Broadcaster
SDG Workshop
Highlighting Poverty
through Media
A
media guru once wrote that
media has a slow penetration in
society, but it directly affects the
roots of the society in the longer term.
Media assumes many responsibilities
as a significant catalyst for human
development.
In 2017, AIBD published a research
by Nabeel Tirmazi
AIBD Programme Manager
journal, AIBD Annual Media Research
(AAMR), on the role of broadcasting media
in communication for development, in
which broadcasters of Asia-Pacific were
asked how much time slot was allocated
for the human development programmes
and what kind of subjects were given
priority. Shockingly, among public service
broadcasters, subject of poverty stood
last, while other topics like education,
health, infrastructure were given more
importance. Maybe this is because it
is kind of easy to glorify those things.
However, when a comparative study
between public broadcasters and private
enterprises was done, the private media
companies had much more focus on
the poverty issue than public channels.
Maybe because this is one topic where
government policies are easily criticised,
or perhaps due to the concept of poverty
porn.
Poverty porn is becoming a major
concern for social scientists. It is a term
related to yellow journalism in which
poverty is highlighted merely for the sake
of grabbing attention of their viewers.
Traditionally, poverty was thought to
be related to lack of resources only,
but the United Nations defines it as
a condition characterised by severe
deprivation of basic human needs,
including food, safe drinking water,
sanitation facilities, health, shelter,
education and information. It depends
not only on income, but also on access
to services. So according to this
definition, poverty is interlinked with
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other human developmental needs too.
Every basic need is like a jigsaw puzzle.
One challenge cannot be isolated and
highlighted accordingly, rather we as
media practitioners should look at them
in multi-faceted aspects.
Lately, the United Nations is focusing a
lot on its 2030 Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) and asking every country
to strive in achieving the 17 goals. Each
SDG stands on four pillars i.e. Social
Inclusion, Economy, Environment and
Good Governance. Therefore, poverty
highlighted alone, as a case of lack of
income or resource is not impactful for
the media audience. The media industry
needs to realise:
1. How poverty affects the overall econ-
omy of the country, i.e. how one per-
son, who is not contributing towards
the society due to his lack of access,
low skill, and certain social traps, has
a negative effect on overall economy?
2. Social inclusion i.e. How rejecting
and dejecting one certain segment of
the society makes things worse.
3. Environment i.e. how poverty is caus-
ing negative effect on the environ-
ment and climate change.
4. Lastly, the fourth pillar, good gover-
nance, whatever the policy is made
by the government, is it accountable?
Can it be measured properly and is
it really treated as top priority by the
government?
Traditionally we used to see poverty
stories as visuals of dirty slums, crying
babies, tearful eyes, sad faces and usu-
ally highlighted during the celebration of
World Poverty Day, World Charity Day,
etc. However, if we highlight poverty in
above-mentioned context, media can
generate limitless stories. Though being
a media broadcaster myself for the last
17 years I do understand that it is not
always easy to highlight such non-com-
mercial and non-glamorous issues.
According to most of the broadcasters,
poverty reporting is not a top priority
of their editorial desk because of the
following reasons:
1. It does not have great appeal for the
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reporters as compared to other issues
such as war, corruption, politics etc.
2. Audiences are often perceived not to
be very interested in these stories.
3. Poverty issues do not appeal to
advertisers
4. Executive producers or editors are
reluctant to air stories about poverty
except for the World Poverty Day or
World Charity Day, etc.
5. Business needs to increase the
consumer behaviour by highlighting
the lifestyle of the rich. On the other
hand, poverty as an issue is relegated
to stories about crime and conflict.
6. Cost pressures on news organisations
and low manpower while struggling
to remain profitable are also a big
challenge.
The media industry should realise that
priority for getting higher rating (which
generates the revenue) is important,
but it is also expected to be a social
responsible institution.
