BUT BROADCASTER’S STATEMENT CONTRADICTS CASTING CALL ADVERT FOR PARTICIPANTS
>> NEWSFLASH! This story has now been picked up by the MailOnline, Independent (twice), Telegraph, Express, Guardian, Sun, Huffington Post, Sydney Morning Herald, Vice, Cosmopolitan, Newsweek and Jezebel. And nearly nearly 20,000 people have signed the petition for the show to be axed!
The BBC has defended plans to air a controversial Hunger Games-style TV show in which jobless youngsters compete for a cash prize, insisting it is “a serious social experiment.” Meanwhile, a petition calling for the show to be axed has reached nearly 20,000 signatures in just a few hours (numbers correct at 15.000 on Saturday 20 May).
The BBC’s statement appears to contradict the casting call for ‘Britain’s Hardest Grafter’, which pitches it as a knock-out-style contest. A spokesperson for the broadcaster – who was also speaking on behalf of the shows creators Twenty Twenty – told the MailOnline:
“Britain’s Hardest Grafter is a serious social experiment for BBC Two which investigates just how hard people in the low wage economy work. Each week the contributors – who are all in work or actively looking – will experience a different ‘blue collar’ role as the series explores the truth about Britain’s work ethic. Throughout the series, the contributors are rewarded for the work they do.”
Yet the BBC’s statement does not appear to match the casting call for competitors, which clearly positions the programme as a competition. If you missed it, here it is again:
Public reaction to this story has been strongly critical, and suggests that the BBC has misjudged whether the sensitive subject of youth unemployment is appropriate material for a knock-out-style TV show format. And, since Graduate Fog’s exclusive investigation was first published, the story is continuing to gather momentum.
Yesterday, it picked up coverage in the MailOnline and the Independent – and the Daily Express, Telegraph, Sun and the Huffington Post have covered it this morning. (Is the Guardian asleep?)
Meanwhile, a Change.org petition to ban the show has collected nearly 20,000 signatures. Graduate Fog reader James Pauley, who started the petition, said:
“Unemployment and poverty are serious social issues and should not be the subject of a cheap game show format, designed to exploit some of the most impoverished in our society for the purposes of dubious “entertainment”.
“Not even the cheapest and tackiest of the cable or satellite channels have stooped to this level. We believe a higher standard should be expected from the BBC, a national broadcaster that is funded by public subscription in the form of the license fee.”
Do you agree that this show needs a re-think? Click here to sign the petition now! Here are some of the latest comments from those who have signed…
Hmm, serious social study… yes in much the same way the old East German TV “Die Volks Urteil did where people ratted out family members, friends and neighbours to the Stasi for food.
Terrible sounding programme. 🙁 You did a great service breaking this, Tanya.
At least these poor people are getting minimum wage whilst on there.
Jack Monroe, from personal experience of going viral/”making it” has rather a sobering warning for anyone considering applying for this show:
http://agirlcalledjack.com/2015/05/28/thinking-of-applying-for-britains-hardest-grafter-read-this-first/
“It is not ‘tomorrows chip paper’. Not any more. Not in a digital age. Other peoples lies and versions of your life story are digitally stored to be pulled up for years and years and years to come…
People who you thought were your friends will be queueing up to make a fast buck at your expense…
I am writing this because I wish someone had told me. I wish someone had told me, before I signed a book deal for a recipe book — because I needed a job and it was a job — that I was going into a war, unarmed. That that war would be fought against multinational corporations with huge legal teams, against keyboard warriors, against anonymous abusers and newspaper columnists with followings of millions of devoted acolytes.”
DONT PAY THE LICENCE FEE!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PUwBbe4f4k
I wrote a piece for a website about graduating into the recession and struggling to find work. It went a bit viral on twitter for a time. 100+ retweeets. Based on my experience I would strongly recommend not engaging the media.
1) It did not result in a single employer contacting me.
2) The only people I attracted were people in a similar position and journalists looking for vox pops about the plight of the ‘lost generation’ a group I have no desire to be a spokesperson for.
3) The reality is that vast majority of people do not care. Comments my article got ranged from people blaming me for my situation, cracking jokes at my expense and one suggesting I become a male sex worker. You risk opening yourself up to online abuse.
3) I think there is a danger of the perception of desperation. Things like the ‘Employ Adam billboard’ can work but equally can give the whiff that you a bit desperate. Maybe you are and are right to be so but employers don’t seem to like that and they call the shots.
4) The thing about a digital footprint is that it will still be there in 10 years. The internet never forgets and you may not want the first page of Google to have hits about the time you were on the dole and being threatened with a sanction when you are the CEO of a company.
It might help if I could correctly number my points above. Doh!