Devils and Angels The Ideological Construction of Poverty Stories on RTE Television Eoin Devereux BA MA (NUI) Thesis presented for the award of PhD. Supervisor: Professor Farrel Corcoran, School of Communications, Dublin City University, Glasnevin, Dublin 9. Submitted April 1996. Declaration I hereby certify that this material, which I now submit for assessment on the programme of study leading to the award of the degree of PhD, is entirely my own work and has not been taken from the work of others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my own work. Date: 1 / ^ ^ L ii Thesis Abstract This thesis investigates how Radio Telelis Eireann (RTE) constructs television stories about poverty. Using a combination of critical content analysis and an ethnography of the production context of television programmes, the study examines poverty stories on factual, fictional and fund-raising television. The study begins with an account of how existing social science discourse has considered the phenomenon of poverty in the Republic of Ireland. It proceeds to examine the limited amount of debate about media coverage of poverty. The case for a largely qualitative methodological approach is then outlined. The main part of the study is an analysis of how poverty stories are constructed on RTE’s Six-One News, Tuesday File, Glenroe and the People in Need Telethon. Each of these four chapters consider the respective programmes in terms of their history, production context, the content of their poverty coverage, as well as a consideration of the ideology of that coverage. The study adopts Thompson’s (1990) definition of ideology which is concerned with how asymmetrical relations of power and domination are established and sustained in contemporary capitalist societies. The final chapter argues that poverty coverage on RTE television is not only reductive, but also serves to render invisible, significant proportions of the population who are poor. The chapter suggests that Golding and Middleton’s (1982) dichotomy of God’s and the Devil’s poor be recast, to take account of the central role which television coverage offers the agents of the poor. RTE television’s coverage of poverty is shown to reproduce the liberalism which predominates in Irish society. The study concludes with a consideration of the theoretical and policy implications of the project’s main research findings. Contents List of Tables V List of Figures V Acknowledgements VI Introduction IX Chapter 1 Searching For The Irish Poor 2 Chapter 2 Devils, Angels and Ideology 32 Chapter 3 Analysing Content and Production 87 Chapter 4 Unseating The Audience 121 Chapter 5 ‘Tis The Season To Tell Stories About Poverty 169 Chapter 6 Only God’s Poor Need Apply 206 Chapter 7 Never Mind The Issues...Where’s The Drama? 241 Chapter 8 The Invisible Poor 281 Bibliography 324 Appendices 347 iv List of Tables Table 1:1 The Main Features of Irish Quantitative Studies of Poverty Table 1:2 Perceived Grounds for Poverty, 1976 and 1989 Compared Table 1:3 Most Frequent Grounds for Poverty in Ireland in Decreasing Order List of Figures Figure 3:1 Stages of Ethnographic Study of RTE Outlined Figure 4:1 The Hierarchical Structure of RTE Current Affairs Television Figure 5:1 Order in which poverty stories were broadcast on Six-One News, Sept 11992 - Dec. 311992 v Acknowledgements I would like to thank the following individuals and organisations for their help. RTE Television, provided the financial support and access which were crucial for the development and completion of this project. In particular, I would like to thank Tony Fahy of RTE’s Audience Research Department for his assistance from the beginning. Those who work in RTE and who were willing to help me with my study in the form of access and interviews deserve credit for their honesty and concern. My research supervisors at DCU, Professor Farrel Corcoran and Dr. Helena Sheehan, provided immense support and advice through the predictable ups and downs of a project of this nature. If I have learnt anything from both, it is a combination of patience and punctuation skills! Des MacGuinncss, Paschal Preston and Pamela Galvin also of DCU helped in a variety of ways. The staff and graduate students of DCU offered invaluable advice at the various research seminars which I presented in the 1990-1995 period. At University of Limerick, I received much support from my colleagues in the Department of Government and Society. My Head of Department John Stapleton encouraged me in my work and proved flexible in terms of my teaching load. In particular, I would like to acknowledge the assistance of Dr. John Logan for his chat and charts, and Brian Keary for his usual incisiveness and coffee. Brian’s comments on early drafts of my study and useful suggestions