S5E10 Female asylum seekers: Healthcare, housing, and the hostile environment
Join us for the Media Storm LIVE SHOW with special guests Natasha Devon and Milo Edwards - Tuesday 20th May 7pm @ the Business Design Centre in Islington. Tickets are available HERE!
Kim, an asylum seeker from Zimbabwe, lives on £7-a-day while supporting a newborn in cockroach-infested accommodation… HOW is she supposed to pay the £10,000 NHS bill she received after giving birth?
This week, Kim shares her story, and the Media Storm team unpack the mainstream media myths that feed the wider healthcare, migration and gender injustices behind it.
Myths like:
‘Why are all asylum seekers MEN?!’
Don’t they come for free healthcare?’
‘Illegal migrants are living in luxury hotels’
‘The asylum backlog is out of control!’
We pick apart some current, culpable headlines, and compare the stories they tell with the first-hand experiences of the people living it.
Also joining us in the studio is Judith Dennis, head of policy at Maternity Action, which works for the rights of pregnant women and new parents irrespective of migration status, and is campaigning for changes alongside the National Childbirth Trust.
The episode is hosted and produced by Mathilda Mallinson (@mathildamall) and Helena Wadia (@helenawadia)
The music is by @soundofsamfire
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38:42
News Watch: Katy Perry blasted, the rollback of LGBT+ rights, and making sense of the ‘Jihadi jail attack’
Join us for the Media Storm LIVE SHOW! Tuesday 20th May 7pm, @ the Business Design Centre in Islington. Tickets available HERE
Time for another weekly news debrief: we pick apart the most unhinged headlines and try to make sense of the mainstream media, helping you consume the news critically.
This week, Katy Perry was blasted - into space, and in the media (4:50). As news broke that the Supreme Court ruled the legal definition of a woman is based on 'biological sex' (a ruling that didn't consult a single transgender person), we look at the rollbacks of queer rights around the world (10:20).
Plus, how three front pages defined differently an attack on prison officers at HMP Frankland by the Manchester arena bomber's brother (22:32), a rebuttal against an ableist Daily Mail column on stammering (31:53), and why one article about asylum seekers living in 'luxury hotels' fails on facts (36:34).
To keep Eyes on Palestine (41:02), we look at the case of Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian student at Columbia university abducted by ICE in the US, and discuss a small but mighty change in a BBC headline.
The episode is hosted and produced by Mathilda Mallinson (@mathildamall) and Helena Wadia (@helenawadia)
The music is by @soundofsamfire
Support us on Patreon!
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49:30
S5E9 Free Speech: Is it all talk?
Join us for the Media Storm LIVE SHOW! Tuesday 20th May 7pm @ the Business Design Centre in Islington.
Tickets are available at 10am today via AEG Presents HERE! Paid Patreon subscribers get access to tickets ONE HOUR EARLIER at 9am
What’s the bigger threat to free speech: the ‘woke mob’, or the MAGA word police? Where’s the line between free speech and hate speech? How can you have free market of ideas - when most of the media is owned by political suck-ups? Is free speech actually free if some people have more free speech than others?
And with ‘free speech crusaders’ censoring anyone whose views they dislike… WHAT DOES ‘FREE SPEECH’ EVEN MEAN ANYMORE?
Journalist and political activist Femi Oluwole joins Helena Wadia and Mathilda Mallinson to put the mainstream media’s ‘free speech’ debates under the microscope: from the arresting of keyboard criminals, to the abduction of students calling attention to Palestine, to the hypocrisy of MAGA leaders, and the social media algorithms shaping public discourse.
The episode is hosted and produced by Mathilda Mallinson (@mathildamall) and Helena Wadia (@helenawadia)
The music is by @soundofsamfire
Support us on Patreon!
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49:35
News Watch: US protests, Trump's tariffs, and is Lucy Connolly a 'political prisoner'?
Join us for the Media Storm LIVE SHOW! Tuesday 20th May 7pm, @ the Business Design Centre in Islington.
Tickets available at 10am on Friday via AEG Presents HERE
Paid Patreon subscribers get access to tickets ONE HOUR EARLIER at 9am - support us on Patreon and get early access!
Content warning: Rape and sexual assault. If you need support you can contact Rape Crisis on 0808 500 2222
Time for another weekly news debrief: we pick apart the most unhinged headlines and try to make sense of the mainstream media, helping you consume the news critically.
This week, some million people in the US protested for democracy and against the Trump administration - but you wouldn’t know it from the front pages (3:10). One grievance on the protest agenda was against Trump’s tariffs, described as ‘reciprocal’ in the media - but it turns out they're anything but (10:25).
Plus - can we do anything about Meta’s AI stealing over 7 million books? (9:12) (Sign the petition from The Society of Authors here!) Why did The Telegraph call Lucy Connolly, jailed for calling on rioters to set fire to asylum seeker hotels on X, a political prisoner? (21:03) And why intersectional reporting is so important in the case of serial rapist Zhenhao Zou. (31:11)
Finally, keeping Eyes on Palestine, we look at the compliant reporting even the face of evidence that Israel's army killed 15 Palestinian paramedics and civil emergency responders. (39:14)
The episode is hosted and produced by Mathilda Mallinson (@mathildamall) and Helena Wadia (@helenawadia)
The music is by @soundofsamfire
Support us on Patreon!
Follow us on Instagram, Bluesky, and TikTok
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49:28
S5E8 Image-Based Sexual Abuse: Not your 'revenge porn'
Warning: this episode contains mentions of suicide. If you need support, contact the Samaritans on 116 123
Reports of image-based sexual abuse in the UK have increased tenfold over the past few years. Women are five times more likely to be victims of intimate image abuse. The true scale of the problem is probably larger, as many victims do not come forward.
But sensationalist headlines about so-called 'revenge porn' are doing a disservice to survivors. The term 'revenge' welcomes victim-blaming, the term 'porn' undermines the severity of the crime. Articles about apparent new protections for victims are written from Government press releases, with fact-checking thrown out the window, leaving tired survivors to take on crucial work as campaigners.
Legal frameworks also can't seem to keep up with rising technology - AI generated image-based sexual abuse, also known as 'deepfakes', increased 400% between 2022 and 2023.
Is the media failing to point to a culture of misogyny behind this crime? What steps can we take to combat IBSA? And how can we put survivors first every step of the way?
Joining Media Storm this week is Elena Michael, co-founder and director of #NotYourPorn (you can sign their open letter to address the critical gaps in current legislation), and founder of anti-share technology Image Angel, Madelaine Thomas.
The episode is hosted and produced by Mathilda Mallinson (@mathildamall) and Helena Wadia (@helenawadia)
The music is by @soundofsamfire
Support us on Patreon!
Follow us on Instagram, Bluesky, and TikTok
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The multi award-winning investigative and current affairs podcast: this is news that starts with the people who are normally asked last.
Media Storm is an essential guide to today’s chaotic clickbait climate. Every week, journalists Mathilda Mallinson and Helena Wadia storm through the headlines, and seeking out the voices of the most important (and most overlooked) people in the story: the ones living it.
From ‘illegal immigrants’ to sex workers, strikers to prisoners, indigenous groups to trans people, many communities caught in the eye of the media storm are denied a fair voice in the coverage around them. Media Storm restores ‘right of reply’ to underrepresented minorities and equips listeners to take the mainstream media with a pinch of salt.
It's your weekly current affairs round-up - but not as you know it. Featuring cross-platform comparisons, shrewd bullsh*t-radars, and finding the facts behind the fear-mongering, Media Storm is guaranteed to leave you with plenty to talk about.
Become a supporter: patreon.com/MediaStormPodcast
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