[5.1] What Are Media Representations

[5.2] Representations of Gender, Race, and Class

[5.3] Representations of Different Cultures

[5.4] Studying Media Representations

[5.5] Teaching Analysis of Media Representations

[5.6] Representation and Censorship

[5.7] Representations and Idealization

[5.8] Studying Representations of Social Types or Groups

[5.8a] Representations of Femininity

[5.8b] Masculinity

[5.8c] Masculinity and Sports

[5.8d] Gays / Lesbians

[5.8e] Racial and Ethnic Groups

[5.8f] Class

[5.9] Families and Age Groups

[5.10] War

[5.11] Political Parties and Organizations

[5.12] Counter-Representations

[5.13] Additional Web Resources

[5.14] Teaching Activities

Powerpoints

[5.8f.1] An analysis of class representations in the media.

[5.8f.2] As evident in the PBS documentary People Like Us (see Chapter 4), people want to be perceived as “middle class” by adopting class markers of dress, language, social practices.

These class differences are represented on television in terms of a display of upper-middle class status symbols in commercials for expensive cars and luxury cruises:

[5.8f.3] Lexus
[5.8f.4] Mercedes-Benz
[5.8f.5] Cadillac
[5.8f.6] Royal Caribbean
[5.8f.7] Holland America

[5.8f.8] One example of class tensions within the same text is the PBS Mystery series, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries: A Great Deliverance, in which the detective, Inspector Thomas Lynley, is upper class — the eighth Earl of Asherton, and his partner, Sergeant Barbara Havers, is working class, and has a strong resentment about upper-class people. The program revolves around conflicts in their relationships as they attempt to solve crimes; the series is based on the Inspector Lynley Mysteries book series by Elizabeth George.

[5.8f.9] Upper middle-class characters that emerged in prime time shows in the 1980s such as Dallas and Dynasty reflected an increasing sense of a new wealthy class during the Reagan and Thatcher era.

[5.8f.10] Other films about working-class characters.

[5.8f.11] One study found that in two years of PBS prime-time programming, 27 hours addressed the concerns and lives of the working classes—compared with 253 hours that focused on the upper classes.

[5.8f.12] Portrayals of working-class television families perpetuate stereotypes of the dysfunctional working-class family.

And, representations of “poor white trash” in media texts often serve to perpetuate myths about the working class:

[5.8f.13] White Trash World.com
[5.8f.14]
[5.8f.15] Trailers for the 2000 movie Poor White Trash

[5.8f.15] Such a perspective fails to recognize the complex influences of class and race on identity:“White Trash: The Construction of an American Scapegoat”

[5.8f.16] Changes in the nature of work: click here to see film clips of working in the early 20th century

Resources on class:

[5.8f.17] William F. Munn, lesson plan: Class in the Media: Writing a Television Show

[5.8f.18] Traci Gardner, Comic Makeovers: Examining Race, Class, Ethnicity, and Gender in the Media

Further reading regarding class

Foster, G. A.  (2005). Class-passing: Social mobility in film and popular culture.  Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press

Kendall, D.  (2005). Framing class: Media representations of wealth and poverty in America.  Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.