Owen Jones on representation in Benefit Street

What effect can this sort of representation have?  Here's a video of Ian Duncan Smith, the Conservative Work and Pensions Secretary under David Cameron in which he uses the programme as evidence that people who claim benefits need radical change - but not necessatily in a helpful way...

"We let these problems be ghettoised as though they were a different country. Even now, for the most part they remain out of sight – meaning people are shocked when they are confronted with a TV programme such as Benefits Street."
Duncan Smith claims: "Too often for those locked in the benefits system, that process of making responsible and positive choices has been skewed – money paid out to pacify them regardless, with no incentive to aspire for a better life."

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jan/22/duncan-smith-benefits-street-shock