Silencing the disadvantaged is a social mechanism by which inequality is upheld. Poor people may be refused access to the media, and then their apparent lack of activity can be cited as evidence of their apathy and inadequacy. This fosters myths about poor people being inarticulate and feckless, and so deserving of their poverty.
Those given space in newspapers may even write sympathetically about the poor, but the poor are rarely given direct voice. In its coverage of the 1993 UK budget, The Guardian newspaper gave space to comment from 62 experts, not one of whom was a person living in poverty.