|
Answer
|
Hint
|
|
Dominant Hegemony
|
This term refers to how the mainstream media gaze is filtered through the eyes of rich and powerful media owners and the middle-class professionals who run their media: -The monarchy is rarely criticised by the mainstream media. -Wealthy and privileged people are seen as aspirational. |
|
Middle-Class
|
This social group is over-represented in the proportion of the population as a whole in the media: -Positive representation: mature, sensible, educated, professional. -Their families are well-functioning. -They have a good taste in consumption and lifestyle. -Example: Paddington's human family in the Paddington films. -The content of newspapers such as 'The Daily Mail' and 'The Daily Telegraph' and magazines are aimed at this social group and their consumption, tastes and interests in material goods. -The content of such newspapers suggests that journalists believe that this social group of middle England are generally anxious about the decline of moral standards in society and that they feel threatened by alien influences. -Most of the creative personnel in the media are themselves of this social group. |
|
Working-Class
|
This social group is generally under-represented and often negatively stereotyped in the media: -Failings arise from a lack of conformity to middle-class norms and values – e.g. drinking behaviour, parenting, education. -There is a social stigma of a 'chav' identity used to condemn – for example, TikTok 'chav' makeup videos. -Marxists argue this suits capitalist ideology – projecting those who are poor as responsible for their own situation. -However, despite the fact that under-representation remains in media jobs, there has been more representation from this social group and regional representation in recent years - for example, EastEnders. |
|
Owen Jones (2011)
|
This journalist suggests the media gives the impression, 'we're all middle class now', with the values and lifestyles of the middle-class as the norm, to which everyone should aspire: -By celebrating the lifestyles of the upper and middle classes, the media create the impression that the interests and worries of the well-off are, or should be, important to everyone. -The working-class and the poor/underclass are presented as in some ways abnormal/deviant and/or as figures of fun.
In relation to depictions of the working-class in shows such as EastEnders, depicting close-knit working-class communities that have been unrealistic since the decline of traditional industries, he suggests these images are somewhat romanticised, and are filtered through the middle-class media gaze: -For example, the former EastEnders scriptwriter David Yallop said EastEnders was 'created by middle-class people with a middle-class view of the working class which is patronising, idealistic and untruthful'. -With the decline of these communities, he points out that, in the 2000s, there has been a change in the representation of the working-class from being patronised to being despised, with the emergence of the working-class being presented as an underclass of White trash and scum - chavs.
In the 1990s, he reports early chavs in the form of filthy, foul-mouthed, chain-smoking, benefit-dependent Wayne and Waynetta Slob, characters invented by comedian Harry Enfield: -He thus argues that media coverage of working-class people constitutes a middle-class assault on working-class values, institutions and communities. -He claims that many middle-class journalists suffer from a 'liberal bigotry' - they assume that all working-class people are feckless, promiscuous, foul-mouthed racists who hate minority ethnic groups, refugees and multiculturalism. -The reporting of issues such as poverty, unemployment and single-parent families, however, often suggests personal inadequacy, rather than government policies or poor business practices, is the main cause of these social problems. |
|
Neo-Marxism
|
This sociological perspective, with the Glasgow Media Group, emphasises that media representations reflect the interests of the powerful - there is little media content that explicitly discusses class privilege, class inequality and power differences, and the tensions and conflicts between classes are concealed or seen as irrelevant: -Working-class people are often presented, like working-class youth, in the context of trouble, with the working-class presented as undesirable welfare scroungers, as lone parents, and as inadequates who are unable to cope with their uncontrollable delinquent children and other difficulties. -They see such negative representations as the media acting against groups which challenge the dominant ideology. -Media content from tabloid newspapers targeting working-class audiences like 'The Sun' and 'The Daily Star' assume that working-class audiences want to read about celebrity gossip and lifestyles, trivial human interest stories and sports, rather than serious analysis of either the political or social organisation of UK society - they argue that such media content is an attempt to distract the working-class audiences from the inequalities of capitalism. -They also see glorifications of upper/ruling-class life by the media as a celebration of hierarchy and wealth which encourages admiration and envy by other social classes who aspire to it - this promotes the dominant ideology and seeks to legitimise the existing social hierarchy as natural, normal and desirable, and to undermine opposition to patterns of inequality. -Media representations of poverty serve to suggest that the working-class' low economic status is self-inflicted rather than caused by the social organisation of capitalism. |
|
Curran & Seaton (2010)
|
These sociologists argue that the content of newspapers aimed at working-class audiences, such as the mass-circulation red-top 'Daily Star', 'The Sun', and 'The Daily Mirror' - though the same applies across the whole range of media aimed at working-class audiences - suggests that the working-class has little interest in public affairs, except for the personalities of politicians, and is predominantly interested in over-dramatised, exaggerated or made-up human interest stories, celebrity lifestyles, entertainment, sex, sport, TV and women's issues, such as fashion and diet which are themselves often linked to stories about celebrities.
