Codes and Conventions - Benefit Street

     Benefit Street

The documentary benefit street follows the lives of the people who live on James Turner Street in north-west Birmingham, UK. What makes this street different from normal places is that most of the people living there are living off benefits. The documentary shows the hardships and struggles these people live with every day ranging from not being able to afford food, to having to go to a relatives house for a bath due to no running water. They also include a very classic convention of a documentary, that being interviews. They interview a man called “Fungi” who had his son taken away from him due to drug addiction. In episode 4 Fungi is told he will be given to the chance to see his son one morning however his son's legal guardians cancel the plan last minute leaving Fungi in pain and upset. The “mother of the street” White Dee quickly proceeds to comfort him in an attempt to make him feel better about what’s happened. This shows that the producers have clearly aimed for the audience to have specific views on certain people in the documentary.

Benefits Street is a “fly on the wall” documentary which means they only film what’s in front of them. The producers received a vast number of complaints once the production was released due to the fact that in some situations the people who live on the street partake in illegal activity eg: One man shoplifts clothes from designer shops and sells them in markets making himself money. However this is not the only reason the producers received complaints, many people believed that the whole documentary was “Poverty Porn” (any type of media that exploits poor people for other entertainment). It is believed that the people who live on James Turner Street had no idea that the production was called “Benefits Street”. As a whole, it is very easy to believe that the documentary actually caused more negative effects for the contenders rather than positive effects.


Benefits Street - Wikipedia

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