are deeply appreciated. Thanks also to Mary Hayes who helped with some data and content analysis and Cathal Kelly who proof-read and corrected the entire text. At various times Anne McCarthy, Anne- Marie O’Donnell and Lorraine Whelan assisted me with several parts of the project and I would like to record my gratitude. Eoin O’Sullivan of the Streetwise Coalition and TCD helped in terms of advice and providing articles of interest. I would also like to record my gratitude to my students at the University of Limerick for allowing me to share my ideas with them throughout various lecture courses. Many thanks also to the editors of Media, Culture and Society (John Comer); Irish Communications Review (Ellen Hazelkorn); and the Irish Journal of Sociology (Tony Varlcy) who published earlier versions of parts of the study. Love and soul to the following: Ger Fitzgerald who always reminds me of my roots and that underneath it all I am still a punk rocker!; Sarah Moore for always putting things in perspective; Niall (Let me introduce you to the family) McGowan for being Niall; Michael O’Flynn for his encouragement, wit and shared interest in Flann O’Brien; Sandra Loftus for her long-standing friendship and pints of plain; my nephew, John Devereux for his questions about ‘my book’; and my family for putting up with me! Most of all, I want to thank my wife Liz for her love, support and encouragement and for making everything right. Joe Devereux (aged 15 months) deserves thanks for being a good baby during the long nights and early mornings of 1995/1996. Finally, a special word of thanks to my parents Eamon and Anne Devereux who had the foresight to encourage me in my studies and who have taught me the value of common-sense. This study is dedicated to both of them. Eoin Devereux April 30 1996 “I’d like to drop my trousers to the Queen Every sensible child will know What this means The poor and the needy Are selfish and greedy On her terms...” The Smiths, “Nowhere Fast” From the LP Meat is Murder, written by Morrissey and Marr. © Warner Music (UK) 1984. Introduction In recent times Irish society has been characterised by record levels of unemployment, and in comparative European terms, a very high level of relative poverty. This study is concerned with a heretofore unexplored dimension of the Irish poverty question. It examines how the Irish public service broadcaster Radio Telefis Eireann (RTE) ideologically constructs stories about Irish poverty on its two television stations RTE 1 and Network 2. In doing so, it accepts the relative definition of poverty and assumes the media to be a powerful force in society. The project asks whether there are a set of dominant messages about Irish poverty evident in factual, fictional and fund-raising television. In identifying the dominant themes of RTE’s television coverage of poverty, the study opts for a research model which amalgamates a qualitative analysis of poverty texts with an attempt to understand the organisational and production contexts from which those texts emerge. Methodologically, therefore, it adopts an approach which combines a critical content analysis of a range of television programmes and a series of ethnographic accounts of their production. The genesis of this project lies in my own experiences as a researcher with RTE. In 1990 after graduation from university, I worked for a number of months as a researcher with The Pat Kenny Show, a mid-morning current affairs radio programme on the Irish national radio service RTE Radio One. Filled with a mixture of excitement and apprehension, I began my work with this popular radio show, writing and researching programme items. For me, it was to be an important experience in terms of not only working with a prominent radio programme, but also in terms of learning about the factors which influence the production of radio stories. I had come to the programme with a great deal of experience in working on local radio, but also as a person with a large number of contacts in the world of social research. As a researcher, it was my task to suggest ideas for the programme at production meetings. Given my links with those involved in undertaking research into poverty, I had occasion to suggest items relating to poverty, the Travelling community, homelessness and unemployment. Although I did have some success in getting coverage for particular poverty stories, such as the alleged ill-treatment of women in a refuge for battered wives, I experienced frustration in gaining the interest of the programme makers in poverty issues. Stories might be turned down because of a perceived lack of interest which the audience might have in such items, or the fact that another current affairs programme might have recently covered a poverty issue.