|
|
Richard Butsch (2003)
|
This sociologist, in a study of US TV programmes, found that media representations of the working-class represented them as dumb and stupid buffoons: -He argues TV creates a persistent image of the working-class as buffoons or figures of fun - well-intentioned but flawed individuals, who are immature, irresponsible, inarticulate, incompetent, lacking in common sense, and who are coping only ineptly with life. -The sitcom, the 'Royle Family' illustrates this, with a family of couch potatoes watching TV all the time and holding totally absurd non-conversations. -He argues this reinforces the ideological hegemony of the dominant values in popular culture. -It also justifies existing patterns of inequality, as the higher status and power of the middle-classes is justified by their need to supervise the amusing but incompetent working-class buffoons, and to provide role models of how they might live successful lives. |
|
|
Answer
|
Hint
|
|
Stephanie Lawler (2005)
|
This sociologist said the 'chav' stereotype represents the working-class as 'worthless, disgusting, contemptible, frightening and threatening chavs, with bad clothes, bad food, bad behaviour and bad taste': -She suggests it is one way the middle-class helps to secure and maintain its identity, through a sense of its own superiority over White working-class culture. |
|
'Chavs'
|
This underclass stereotype has a huge range of 'failings': ignorance, immorality, vulgarity, bad taste (bling jewellery, fake designer gear), lack of education, drug abuse, alcoholism, crime, sexual promiscuity, lone parenthood, waste, obesity and a tendency for violence: -These people are thugs who own dangerous dogs, irresponsible parents with out-of-control children, aggressive men and excessively fertile women, who are workshy, welfare dependants, committing benefit fraud, who subsist on junk food or live in filthy council houses on run-down estates, with unwashed dishes and clothes everywhere, and where dogs crap on threadbare and filthy carpets. |
|
Upper-Class
|
The most obvious and extensive media representation of this social group - rich and powerful aristocrats, businesspeople and celebrities - is through coverage of the monarchy, such as gossip about royalty, the antics of royal princes and princesses, and royal visits, weddings and jubilees: -This social group is generally presented as being 'well-bred', cultured and superior, with posh accents, country estates and a taste for shooting and hunting. -They are sometimes portrayed as a bit eccentric or odd, but fundamentally decent and respectable. -It is often portrayed in a romanticised, nostalgic way in the context of costume/period dramas like 'Upstairs Downstairs' or 'Downton Abbey', which suggest that somehow life was once better, even for the poor who worked for this social group. -The lavish lifestyles of this social group, particularly in the form of luxury homes, cars, exotic holiday locations and expensive fashion accessories, often provide media content for mass audiences, in TV, the mass-circulation tabloid press and magazines, especially in celebrity magazines like 'OK', 'Hello' or 'Now' and their related websites. |
|
Pluralism
|
This sociological perspective argues that representations of social class represent the reality of capitalist society - that they are reported because they fit news values of what is newsworthy and that if working-class people didn't like them, they would not invest in the types of media in which unfavourable representations are mainly found: -They see glorifying coverage of the upper-class as simply providing what media audiences want. -Also, those representations of the upper-class can be justified as the media view the UK as a meritocracy and the media portrayals of the wealthy are representative of the idea that talented people are deserving of high rewards, and such stories may motivate people to work hard in the belief that they can attain these rewards which benefits the economy. -The focus on finance, stocks and shares may merely reflect the importance of these sectors for the economy. -They argue that media content from tabloid newspapers targeting working-class audiences like 'The Sun' and 'The Daily Star' with content about celebrity gossip and lifestyles, trivial human interest stories and sports is published because such content is what their readers want - it is about sales rather than ideology. |
|
Tom Naim (1988)
|
This sociologist notes that the monarchy has successfully converted much of the modern mass media to its cause, so that, until fairly recently, it was rare to see any criticism of the institution or the individuals in it: -He argues that this is because after WW2, the monarchy, with the collusion of the media, reinvented itself as a 'Royal Family' with a cast of characters, not unlike our own families, who stood for national values such as 'niceness', 'decency' and 'ordinariness'. -Members of this 'family' were presented as 'like us' but 'not like us'; for example, the Queen was just an 'ordinary' working mother doing an extraordinary job. -This successful makeover resulted in a national obsession with the Royal Family, reflected in media coverage that has focused positively on every trivial detail of their lives, turning the monarch and their family into an ongoing narrative or soap story, but with a glamour and mystique far greater than any other media personality. -Mass-media representations of the Queen were also aimed at reinforcing a sense of national identity, in that she was portrayed as the ultimate symbol of the nation. -Consequently, the media regard royal events, like weddings, births and funerals, as national events to be celebrated. |
|
Newman (2006)
|
This sociologist notes the enormous amount of print and broadcast media dedicated to daily business news and stock market quotations, despite the fact that few people in the UK own stocks and shares: -They note that: "international news and trade agreements are reported in terms of their impact on the business world and wealthy investors, not on ordinary working people". -They observe that the media rarely focus on the inequities of capitalism, such as the size of bankers' bonuses, the fact that top business people are rewarded with huge pay-offs for failure, or the growing divide between rich and poor.
They also note that there have been very few situation comedies, TV dramas or films recently focusing on the everyday lives of the working-class, despite the fact that this group constitutes a significant section of society. |
|
Nick Cohen (2009)
|
This sociologist argues the UK mass media is so concerned about 'trumpeting the good fortune' of British capitalism that it pays less attention to its 'casualties': -He argues that journalists, entertainers and artists are hopeless at realistically reporting or dramatising the plight of the poor - he argues that some sections of the media actually revel in the suffering of the poor by commissioning shows that deliberately portray the poor as parasitic scroungers. -The media therefore reinforces the popular view that the poor are poor because of their own depravity and weakness. -Most importantly, he says, the media fail to see the connection between deprivation and wealth. |
|
