Social Policy, the Media and Misrepresentation (PDF)

The often-misleading ways in which radio, newspapers and television report poverty, homelessness, education, health and disability are of crucial and growing concern to those studying social policy and media studies. Such concerns are heightened in the political context of a government that is clearly committed to promoting its policies via media-based advertising and news management.
Social Policy, the Media and Misrepresentation is a radical collection of chapters by distinguished academics, journalists and broadcasters, which examines various aspects of news media reporting of social policy and the influences of such coverage on the processes of policy making and implementation. It offers an appraisal of the complex inter-relationships between news media, news sources, the content of media coverage of social policy and its impact on audiences, public opinion and policy makers. With detailed case studies, the various chapters explore:
* social work and child protection
* housing and homelessness
* the charity and voluntary sectors
* poverty and welfare policy
* health (including HIV/AIDS) and mental health
* education and crime and juvenile justice.
Social Policy, the Media and Misrepresentation establishes that media reporting of social policy illustrates a growing problem for policy making in democratic states when citizens are so poorly served by media with information about policy issues.