Social Class and the media
Critical analysis of media
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Though most critical studies scholars trace
their approach back to Karl Marx, don’t
close your mind because of that
They make a fairly mundane claim—that
the culture is biased in favor of the
interests of the powerful, and that cultural
bias works to the disadvantage of the less
powerful
Ideology
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Critical theorists talk a lot about ideology
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Definitions vary but the gist of it is that we all
have a certain way of looking at the world
that shapes our understanding of realit
New information is evaluated according to
our ideology
Our culture largely determines our ideology
Hegemony (Gramsci)
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When one group (according to Marx, the
bourgeois class) is the dominant
intellectual force in a society—and the
dominant economic force—then the others
learn to adopt a view of the world that
reflects the interests of the dominant class
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False consciousness
Hegemony (continued)
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Subordinate classes buy into the ideology
of the ruling class and act against their
own interests
Thus, they act to discipline themselves in
the interest of the powerful, reducing the
need for physical force
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Workers who accept their role do not present
as much a threat in the mines and factories
Neo-Marxism and cultural studies
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Recent turns in theory have reduced the
focus on economic class, have said that the
dominance of the powerful is less
complete and more fluid than implied by
traditional Marxist writings and thought,
and the acceptance of the dominant
ideology is always incomplete, contested
and open to change
Critical analysis
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Okay, if we accept the basic premise, why
spend lots of time and effort re-proving the
obvious?
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First, it is not always so obvious how the
culture is affected by power
Second, the mechanisms that promote the bias
are contested even among critical scholars
Third, many wish to find ways to ‘demystify’
the culture and reduce or remove the bias
Critical analysis
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Two flavors:
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Analysis of news, documentary, political
pundits, etc. in non-fictional content areas
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Looking for bias, falsehoods, etc.
Analysis of entertainment media
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Looking for ideological, mythical presentations of
the world
Social and economic class
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All societies have been arranged
hierarchically
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The U.S. is no exception
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More uneven in wealth distribution than most
industrialized capitalist societies, but not as much
so as less industrialized countries
Historical trend toward less economic
stratification was reversed beginning in the 1980s
Cultural studies
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This branch of neo-Marxism is especially
interested in the role of popular culture in
generating, maintaining and/or changing
the beliefs among the public
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Ideology/hegemony
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Framing
Popular myths/narratives
Common concerns in news
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How does the structure of news shows
impact their perceived authority?
How do news shows frame social debate
on important topics?
What do they focus on and what do they
ignore?
Social and economic class
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Social class includes more than income
or place within the economic system
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Education
Taste/culture
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Manners (breeding)
Religion
Preferences
Race and gender
Residence
Does class exist in America?
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Largely denied by U.S. culture
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“Classless society”
“The belief that the United States is a
classless society or, alternatively, that
most Americans are “middle class”
persists . . . despite pervasive
socioeconomic stratification”
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(Bullock, Wyche and Williams, 2001)
Source: Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, "Income Inequality in the United States, 1913-1998,"
Quarterly Journal of Economics, 118(1), 2003. Updated to 2005 at http://emlab.berkeley.edu/users/saez .
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Historical Income Tables, Table F-3.
Source: Analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data in Economic Policy Institute, The State of Working
America 1994-95 (M.E. Sharpe: 1994) p. 37.
Source: Congressional Budget Office, Historical Effective
Federal Tax Rates: 1979 to 2004, Table 1C, December
2006.
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“ It is impossible to understand people's
behavior...without the concept of social stratification,
because class position has a pervasive influence on
almost everything...the clothes we wear...the television
shows we watch...the colors we paint our homes in and
the names we give our pets... Our position in the social
hierarchy affects our health, happiness, and even how
long we will live. ” —William Thompson, Joseph
Hickey, Society in Focus, 2005
Stereotypes
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Although we are used to thinking of
stereotypes in terms of race, stereotypes
exist for all ‘groups’ including class
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Blue Collar
Hillbilly
Redneck
White trash
What are stereotypes?
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Stereotypes are ‘ideal’ characterizations of
a member of some identified group
Though often based in some ‘reality’ they
are often vastly exaggerated and may be
distorted (often in a negative fashion)
What do stereotypes do?
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They can blind observers to the individual
variation among members of the ‘group’
They impact intergroup interactions and
even may become self-fulfilling
They justify social inequality of treatment
and/or public policy that relates to groups
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Blaming the victim
Social class affects:
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Media access/choice
Content preferences
Interpretation of media content
Representation within media content
Power over media
Interpretation of content
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We see the world through class-inflected
eyes
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We are often unaware of the influence of
class in our lives, but that doesn’t stop us
from interpreting the world according to our
upbringing/current experience
Fiske: Homeless shelter and the reaction to
crime drama
Class representation
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Over-representation of professionals and
relatively well-to-do on TV
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Parallel situation in film, though more varied
Working class and poor ‘invisibility’
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Except as cops and criminals
Perhaps it’s not all so innocent,
though
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Middle- and upper-class depictions tend to
be more ‘positive’
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Working-class males often are demeaned
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Butsch
Race-inflected depictions have traditionally
reflected negative stereotypes tied to class
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Scharrer
Portwood-Stacer
What are lower-class men like?
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Violent
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Brutish
Dominant
Stupid
Ignorant
Focused on cars, sports, sex
Racist
Sexist
Engage in hair-brained schemes to get ahead
Lack taste
When lower- and working-class
men are depicted:
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Tend to be portrayed as foolish or ignorant
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Archie Bunker
Homer Simpson
Al Bundy
“Trailer trash” can be portrayed in ways that
would cause significant outcry if applied to
racial minorities, etc.
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Blue Collar Comedy/Jeff Foxworthy
Jerry Springer
The prototypical working-class male is
incompetent and ineffectual, often a buffoon, wellintentioned but dumb. In almost all working-class
series, the male is flawed, some more than others:
Ralph Kramden, Fred Flintstone, Archie Bunker,
Homer Simpson. He fails in his role as a father and
husband, is lovable but not respected. Heightening
this failure is the depiction of working-class wives
as exceeding the bounds of their feminine status,
being more intelligent, rational, and sensible than
their husbands.
•Butsch, Social Class and Television in
Encyclopedia of Television
Occasionally, though:
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The Waltons
Police shows (cops on the beat v.
detectives/specialists)
The Deadliest Catch
CEO switch thing
What are lower-class women
like?
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Either:
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Oversexed/Trashy
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Violent
Unsophisticated
Or:
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Domestic
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Kids
Sensible, qualified for higher status
Negative class-based depictions:
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Imply, if not openly claim, that
biological/genetic ‘causes’ of depicted
inferiority explain social inequity
Are painful for those they supposedly
pertain to
Justify harsh social policy, police action as
the only reasonable response to socially
objectionable behaviors
What does all this lead to?
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Blaming the victim
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Maintenance of an uneven social reward
system
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Those who receive less of the system’s output
deserve their fate because they have
personality flaws or don’t try hard enough
Rewards not fairly tied to performance
Low self-esteem among ‘lower classes’
Exultation of self-interest
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Mean World (for real)