Poor Reporting

What does it take to get people in the rich world engaged in the issue of global poverty? How can you avoid cliché, sentimentality and callousness? What stops people turning off? Nick Fraser, editor of the BBC’s TV documentary series Storyville, reflects on the difficulties of selling a series on poverty.

Fraser goes to New York to meet an extreme example of his audience, circulating among some of the wealthiest people on the planet, as they meet to discuss the war on want and attempt to address the world’s ills.

Is poverty something the global rich care about or will watching a tear-jerking documentary simply salve their conscience as they plan their next holiday? And what part should the media play: reporting on things as they are or campaigning for how they should be?

(Image: A woman with a baby on her back and a child to her side, Credit: Getty Images)