Class

Question 1

• The Working Class

Answer 1

• The working are generally under-represented in the media, but when they are represented, they are typically stereotyped in negative
• Curran and Seaton (2010), content of newspapers aimed at working class audiences, such as red-top Sun, Daily Mirror, Daily Star, suggest that the working class have little interest in public affairs.

Question 2

The Working Class

Answer 2

4 main media representations of the working class

1) As dumb and stupid, Butsch (2003) argues that TV representations reinforce the ideological hegemony of the dominant values in popular culture
2) As a source of trouble and conflict
3) As living in idealized/romanticized working class communities
4) As white trash and scum: ‘Chavs’ and the demonization of the working class, Owen Jones

Question 3

Shildrick et al (2007)

Answer 3

• found that the media explain these features as arising from the character deficiencies, moral failings, depravity and weakness of the individuals, rather than from the structural inequalities of wealth and consequent social deprivation.

Question 4

The Middle class

Answer 4

• overrepresented in media content.
• There is more exposure of middle class lifestyle than is justified by their proportion in the population as a whole.
• The middle class is generally presented in a positive light as mature, sensible, educated and successful, and coping with problems

Question 5

Jones (2011)

Answer 5

• Suggests that media gives the impression ‘We’re all middle class now’, with the values and lifestyles of the middle as the norm, to which everyone should aspire.

Question 6

The upper class

Answer 6

• The most extensive and obvious media representation is the upper class. individuals within this social class are generally rich and powerful, ‘well bred’ business people, aristocrats and celebrities.
• this social class is generally presented as cultured and superior with posh accents, country estates and a taste for shooting and hunting.
• Neo Marxists see the portrayal of the Upper class as a celebration of hierarchy and wealth which encourages admiration and envy by other social classes who aspire to it.