ORF’s Poverty Coverage Largely Factual but Needs Better Representation

A study commissioned by ORF and carried out by the Austrian Academy of Sciences examined how the public broadcaster reports on poverty. Researchers conducted focus groups and interviews with people experiencing poverty and with experts from academia, social work and NGOs such as Caritas, Volkshilfe and Diakonie.

The analysis found that ORF’s news and informational programmes present poverty more factually than commercial channels, with examples on Ö1 and digital formats like TikTok and YouTube that place poverty in a broader social context. However, the study also identified classist and simplified narratives in ORF’s entertainment offerings, where poverty is framed as an individual fate rather than linked to structural factors such as rising housing costs, precarious employment or unequal education opportunities.

Communications researcher Andreas Schulz‑Tomančok said, “Not over people, but talk with them – that should be the guideline for reporting on poverty,” and noted that “commercial broadcasters usually treat the topic as a seasonal charity appeal, whereas ORF can go deeper but still falls short in its entertainment sector.”