Life in the shadow of the media: Imaging street homelessness in London
Citation
Export citationHodgetts, D., Radley, A. & Cullen, A. (2006). Life in the shadow of the media: Images of street homelessness in London. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 9(4), 517-536.
Permanent Research Commons link: https://hdl.handle.net/10289/1738
Abstract
Media images pervading everyday life often reproduce inequitable social relations that adversely affect the lives of vulnerable people. This article explores the influence of media representations of homelessness as a source of characterizations that are used by homeless people when representing themselves. To do this, it draws on life narrative interviews, photographic exercises and phogo-based discussions with 12 single rough sleepers from London. It documents how participants both reproduce common media storylines foregrounding their differences from housed people and emphasizes aspects of their lives that do not feature in media portrayals, but which invoke their `normality'.
Date
2006Type
Publisher
Sage Publications