WACC’s Poverty Reporting programme supports civil society organisations to create evidence-based public and media awareness of problems in mainstream media coverage of issues affecting the poor. The program includes access to funding, accompanying measures, networking, and training in WACC’s media monitoring for social change methodology.

People living in poverty rarely figure as the focus of news in mainstream media. Effective media coverage of poverty issues from ground-breaking news articles to hard-hitting human stories can raise the level and quality of public debate on poverty reduction, which in turn can clearly affect decision-making in both public and private spheres.

Project partners are expected to:

Use WACC’s media monitoring methodology to monitor news reporting about poverty and/or as it affects rural populations, including but not limited to food security and/or climate change in influential national or regional print, radio, television or internet news media.

In collaboration with other organisations working on poverty, use the data resulting from the monitoring to make public statements about their concerns with poverty reporting and to advocate for changes in media practices regarding poverty reporting.

PHOTO: The day after Typhoon Bopha raged through the southern Philippines island of Mindanao, a girl in the village of Maasin wades through a flooded area.
Photo: Paul Jeffrey/ACT Alliance