Do You Believe That The Media Is Responsible For Continuing To Create Stereotypical Representations Of Class

Do You Believe That The Media Is Responsible For Continuing To Create Stereotypical Representations Of Class

The Media has a huge role to play in how we perceive representations of different groups of people, and espcially in the UK, class is a hugely represented issue.  Shows such as Shameless portray the working class in a negative light, with an emphasis on taking drugs, living on the dole, and crime.  Whilst shameless has a comedic element and is not meant to be a documentary, it does make certain comments on that class of people, and in many ways could be seen to fuel a stereotype of the working class.  Additionally, shows such as Eastenders perpetuate the stereotype of the working class as brash and argumentative, and their narrative consistently uses high drama to engage the audience.  Downton Abbey represents a class from a different era, and winds a duel narrative of 'upstairs' and 'downstairs' so that audiences are offered an insight into both upper and lower classes.  one of the producers of Downton noted that they used different camera shots and colours for upstairs and downstairs in order to gain a different feel.  The shots upstairs used a wide angle lense and colours were bright and sumptuous.  When they filmed downstairs they used a more narrow camera shot and darker colours, to give them impression of enclosed space.
Newspapers and the news have a respnosibility to create representations of class and to either fuel or challenge stereotypes.  The Daily Mail is targeted at the middle classes, but represents certain groups in a specific light.  It can be quite damning of the upper class and of their way of life, and often it's sensationalist headlines target issues such as the MP scandal or tax evasion of the rich.  Likewise, The Sun continues to represent the working class as celebrity obsessed people who are not interested in political issues and debates.  Their continuation of Page 3 and of exploitation of women also ties in with an expectation that the working class men would be interested in such things.  Additionally, shows such as This Morning and Day Break could be seen to be continuing a representation of the middle classes as being attractive and white as they are always presented by similar looking people.  The class system in Britain is represented in the Media in both positive and negative ways, but more often than not Media texts tend to perpetuate steretypes that we have of all of the different classes.