Traditional Representations Of Class Flashcards
What did Nairn argue?
- states that after WWII the monarchy developed close ties with the media industry and worked with them to reinvent itself as ‘the royal family’
- family that are ‘like us but not like us’, and the narrative of their lives is presented as a soap opera
- media representations of royalty also reinforce a sense of national identity
What is a media example for Nairn?
The royal family
What did Leech argue?
- middle class lifestyles are presented as the ‘ideal’ lifestyle in media advertising and developed the concept of the ideal ‘cereal packet family’
What is a media example for leech?
Friday night dinner- nuclear family organising dinner party, conspicuous consumption
What did Newman argue?
- there are very few films, sitcoms or dramas which give a realistic image of the everyday life of the working class
- working class people are stereotyped and labelled in an unflattering and pitying light
- news organisations tended to use news stories on the working class that label them as being a problem in society - Whilst stories on youth subcultures who are working class tend to be linked to moral panics
- issues such as facing high unemployed suggested that working class inadequacy was the cause of these problems, not governmental policies which may be letting this group down
What is a Media example for Newman?
‘4M scrounging families in Britain’ - Daily Express news
What did Dodd and Dodd argue?
- suggest that Eastenders presents the nostalgic view of the traditional notion of working class communities
- this does not accurately reflect a modern day working class culture
What is the media example for Dodd and Dodd?
Eastenders
What did Owen Jones argue?
- book ‘Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Classes’
- discusses the use of the word ‘chav’ and explains that this has become a way of condemning working class culture and people
- chavtainment
- portray a negative view of working class people as “bigoted, slothful and aggressive”
- from being portrayed, historically, as the “salt to the earth” to being portrayed as the “scum of the earth”
- Chavs described as ‘Burgeoning peasant underclass’
- Shows like ‘Little Britain’ encourage the use of the
concept - Newspapers hunt down horror stories about ‘Chavs’
What is a media example for Owen Jones?
book ‘Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Classes’ and the Jeremy Kyle show
What did Golding and Middleton argue?
- discovered that “welfare issues” were not discussed unless they were connected to other social issues such as crime, fraud or sex
- found that this demonization of the underclass has lead to justifying cuts in welfare state funding
What did Price argue?
- poverty porn to describe programmes such as channel 4s benefit street
- refers to media exploiting participants and their lifestyle to shock and entertain audiences
- Benefit street encourages underclass to be condemned by hard working upper and middle class
What is a media example for price?
Benefit street
What did Baumberg et al argue?
- 29% of news stories referenced fraud
- governments own estimate that 0.7% of all benefits claims are fraudulent
What did Baumberg et al find that the common language used to describe benefits as ‘underserving’ included?
- fraud and dishonesty
- dependency
- non reciprocity/lack of effort
- outsider status
