityNow march in London in June was massive – attracting many thousands of (mainly) young people to a cause of hope. Many unions were there in force – despite the disappointing lack of any TUC lead – Unite, UCU, NUT, Unison and others – but, sadly, no NUJ banners (unless somebody sneaked by). The event was on our website, and in NUJ Active – received on the day, too late to build support, but we had no rallying point. It was a real party event – different


from demos in the past 40 years. It was inspiring to see so many people


Email to: journalist@nuj.org.uk Post to: The Journalist 308-312 Gray’s Inn Road London WC1X 8DP Tweet to: @mschrisbuckley


actively believe that we needn’t accept a government slowly strangling our public services – at both national and local level, despite the election. Speakers such as Owen Jones and Jeremy Corbyn MP met huge enthusiasm, when advocating campaigning and fighting for change to combat growing inequality, promoted by supposedly necessary austerity. We should have been there recruiting members. My NUJ Book Branch badge helped start conversations with young photographers and reporters interested in joining the union, whom I referred to the website. Apart from lifting my spirits, this shows how we could use such events to build our membership. Sylvia Courtnage Book Branch


Media diversity matches that of British society In reading Dominic Bascombe’s article entitled “Why does the media badly lack diversity?” in the May /June issue of The Journalist, I found myself quite puzzled by his assumptions. In his Viewpoint article, Mr Bascombe


states: “Most recent figures suggest that some 94 per cent of journalists are white: a shocking figure that doesn’t come close to reflecting the wider society” In fact the figure does reflect the wider society fairly accurately. If Mr Bascombe had checked the figures he would have found that in 2011, the most recent figures I could obtain, 86 per cent of the UK’s population were white and that less than two per cent [1.9 per cent to be exact or 1.8 million, were black] To this figure can be added a further 12 per cent or so of other non- white races. Since white people are in such a majority its not surprising that 94 per cent of journalists are white. This figure is quite rightly roughly in keeping with British society and the population at large. Contrary to Dominic Bascombe’s comments the numbers do, in fact,


TIM ELLIS


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