What does it take to make poverty an important news story?

Technically, any poverty related issue should warrant the full attention of the world’s media, but the present scale of the issue will usually determine whether a story will make headline news throughout the globe.

The two main influences that repeatedly arise within the media are when the poverty directly concerns the basic human requirement of food and clean water. Images of children weak from

malnourishment, their stomachs swollen due to insufficient diet as flies swarm over their bodies, are commonly recorded and displayed because of their hard-hitting impact upon the rest of civilisation. Nobody likes to witness these soul destroying images, but it is a proven method in obtaining the attention it deserves.

The famine in Ethiopia during the 1980s was one such incident that made international headlines. However, it is now regarded as a crisis that could, and should, have been averted or at the very least minimised. The west has been accused, and heavily criticised for not reacting in time to the warnings by both the Ethiopian Government and Aid agencies. Nearly one million of the local population lost their lives due to famine, in a case of too little, too late.

This leads to a question of ‘Why does it take an event to occur before it is acted upon?’. Should the international media increase its efforts in profiling the potential for such an incidence before it actually happens? The answer, in theory, is yes. And although reports filter through of incidences of poverty, the depths to which it is investigated and reported are minimised behind actual events that are occurring at that precise moment. Is this therefore a case of ‘out of sight and out of mind?’

Poverty is evident throughout the earth’s nations, from health issues to social care and living conditions. A recent news report highlighted the continued use of child labour. High street stores were indirectly obtaining merchandise that had been produced by children because of the cheap labour involved.

When news footage revealed how children as young as six or seven were making garments for major fashion labels, people became outraged and demanded this be stopped. Measures were implemented that were meant to prevent this occurring again in developing countries and it appeared to have been successful.

The story of child labour was highlighted in the BBC NEWS in October 2007 – http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wor ld/south_asia/7066019.stm

But the story became second-hand news and people simply