Description

Dole bludgers, welfare cheats, housos, druggos - really?

SBS's series Struggle Street tracks the travails of a group of families living in public housing in the Western Sydney suburb of Mt Druitt. The producers filmed over six months, and the publicity material describes the result as “uncensored, unfiltered, raw, confronting ... honest ... heart-warming and inspiring."

Even before the series started, the mayor of Blacktown launched an online petition against its screening because he regards the representation of his community as ‘trash reality TV’. A group of Blacktown garbage trucks then blockaded SBS’s headquarters.

At issue here is how poverty and hardship are represented in the media, and how people receiving welfare support get reported on. Are such depictions unrepresentative? Do they amount to 'poverty porn'?