media and social class representation

reiner - myth of meritocracy

• according to reiner, the media displays people with materialistic wealth and nobody questions where theyre money comes from

• we assume that we can achieve these means through meritocracy

• those who are wealthy are viewed as deserving of their wealth

• e.j steve jobs or elon musk

• this is maintaining a false cass consciousness that discourages any questions about capitalism and the gap between the rich and poor

• this then leads the poor in thinking they can achieve this social mobility

• they belive that social class and position is deserved and meritocratic

• therefore media creates trad social class persp: the rich are deserving while the poor arent

narin

• royal family are represented positively

• even if there are negative stories or controversial actions taken by royal family members they are quickly replaced with positive ones

• narin found that the royal family are shown as a oncept which equates to niceness, decency and ordinariness

• for example the queen is seen as ‘like us, but not like us,

• (e.g as fufilling normal role such as a grandmother but also does extraordinary things)

clancy

• her research analysed the royal correspondents whose job it is to get access to the royalty and create their media coverage

• clancey used in-depth interviews with the royal correspondents and found these were people who are drawn from those who have appropiate capital to get access to the royal family

• as royalty is surrounded by secrecy, getting access means their coverage rarely would disturb ideological bases of monarchial power

• clancy argues this leads to them reproducing power of the monarchial institution

• whilst other journalists and interviewers do write about the monarchy they are often seen as an outsider , especially if they write negatively , and then may bot be allowed to royal events again

golding and middleton

• the media generated moral panics about working class people

• they only make the news when its about crime, sex or fraud and this is to create moral panic and to further stigma against them

• two categories the poor are presented in : deserving poor who get treated as victims and undeserving poor -as welfare cheats and criminals

• their findings stated that by demonising those on benefits,it made it easier for the government to make back spending cuts on welfare

• this creates a negative identity , as benefit scroungers or people to be pitied

owen jones

• working class are demnised in the media

• talks about chavtainment where the suffering of the working class becomes mass entertainment to be laughed at

• examples such as the jeremy kyle show that goes on to inquire about biological dads of single mothers

• the working class and underclass are seen as a joke

• they are being shown as the scum of the earth

• given a negative label as chavs

price

• uses the example of benefits street to highligh the existence of poverty porn , where media representations of the underclass are purposely exaggerated to have a shocking effect ont the audience

• he explains that representation is frequently missed by viewers and is deliberately presented with goal that audiences interpret it as aspects of lower-class culture that usually is stigmatisd or comdemned by hard working middle /upper class families

dood and dodd

• elements of realism are beginning to be represented in working class characters in shows such as eastenders , where this soap opera portrays real problems such as ‘unemployment,imprisonment,rape,drugs,alcoholism,attempted suicide,crime,murder,homosexuality,infidelity,divorce,aids,abortion,ageing and death’

• therefore there has been a shift /change from using the working class as entertainment in a negative way to highlighting the negative day to day experiences faced by many working class individuals in contemporary society

examples of the royal family

• representations of the upper class have changed overtime through the media portrayals of the royal family

• we can argue that traditionally, the royal family have been presented positively due to them being part of the bourgeosie and the upper class

• also because media owners are also upper class an are likely to represent them positively

• however negative stories have come out about the royal family, being presented by the public

negative stories of the royal family

• an eample of this was when prince andrew was outed for having a freindship with jeffrey epstein (a convicted child offender) and sexual assault accusations

• this shows a change of media representations of social class because he was seen as a powerful , upper-class white-british man who usually is seen as important and positive but him and other upper-class people are now being exposed for their wrong doings on the media

prince charles

• lobbying of government ministers and civil servants in which he was reported as having met with gov ministers 36 times since 2010

• this was described as inappropiate and unwise since the prince is supposed to adpot a neutral attitude towards government policy