Recently, the Asia-Europe Foundation
of Journalists organised a group of
journalists to talk about the sustainable
development journalism. At the end of
the session, it was proposed that:
a. There should be an editorial focus on
the subject of poverty by:
i. Including sustainable develop-
ment stories in mainstream con-
tent.
ii. Making sustainable development
stories matter to the audience.
iii. Using the audience to help
tell the story (with the rise of
social media a new concept of
cultural production has evolved
in which social media platforms
are utilised not only to interact
with the audience, but also to
help form a story which is more
compelling, relatable, engaging
and appealing to the audience
of the same community).
iv. Speaking with people about
issues that matter to them.
v. Testing all assumptions with edi-
torial rigour (one slight mistake
may harm the story, credibility
and obviously can lead to bias).
vi. Using story-aids to make
reporting simpler and more
compelling.
vii. Relating economic stories to
sustainable development and
vice versa.
viii. Becoming proactive in uncover-
ing important issues (rather than
just wait for the stories to come
or some bad events to happen, it
is much better to have a proac-
tive approach rather than be re-
active. It not only increases the
credibility, but also shows the
concern of the organisation on
real matters).
ix. Taking a holistic approach with
sustainable development stories
(individual stories are less
impactful in contemporary idea
of highlighting such issues, so
turning an individual story and
magnifying its impact on a larger
scale or highlighting the trickle-
down effect of a larger thing to
an individualistic story can be
more interesting).
x. Using ongoing explanation and
clarification to improve under-
standing (as they say that repeti-
tion is the pathway to mastery, we
really need to tell these stories re-
peatedly with various aspects in
different ways to show the depth
of the problem until it actually is
being realised and policies are
made to improve the situation).
b. Journalists should be connecting
with communities through:
i. Social and participatory media
ii. Reaching out to communities
iii. Connecting with stakeholders
Another approach towards highlighting
poverty subjects can be done through
certain new media models for sustainable
development journalism:
a. Crowdfunding (there is another
concept of transmedia journalism in
which we can utilise the power of
mainstream media and social media,
but obviously we will be talking about
for some future meet-up, till then do
google about it).

b. Linked with business
c. CSR reporting
Recently, the traditional and alternative
media practitioners have started an
intense debate on the portrayal of poverty
on mainstream media. We have frequently
observed that sometimes media is
unintentionally abusing its powers just
to deviate from the actual root causes of
poverty by demonising the poor.
Poor people are blamed for society’s ills
by the media, like exploitation of the
weak, discrimination of the vulnerable,
addiction, etc., providing scapegoats,
which distract the public from criticising
policies and models set by the decision
makers and influencers of the society on
their ineffectiveness. Recently, a group of
young journalists from the National Union
of Journalists in U.K started a campaign
with the help of Church action to poverty
(Mr Nabeel Tirmazi delivered this topic as a lecture in Dhaka, Bangladesh through video link in one of the AIBD’s initiatives
towards SDG workshops for Asia-Pacific broadcasters).
not only to raise awareness regarding the
real issues of the poor, but also to set the
guidelines for ethical journalism. Before
I tell you those guidelines let us just see
how they look at poverty.
i. It is patronising to think people in re-
ceipt of benefits can only stretch so
far their budget -with limited money
they just need to be taught how
ii. Poverty is not just a lack of and so
on; it is also about money, food, jobs,
a lack of opportunity
iii. People living in poverty do not put
themselves there by choice. There is
no joy in going without meals, or not
having holidays, or seeing your kids
go without new things.
iv. Do not assume poverty is due to
people’s choices – recognise the na-
tional and global economic situation.
v. Judging people who claim benefits
as lazy is unfair and inaccurate –
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full-time workers need financial help
too.
vi. Reporting should emphasise that
people who work have to receive
benefits to make ends meet – in a
wealthy country.
vii. Words hurt. Reports can exacerbate
problems and increase hate crimes.
By looking at above-mentioned points,
we can clearly understand that with
one small mistake through the media
canvas, the media practitioner can
have a negative effect on the overall
society. Media scientists are intensively
advocating and devising certain ethical
laws related to highlighting this subject
which can genuinely create an impact
on the audience rather than creating
a desirable effect on the roots of the
society through the negative portrayal of
those people who are already dejected
and rejected by the policy makers.
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