About Rachel

I'm a researcher and lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University. I have extensive experience in researching the reporting of poverty and have collaborated with people with lived experience, journalists, charities and trade union activists.

I also have personal experience of poverty.

I've been a journalist for over 30 years and my work has been published in national, regional and local newspapers and magazines, in print and online. I now produce both journalistic and academic writing on the media industry.

I currently lead two campaigns in the National Union of Journalists which challenge stereotypes of poverty and the working class. The first is the Reporting Poverty campaign for which I drafted guidelines approved by the union membership. I led the way in producing the first NUJ Guide to Reporting Poverty and, more recently, contributed to Reporting Poverty A Guide for Media Workers, produced in collaboration with Church Action on Poverty, Joseph Rowntree Foundation and others. I also worked with the See the Person Campaign resulting in the Fair Press for Tenants Guide to help journalists produce better copy when reporting on social housing.