Media representations of Social class

Question 1

Middle class representation

Question 2

Marxists view on middle class

rein

Answer 2

Argue that such media representations of the middles classes reinforce a type of false class consciousnss in which wc people are decieved into believing that social inequality is a result of a middle classes deserving their success rather than as a result of unequal life chances

Question 3

Pluarists view on middle classs

proffessionals themselves tend to come from …

Answer 3

Argue that middle class representations accurately reflect the way that media consumers percieve their society.

Research into media protrayals of middle classes find little evidence of changing representations. This could be due to the fact that media professionals themselves tnd to come from middle classes themselves and also this social class group is often regarded as stable and relatively conservative

Question 4

How are middle class individuals presented:

Answer 4

• Educated
• Successful
• Able to cope with life’s problems

Question 5

Reiner, Livingstone, and Allen, (2000)

only a minority of stories

therefore..

Answer 5

Content analysis, British media (fictional and non-fictional crime) since WW2. “Unlike the representation of crime, criminal justice and victims, only a minority of stories feature middle-or upper-class offenders, and this does not change significantly over time.”

Therefore: middle and upper class people are typically absent from representations of crime in the media.

Question 6

Who are you using for middle class

Answer 6

Marixist view
Pluralists
Reiner, Livingston and Allen(2000)

Question 7

Media Representations of Working Class

Question 8

Dodd and Dodd (1992)

Eastenders present evidence of representations of eastenders

Answer 8

Present evidence for continuity and change in media representations of working-class characters in Eastenders.

They argue that the show has managed to introduce elements of realism.

Eastenders has included issues such as ‘unemployment, imprisonment, rape, drugs, alcoholism, attempted suicide, crime, murder, homeosexuality etc 1992: 128)

Question 9

Newman (2006)

sitcoms

why?

and pointed out when they are portrayed they are portrayed how?

Answer 9

Argues that there are very few sitcoms, films, or television dramas that concentrate realistically on the everyday lives of working-class people.

Due to the fact that this group comprises a numerically significant and important section of society.

Newman points out that when working-class people are portrayed, they are often cast in an unflattering or pitying light.

Question 10

Devereux (2008)

2 Categories
The royle family

Answer 10

Argues that working-class people are seen as falling into two main categories:

Positive portrayals: of ‘happy’ and ‘deserving’ poor:

The Royle Family

• Scripts often contain conversations about the boring details of everyday life.

Episodes commonly revolve around a family occasion, such as the marriage of the family’s daughter Denise, the birth of her first child and the child’s christening

Negative portrayals - those on welfare benefits

• He explores how the working classes have gone from being portrayed as the ‘salt of the earth’ to being portrayed ‘the scum of the earth’.
• Argues that media use of the term ‘chav’ has come to represent a way of condemning working-class culture.

Question 11

Who are you using for Working class?

Answer 11

Dodd and Dodd (1992)
Newman (2006)
Devereux (2008)

Question 12

Media representations of the ‘under class’

Question 13

Price (2014)

Poverty porn

poverty porn’ refers to media representations that are intended to exploit a programme’s content in order to have a particular shocking effect on the audience and to shape people’s response to the content of the Programm

Answer 13

as labelled TV programmes that examine the life of the poorest in society, such as Channel 4 series, Benefits Street, and BBC two-part series Famous, Rich and Hungry, as ‘poverty porn’.

Question 14

Golding and Middleton (1982

Answer 14

Examined media generated moral panics about alleged welfare abuse.

During their 6 month content analysis based study, they found that welfare issues, as such, did not make the news. Welfare was only seen as newsworthy when it was connected with other issues such as crime, fraud or sex.

A key finding from their analysis was that the poor are constructed in the media as either deserving or undeserving.

Golding and Middleton argued that the media demonises certain sections of the underclass and that this has contributed towards legitimising welfare cutbacks by the state.

Question 15

Who are you using for Underclass

Answer 15

Price (2014)

Golding and Middleton (1982)

Question 16

Media representations of the Upperclass

Question 17

Nairn (1988)

Answer 17

Media representations of the Queen and other members of her family constitute something of a ‘soap opera’ in the attention that is given to all of their activities, including relatively trivial events.

Question 18

Reiner (2010)

Answer 18

Contemporary representations of people with wealth show them as examples of success within a meritocratic society. This means that when people are shown as having enormous wealth, their achievements are celebrated and the audience is encouraged to identify with the culture of consumption and materialism that is portrayed in the lifestyle of the wealthy.

Question 19

“Diana and Beyond: White Femininity, National Identity, and Contemporary Media Culture” Shome (2014)

Answer 19

The press insistence on equating Diana as an upper class white British woman with ‘the people’ and ‘princess of the people’ is an example of acceptable white femininity. This in turn diminishes or excludes totally other forms of femininity and femininity of colour and reinforces dominant ideologies of how a woman should be.
Therefore: representations of the upper class in the media can serve to reinforce other stereotypes such as gender and race.

Question 20

Who are you using for the Upper class?

Answer 20

Nairn (1988)
Reiner (2010)
Shome (2014)