Why are the media so wrong about charities?
In this podcast we uncover why journalists and the public love an anti-charity story and highlight where they get it wrong – and why. We talk to a charity journalist, a media psychologist and an expert charity accountant crusading to transform charity financial journalism for the better to find out: why these stories are so prevalent, what can we do about them, and the negative impact they have on the sector.
“As an editor, if a journalist pitched me a story which was ‘small charity does brilliant work because that’s what it’s there to do’ versus ‘big charity goes horribly wrong’, sorry, but there’s only one of those that I’m commissioning.”
Russell Hargrave, Charity Journalist
“It might be that overall, if you’re looking at big numbers, it seems like we’re more into negative [news]… but there are also a lot of people who turn away from negative news. If news started covering positive as well as negative, they will find a public for it.”
Dr Sharon Coen, Associate Professor in Media Psychology, University of Salford
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Our hosts
Felicia Willow, aka the Mary Poppins of the Charity Sector, is a seasoned interim CEO and consultant in the Charity Sector, working primarily on strategy, governance, crisis and effectiveness. Her leadership roles include the Fawcett Society and the Shannon Trust. A lawyer by training, Felicia’s career has spanned government, UN and the UK charity sector (the ‘For Impact’ sector) and she finds herself increasingly focussed on discussing and challenging the systemic issues that are holding the sector back.
Chris Pitt is responsible for positive social and environmental impact at Benefact Group, a family of specialist financial services businesses owned by a charitable Trust. The Group is the 3rd largest corporate giver to charity1 and Chris oversees over £2m of giving, namely through the Movement for Good awards which give small donations to a huge diversity of causes and large grants to charities close to the customers and communities of the Group.
1 DSC – The guide to UK Company Giving 2023-24
Our guests
Pesh Framjee is a Chartered Accountant and consultant with over 35 years of global experience in the public benefit sector, specialising in governance, finance, and organisational development. He has led top teams at leading firms and was awarded Personality of the Year in 2020.
Russell Hargrave is a seasoned specialist charity journalist specialising in investigative reporting on charity sector issues. He is currently an Editor at Politico, with experience from Third Sector Magazine and Civil Society Media amongst others, following an early career in the charity sector.
Russell Hargrave LinkedIn profile
Dr Sharon Coen is an Associate Professor in Media Psychology at the University of Salford and author of the book The Psychology of Journalism. Her research focuses mainly on media communication, journalism and new media and their role in shaping (and being shaped by) political and social issues.