Below the radar: A U.K. benefit fraud media coverage tsunami—Impact, ideology, and society

Abstract

Framed by a literature on media coverage of welfare, “poverty porn” and “poverty propaganda,” and its emphasis on political messaging and ideology, this article explores reporting of benefit fraud in the United Kingdom. In a comprehensive and systematic assessment, it illuminates the structure and extremely large volume of benefit fraud coverage, 2008–2017, across national, sub-national, regional and local newspapers, mainstream television, TV documentaries, BBC web output, and BBC radio. With the aid of the 2016 British Social Attitude survey, and utilizing the most current conceptualizations of the processes underpinning media influence, it argues that this tsunami of coverage will have had a significant impact on the public. The results are explored in relation to their political and ideological implications, and their relevance to a much broader array of media discourses.