The Brisbane Mayor Graham Quirk, seemingly suffering from a bad case of PC, has banned the filming license for the SBS programme Struggle Street to film in the disadvantaged suburb of Inala, claiming Inala's residents could be "unfairly tainted with the stigma of poverty, drugs, abuse and dysfunction without the ability to present a contrary point of view".
He was on the Sunrise programme this morning taking down Struggle Street, with the Port Power President describing it as a "reality show". (No Kochie, a reality show is a glorified game show format where contestants mostly from privileged backgrounds are hand picked for audience likability and want to further their media careers).
Anyway, I watched the last series of Struggle Street and found it far from a conventional commercial TV "reality show". Far from taking the Mickey out of people and poverty pr0n as some have claimed, it was a hard hitting documentary that showed the rawness of disadvantage and poverty that exists in this country that commercial networks typically wish to avoid, and actually showed a non stereotypical view that avoided the usual putdowns and labels such a "dole bludgers". Instead the show IMO successfully communicated stories of hard working and resilient people who do their best despite everything stacked against them.
Shows like this should be applauded.
He was on the Sunrise programme this morning taking down Struggle Street, with the Port Power President describing it as a "reality show". (No Kochie, a reality show is a glorified game show format where contestants mostly from privileged backgrounds are hand picked for audience likability and want to further their media careers).
Anyway, I watched the last series of Struggle Street and found it far from a conventional commercial TV "reality show". Far from taking the Mickey out of people and poverty pr0n as some have claimed, it was a hard hitting documentary that showed the rawness of disadvantage and poverty that exists in this country that commercial networks typically wish to avoid, and actually showed a non stereotypical view that avoided the usual putdowns and labels such a "dole bludgers". Instead the show IMO successfully communicated stories of hard working and resilient people who do their best despite everything stacked against them.
Shows like this should be applauded.
